Pattern of post-harvest fungal infestation on vegetables stored in various vegetable markets of Karachi

We isolated and identified 17 genera and 25 species of fungi from five vegetable crops including Bitter gourd (Casia Momordica), Garlic (Allium sativum), Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), Onion (Allium cepa) and Potato (Solanum tuberosum) from five major vegetable markets of Karachi viz, Gulestan e Johar, Landhi, Nazimabad, New Sabzi Mandi and Saddar Empress Market. Among all isolated fungal flora; the fungi A. niger, Rhizopus stolonifer, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Botrytis cinerea and Fusarium oxysporum were the most common species causing the post-harvest decay of the target vegetables. Blotter paper method yielded more number of mycoflora with higher frequency over the agar plate method. In pathogenicity test, Aspergillus niger showed the highest rot diameter of 40.33mm on onion while it appeared as the lowest rot diameter of 7 mm on okra. The higher fungal infestation (34.84%) was recorded on vegetables that were stored or sold in Sabzimandi and the least fungal infestation (3.63%) was found on vegetables stored n Landhi. Vegetables are an essential part of our diets, therefore, we must keep our vegetables clean and free of diseases. Thus we surveyed a few large vegetable markets in Karachi to identify post-harvest mycoflora associated with various commonly used vegetables in our diets. We used blotter paper as well as Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) methods to isolate and identify the fungal species infecting vegetable crops.