Huge nematodes! Why?

[peebee]

In my 20 plus years of growing tomatoes in Earthboxes I have never seen such large nematodes. Fact is I almost never see any at all, maybe some random small ones. Of 4 plants so far pulled out, 3 have them. Planted 2 to a box, all different varieties. Wondering if it's the variety that is prone to them then, or the fresh sterile medium that might have been bad? I didn't have a great harvest this year but neither did anyone else here that I've checked with. Between the hot weather & then the recent brutal 2 week heat wave, not a surprise.
Besides the large nematodes, I noticed the roots were weird, covered in soft peat-like down is how I can describe it. Is that normal with nematodes?

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[PlainJane]

Wow, scary looking! I hope you’re able to track down the source.

[GoDawgs]

Wow! Your stuff is REALLY 'toded up! Nematodes themselves are microscopic worm-like critters but when they invade roots to feed it causes all those knots. However, with all of my 'tode problems I've never seed fuzziness. What I have are southern root knot nematodes, Meloidogyne incognita. Your knots look a bit different. I know there are at least three other species out there some of which are in Florida. You might want to take a sample of yours to an ag agent and see what they say.

As far as tomatoes go, I don't think nematodes would hit any particular tomato variety and not others. They're an equal opportunity infector in veggie land. Is it just those two earth buckets that have the problem? I wonder if it was one particular bag of soil you had that was infected. Very strange indeed!

Just be careful NOT to let that soil get dumped in any part of your garden. They can invade new space at a rate of 3-4' a year. Over time they infest the whole place.

Edited to add photos. Some of my RKNs this summer on bean roots, then on okra roots.

[peebee]

@GoDawgs I'm suspecting the medium too, so I'll look at the remaining 2 EBs once the tomatoes are done to see if they have nematodes too. If so I'll just use the EBs for my winter crops which will be just boring greens like lettuce etc which should be fine.
Yeah I'd definitely would dump it all & never buy the same brand again. My cucumbers succumbed to a strange disease earlier so I'm glad I kept the soil in a wheelbarrow, to be used for replanting some of my unimportant cacti.

[peebee]

Here's a pic of the cukes:

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[peebee]

Well I cleaned out the last EB with tomatoes and both roots were clean and clear no sign of nematodes at all. I'm stumped as to why the 4 tomatoes in the 2 EBs were so nema-tody. How do nematodes form, if from some worms they must be microscopic. The boxes were covered with those plastic covers that come with Earthboxes so there was very little space around the stem where they could've entered. Any thoughts?

[Barb_FL]

Do nematodes exist in your area? If so, were your EB placed directly on the ground?

Mine (Florida) is loaded with nematodes so when growing in EB, fabric bags they are never directly placed on the ground.

I remember Marsha getting nematodes in one of her tomato EBs and it was from the lawn people - not sure if it was weedwacking but the Florida sand/soil got splashed into the EB.

I do line the bottom of the fabric bags with crab shells, and spread crab shells in the EBs too. I do think crab shells (I use Neptune's Harvest) are a great deterrent to nematodes.

[GoDawgs]

Nematodes are very transportable, as in on shoes, etc. One can easily spread them to unaffected areas. I read about disinfecting shovels, hoes, etc after each use before using them elsewhere. After digging in one raised bed I spray them with 10% bleach solution and let the implement dry before using them again. I don't know how effective that is but it can't hurt.

You'll need to really clean out those two EBs before re-use.

You probably grew the plants yourself so because the other tomatoes aren't infected it isn't the potting mix you used to grow them. I'm still thinking it was the bag of soil used in the EBs

[peebee]

@Barb_FL while I can't say that nematodes 100% do not exist here, I can say I've never seen any in my EBs before & while it's been a few years since I grew in ground, I hardly saw any & the ones I saw were very small, hardly noticeable. The 2 EBs that had 3 of the 4 tomatoes infected, have been in the same spot on the ground in my enclosed cage for 2 years. I have never opened the covers on any of the EBs during the growing season so it's a mystery to me how I could've introduced any with an infected shovel etc.
But I'm spooked so next year I'm thoroughly sanitizing the 2 boxes in question & using a different brand of sterile medium. The tomatoes produced ok overall regardless so it was just a surprise to see the todes and fuzzy roots.
Thanks everyone