INTERACTIONS OF SOIL PREDACIOUS MITES AND CITRUS NEMATODES (PARASITICAND SAPROPHYTIC), IN CITRUS ORCHARD UNDER DIFFERENT REGIME OF FERTILIZERS - EFFECT ON THE POPULATION-DENSITIES AND CITRUS YIELD

Interaction of soil predacious mites and citrus nematodes (parasitic a nd saprophytic), in citrus orchard under different regime of fertilize rs; Effect on the population densities and citrus yield. During a cour se of study on the predacious mites and their relationships with citru s nematodes, there were several population interactions, greatly varie d according to the regime of fertilizers. In general the presence of o rganic manure encourage the population of predacious mites to increase , although decreasing the portion of organic manure discourage the pop ulations. There were several positive interactions between both popula tions and that of predacious mites over exploited the nematode populat ions in several cases. Yield was almost the same under the different c ombinations, although the quality as measured by fruit size, weight/fr uit, diameter/fruit and total solible solids was better under organic manure regime.