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How can I tell if my bird-of-paradise plants have nematodes — and if so how to control them?

This is Strelizia reginae and I have plot of them in a greenhouse. Mine do produce flowers but the leaves are never so perfect as are in the flower shops and I’d like to pot some of them up out of the ground to give as gifts but they look scroungy and I’d be ashamed. I’ve scoured the net about nematodes on Strelizia but can’t find anything about which species attack this plant and how to identify whether or not I’ve even got the problem. As for control, several sites say a thriving soil ecosystem fed with organic matter as fertilizer — some recommend mulching, which I do — will help keep them down. I fertilize with well-rotted horse manure, have good drainage and plenty of sun.

Nematodes… There is very little control available and if it is available it is extremely expensive.
Most of the recommendations for control involve amending the soil. If changing the soil doesn’t help, I would not pursue other control. Make sure your soil mixture, water, and light requirements are correct and feed them often.
Good Luck

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The Produce Contamination Problem: Causes And Solutions $95.99 This book is organized into five sections beginning with an introduction in which the problem is described in terms of the number and size of produce related outbreaks the commodities involved and the human pathogens involved. The introduction also documents the failure of conventional sanitizing treatments to assure microbiological safety examining the problems of microbial attachment. The second section reviews methods of identifying a contamination source (epidemiology trace back strain identification location of Source) and then focuses on the various sources of microbial contamination (water manure airborne dust wildlife human activity) and where in the crop production sequence they might result in contamination. In the third section some of the commodities associated with major outbreaks (leafy vegetables tomatoes cantaloupes apples berries sprouts) are examined to determine what characteristics make them especially vulnerable to contamination. The fourth section then addresses means of avoiding produce contamination through use of Good Agricultural Practices and recommendations in FDA and industry guidance documents. Regulatory actions (recalls restrictions on imports) to safeguard the public from potentially hazardous products are described. Coverage includes policy and practices in the US Mexico and Central America Europe and Japan. The fifth section examines current technologies for reducing human pathogens in fresh produce including disinfection rapid methods for detecting contaminants irradiation gas-phase application and best practices acceptable to organic growers packers and processors. *Addresses foodborne contaminations from a prevention view providing pro-active solutions to the problems *Covers core sources of contamination and methodologies for identifying those sources *Includes best practice and regulatory information