I assume you are planning to treat for them? If using beneficial nems on them then you'll want to do that before mulching. Otherwise I'd just leave the soil exposed until late winter and then put down the mulch. And you'll want to use a low-carbon mulch (ie: hay rather than straw or leaves).

On the other hand if you just plant a green manure crop on the garden now and then till it in in late winter you can have the benefits of the GM decomp plus killing off many of the parasitic nems.

Dave

I have read that green crops like Pacific Gold Mustard is supposed to help against nematodes....per Johnny's Seed catalog.

Dave, I thought I remembered that beneficial nematodes could be used, but then when I was reading through various BN products, none of them mentioned being effective against the RKN. Do you recall which type that would be? I only have about a month longer before we start getting serious freezes (or could be two months or only two weeks...) a bit late for a cover crop?

Wayne, thanks, I had forgotten about that. Nematodes use to be only of academic interest to me before...

They did not seem to greatly diminish the production of anything this year, but were really noticable in the roots of some crops. Though maybe I would have had even more melons without them, lord only knows what I would have done with more melons.

SF nems are very effective against them. Have used them myself with excellent results.

As to cover crop there are many high N/green manure cover crops that are quite frost tolerant, especially in zone 7. Any of the brassica seed mixes, winter rye, hairy vetch, alfalfa, etc. And in zone 7 we always a few nice days in late January that is perfect for tilling them in since it is the heat from the decomposition of them that kills the nems.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: sF Nematodes

I used to have to manage rootknot nematodes when I gardened in Alabama. One thing that can help...make light applications of crabshell/crustacean shells, including eggshells, so that your soil is well supplied with chitin. Chitin-eating microorganisms build up in the soil food web, and consume nematode eggs which also are comprised of chitin. Some studies have suggested that chitin also changes soil bacteria profiles to make conditions inhospitable to nematodes and some fusarium fungi.

My best strategy was to grow root crops in spring, when nematode populations were low, and resistant and non-preferred crops in late summer. There are plenty of excellent resistant varieties.

I always vote in favor of winter mulch.

Here is a link that might be useful: crab shell soil amendment

Intresting about the crab shells. Sure easy enough to find those around here, though I doubt I should collect them from the neighbors like some folks do leaves. I've already been asked by one old farmer if I really thought a vegetable grown in horse poop would be healthier for him than one grown with fertilizer. (I did tell him that in that case it was healthier for the land and maybe the plant and definitely the wallet, which seemed to satisfy.) I will follow the link and read more.

And thanks for the info on the nematodes and green mulches. I was not impressed with my first forray into using them last year, so wasn't planning any this year. I haven't given up on the idea of using them, it is just another skill to master when I am doing so much more than I used to.

I want to be able to continue to grow melons, they are one of the "value added" crops I can send in to the restaurant and are becoming a big deal. They showed the most sign of nematode damage, though they produced adequately. I'm hoping that a normal winter will return the populations of nematodes to a normal level, which is to say negligable, but planning on taking some action. Just haven't quite figured out which way I'm going to jump.