author(s)
Kanwar Pallavi Singh, Sandeep Kumar, Anju S Khanna, Anita Rana and Sunil Dutt

abstract
Tomato is one of the most important vegetable crop commercially grown in mid-hill region of the state of Himachal Pradesh and comprise the commercial cash crop for the vegetable growers of this area. This crop is responsible for providing economic strength to the commercial growers of district. Unfortunately, tomato is highly susceptible to number of nematode pests, of which Meloidogyne ranks at the top. It is often referred as a universal host of Meloidogyne species. Looking into the ecological and environmental concerns regarding the use of chemical nematicides, efforts were made to manage the test nematode using integrated approach wherein the use of chemical nematicides were minimised. Treatments with inorganic soil fumigants viz., Dazomet, formalin, STTC, carbofuran and seed treatment with fungal formulation of Pseudomonas fluorescens, all at recommended doses were separately used in nursery plots against M. incognita for raising tomato crop. All the disinfectants were effective against the nematodes as evident from the healthy ungalled roots of seedlings grown in soil treated with any of the fumigants. Maximum germination of 93.6 per cent was observed in Dazomet treated plots followed by 84.0 per cent in plots treated with formalin. Germination in other treatments was appreciably low at 61.0, 59.6 and 49.3 per cent in respective treatments of P. fluorescens, carbofuran and STTC. Restricted aerial growth was observed in seedlings growing in STTC treated soil. The best seedling growth was recorded in Dazomet (14.4 cm) and formalin (13.9 cm) treated plots, both statistically at par, in the year 2016, scenario was vice-versa in the year 2017 when seedling length of 14.5 cm attained in the soil treated with formalin was statistically more than 13.0 cm attained in soil treated with Dazomet.