Occurrence of Fusarium spp. on Vegetable Crops and Assessment of Their Pathogenicity

Fusarium are among the fungal genera that can cause contamination or spoilage on vegetable crops. Therefore, it is important to identify the occurrence of Fusarium species on these commodities as some species are plant pathogen and some other are toxigenic. In the present study, 83 Fusarium isolates were recovered from rotting tissues of nine vegetable crops, namely, cucumber (Cucumis sativus), tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), okra (Hibiscus esculentus), loofah (Luffa acutangula), bitter gourd (Momordica charantia), moringa (Moringa olifel), brinjal (Solanum melongena), long bean (Vigna sesquipedalis) and red chilli (Capsicum annuum). The species identified were F. oxysporum (22 isolates), F. semitectum (19 isolates), F. solani (19 isolates), F. proliferatum (14 isolates), F. pseudocircinatum (four isolates), F. sacchari (two isolates), F. equiseti (two isolates) and F. verticillioides (one isolate). From pathogenicity test, only 21 isolates were found to be pathogenic, causing vegetable rot on their host. The present study showed that Fusarium species are prevalent on vegetable crops and the species might be pathogenic or epiphytic .