Dow offering two new nematode-resistant cotton varieties for 2014

Dow AgroSciences is offering two new nematode-resistant cotton varieties – Phytogen 417 WRF and Phytogen 427 WRF – for the 2014 season. Both have shown the ability to significantly reduce root-knot nematode populations in fields and increase yields where they were tested.

The average number of nematodes in a series of Phytogen plots was 38 root-knot nematodes per 100 CCs of soil,” said Joel Faircloth, cotton development specialist for Phytogen. “Phytogen 417 had 17 and Phytogen 499 WRF, which was our susceptible check, had 650.”

The percentage reduction of nematodes for Phytogen 427 was 94 percent and for Phytogen 417 was 96 percent,” said Faircloth, who spoke at the Consultants Conferences at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences in New Orleans.

Yields were also significantly higher for the two new root-knot-nematode resistant varieties under heavy nematode pressure in on-farm trials. The two varieties reduced nematodes numbers by an average of 94 percent and increased yields by an average of 106 pounds of lint per acre.

“We want to focus these varieties on root-knot nematode acres,” said Faircloth. “If you look at these two trials in Alabama you can see that they are under very, very heavy pressure from root-knot nematodes (more than 2,000 nematodes per sample. And you can look at the yield advantage, 253 pounds and 120 pounds, over the non-nematode-resistant varieties.”

The root-knot-nematode resistant varieties are among six Phytogen introduced this year, says Duane Canfield, portfolio marketing leader and general manager for Phytogen Cottonseed.

“In the past we had a variety, Phytogen 367, which had root-knot-nematode tolerance,” he said. “It has done quite well and been a good tool for growers. We’re very excited in 2014 to have the two-gene resistance to root-knot nematodes.”

Canfield said soil tests done in mid-season that was show a 60 percent reduction in nematodes with Phytogen 367 are showing a greater than 90 percent reduction with Phytogen 417 and Phytogen 427.

“Phytogen 417 WRF will be geared more toward west Texas,” he noted. “It has a little storm tolerance to fit that geography, and our other product that will be a little more broadly used in the Mid-South and the Southeast will be our Phytogen 427 WRF.

“These products will have the vigor and yield potential that people have come to expect from Phytogen, but the real exciting news is the level of root-knot nematode tolerance they provide.”