skip to main content

Marigolds seed in BULK to fight nematodes

14 years ago

Several source have referenced special french marigold varieties that have roots which fight root knot nematode. Any idea where one could find a supplier of these in bulk ...as opposed to the tiny little packages. I have decided that I will try planting as much as possible almost as a cover crop this spring.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

Donna
14 years ago
Try Hazzards Seeds. They have a great selection, their prices are reasonable, they sell to anyone, and have no minimum order. Great company.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
14 years ago
Have you done a nematode assay to find out if you have other nematode populations, too? Some marigold species can actually increase the population of certain other plant-parasitic nematodes while decreasing root-knot nemas.

Have you determined about how many seeds you'll need to get decent coverage of your garden? You won't need to sow the seeds as heavily as you would, say, grass seed. The chemicals are present in the living root systems, which are capable of spreading quite a bit.

What kind of spacing is recommended for this to be effective? Maybe somewhere around 6 inches or less? How many square feet in the area you're intending to cover?

Forgive all of the questions; I'm just curious. ;-)
Related Discussions
wanted: source for bulk marigold seeds
Q
Comments (8)
This won't be any help if you want the seed for planting this spring but I've collected very large amounts of marigold seeds from public plantings such as found at hospitals, medical clinics, etc. I'd go in & briefly explain that I was collecting the seeds & deadheading the spent blossoms so they'd continue to bloom. I've never been refused & many seemed happy that someone was keeping the small gardens looking neat. Most public places like that don't have much variety in annuals so marigolds are common but sometimes cosmos, snapdragons, & a few others can be gleaned this way.
...See More
Garden Nemesis: Mine's Nematodes, What's Yours?
Q
Comments (45)
"Mulching resulted in exceedingly high plant growth, even though higher nematode populations were also observed. Under mulching conditions, soil temperatures at 5-cm depth seldom rose beyond 30Â°C throughout the year. Cover plantings of non-hosts, which had been selected by earlier inoculation tests, indicated remarkable retardation of plant growth of black-peppers, evidently due to the competition, and this also reduced the nematode population. Macroptilium atropurpureum (siratro) gave the smallest growth retardation of black-peppers. From these results, a combination of three procedures, i.e. Temic or Furadan treatment, mulching with grass straw, and cover-planting of non-hosts such as siratro, is recommended on black-pepper plantations for better plant growth and eventually better yield of black-peppers in the fields infested by root-knot nematodes." -- Integrated control of the root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita, on black-pepper plantations in the amazonian region. Minoru Ichinohe1, Instituto Experimental Agricola Tropical da Amazonia, TomÃ©-AÃ§u, ParÃ¡, Brazil. It isn't just us, they're everywhere in temperate climates. Here, agricultural crops are rotated every 3 years in different fields, and farmers like to grow peanuts behind well-tilled bermuda grass. I have some flower beds in which certain plants will not grow. Sometimes I just fill a bed with marigolds, which are reported to help decrease the nematode population. I'm not sure that helps, but the marigolds thrive and I feel good about it. One thing I do is to pull and discard plants including those disfigured roots rather than leaving them to plow under or cutting off the tops. As I mentioned before, I keep a list of plants that are most resistant and a list of plants that I'm just not going to plant again because of these devils. Sometimes I read the literature on plant research, but stopped cold today when I read about an infant who had soil nematodes causing a rash on her skin. Nell
...See More
What vege's are NOT suseptible to Root-Know Nematodes?
Q
Comments (15)
I did have serious rt nematode damage for the last 2 years. I did a lot of research, added a lot of soil and peat moss and compost to a new veggie patch, but that wasn't really successful.Did soil solarization, not happy with the results. Planted french marigolds, had them tilled in, no results. Later I found out they don't help against root knot, but against sting nematodes. Great! So more research was done and I found some university articles about the covercrop Crotalaria juncea L. This is being used commercially with nematode issues. So this summer I had and still have this plant growing. One veggie patch got tilled in with the plant leaves so far and the tomatoes I sadly had to pull (yellow leaf curl virus due to ficus white fly) showed no damage to the roots. All but one plant on the far corner had some little galls. And the plants did grow much better than in spring. Back to the topic: I grow Amaranthus dubius without having nematode issues. Broccoli did work fine as well.
...See More
nematodes
Q
Comments (7)
Root knot nematodes are so frustrating. They tend to build up big populations in sandy soil and sandy loam soil that are low in organic matter. There are many things you can do, and some of them may seem effective and others may not. What works for one person in one situation doesn't always work for another. My favorite solution is the planting of Elbon rye, which was developed right here in Oklahoma by the Ardmore-based Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, in conjunction with then-Oklahoma A&M University, I think, long ago. I believe Elbon was released in the 1950s but they had worked on it for a long time. (Elbon is Noble spelled backwards.) You can buy Elbon rye at feed-and-seed type stores and sow it in the fall, grow it over the winter, and plow or rototill it under in the spring, planting a couple of weeks later. The way that marigolds work for nematode-control is that they trap the nematodes in their roots where they then die, so the best way to use nematodes is to plant them thick like grass one year, and then plant nematode-susceptible plants in that bed the next year. Oldokie, What sort of plants are you seeing the RKN damage on? If it is tomatoes, for example, then one way to try to work around it is to plant only varieties that have some tolerance of nematodes bred into them. You can solarize a bed like Auther says, although it works best if done for a month or two of hot weather. I don't know how effective it would be if the solarization is being done in fall/winter. Adding organic matter to your soil is said to help, but sometimes when a heavy infestation already exists, it doesn't seem to help as much as it does in a virgin garden area that has just been rototilled, amended well and then planted. If the nematodes are a problem in only one part of the garden, a standard method to reduce the problem is to rotate susceptible plants to a new part of the garden every year for 3-4 years. This prevents them from building up heavily in one specific area. Unfortunately, it may mean you have them everywhere in the garden after 3 or 4 years, but at a lighter infestation than if you grow nematode-susceptible plants in the same place year in and year out. Because nematodes are susceptible to cold (that's why northerners don't have trouble with them in their colder climate and we southerners obviously do have lots of trouble with them), rototilling deeply in winter couldn't hurt and might help. Some people have found success from adding chitin to their soil, but that works better for folks who live near an ocean and have a ready source of chitin available. I doubt it would be cost-effective to have a significant amount of chitin shipped to Oklahoma. I hope you are able to find a solution that works for you. I've linked info about solarization from the Noble Foundation. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Soil Solarization
...See More
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
14 years ago
what has happened to make you want to go to such an extreme ... to go nuclear in this regard????

