Abstract
Phytopathogenic fungi such as Fusarium solani, F. oxysporum, Alternaria alternata, Rhizoctonia solani, Drechslera biseptata, Penicillium purpurogenum etc. were isolated from wastewater irrigated agricultural soil at the site of Malir river near Quaidabad and Lyari river near old Sabzi mandi. Soil samples were collected from the rhizosphere of various vegetable crops i.e. Ridged gourd, Round gourd, Bottle gourd, Corn, Okra, Chili, Tomato, Eggplant and Cabbage etc. Besides these fungal pathogens, bio-control agent was also sequestered from soil samples. In-vitro, Trichoderma viride was tested against all isolated infectious and pathogenic fungi of plant by dual culture technique. In present study, T. viride significantly suppressed the pathogens by inhibiting its mycelial growth. It showed the antagonistic activity on most common and economically important phytopathogenic fungi i.e. F.solani (82.91%), F. oxysporum (82.38%), A. alternata (77.19%), R. solani (62.25%), and P. purpurogenum (50.79%). It was also very effective against various infectious soil-borne fungi such as Aspergillus fumigatus (79.92%), A. parasiticus (74.49%) Humicola sp. (66.67%) and A. terreus (47.62%). With the help of present studies, it is evaluated that T. viride comprises the higher inhibitory response towards several soil-borne infectious and pathogenic fungi that harm economically important food crops.
