Using compost on nematodes management in horticulture crops

Nematodes are responsible for approx. 14% of all worldwide crop losses valued $125 billion and $10 billion annually in the United States. This chapter reviews soil nematodes according to their feeding habits in the soil webs such as herbivores (plant-parasitic nematodes) and free-living nematodes including bacterivores, fungivores, predators and omnivores. Long-term compost improves soil health due to soil organic matter application reducing the impact on plant stressors such as plant-parasitic nematode, creating an “antifragile” plant-farm/soil ecosystem by increasing free-living nematodes diversity, species richness, plant root/biomass and crop yields. Furthermore, the chapter discusses the effects of using compost on nematode management, nematicidal effect compost on plant-parasitic nematodes, compost application that may increase plant-parasitic nematodes, impacts of free-living nematodes and improvement of crop yields, the “new paradigm.”