i THINK i recall.. that there can be millions of nems in a given teaspoon of soil ... and they are not all bad ...

more facts please

ken
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
14 years ago
The numbers are more like 50 to 500, a few thousand in highly infested soil. Nematodes aren't a fraction as small as fungal spores or bacteria (which number in the billions per tablespoon).

But you are right in that there are many different species, and not all of them are bad. However, some areas are plagued with that pesky root knot nematode, that's for certain. With few other options available to us, growing a crop of marigolds every other year or so is a viable option. It's been done in certain developing countries for hundreds of years.

It's sure something that I would experiment with, at least in my veggie garden. Luckily, I don't have much of a problem with plant-parasitic nematodes in my clayey soil.

For those who don't know how this works, here's a brief explanation. Plant-parasitic nematodes require a living host plant in order to survive; some species are very specific, by the way. Some marigolds can cause the decline in nema numbers because they (the plants) cannot be used as host plants. They don't 'repel' or kill the nematodes directly. There is also a chemical that some marigolds produce that inhibits the hatching of eggs from certain nematode species, so we have allelopathy going on, too.

For it to work, marigolds must be planted as a cover crop in the exact location you wish to grow vegetables at some point. After two of three months (or more) in the ground, the nematode population will have declined. Circling your veggie garden in cheerful marigolds does nothing to get rid of these pests, nor does planting a few here and there. You can't, for example, surround your perennials or woody landscape plants with marigolds and hope that you'll kill off the nematodes. A spacing of 6 to 12 inches is typically recommended.

Unfortunately, your marigold crop will have to become a part of a cyclical planting rotation, as long as you wish to grow susceptible host plants in the same area.

Please don't forget that some marigold species have proven to increase nematode populations. And remember that marigolds are spider mite magnets (among other pests). Your crop of marigolds will need watering and fertilizing just like any planting.
albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.
14 years ago
From the Stokes catalog one can order marigold seed by the thousand. I seem to recall somewhere else in the catalog they gave a place to inquire about larger quantities than posted.

Related Stories

GARDENING FOR BUTTERFLIES Be a Butterfly Savior — Garden for the Monarchs

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Keep hope, beauty and kindness alive in the landscape by providing a refuge for these threatened enchanters

EDIBLE GARDENS Natural Ways to Get Rid of Weeds in Your Garden

By Abundant City

Use these techniques to help prevent the spread of weeds and to learn about your soil

SAVING WATER Xeriscape Gardens: How to Get a Beautiful Landscape With Less Water

By Jocelyn H. Chilvers

Conserve water and make gardening much easier with the xeriscape approach’s 7 principles

Sponsored

Hope Restoration & General Contracting

35 Reviews

Columbus Design-Build, Kitchen & Bath Remodeling, Historic Renovations

More Discussions

What do white stripes on red camellia blossoms indicate?

4

My cosmos bipinnatus seems to be on strike.

2

Would like to keep mulleins

2

Suggestions for low growing, easy to sow annual in zone 7A

6

Almost into full swing

9