Mango is the king of fruits and keeps the status of national tree in some countries. Pakistani Mangoes are considered to the best in the world due to its shape, taste, flavor and deliciousness. Mango malformation is said to be the hundred century old disease consistently a source of losses for the mango industry. Extensive mango orchard’s survey showed a dynamic presence of the disease in the orchards. On the basis of visual systems the trees were evaluated and hence maximum disease severity (41.44) was recorded in District Layyah where the soils were observed more clayey as compared to the other districts of the South Punjab. Similarly, Multan ranked second in the infestation of Mango Malformation disease severity in the orchards while (30.11) was calculated in Lodhran followed by Muzaffar-Garh with (27.11) and Khanewal with (23.33). The fungus was identified as Fusarium mangiferae under the microscope and for the biological mediated management of the pathogen as hypothesized that if successful may be the best possible solution for the management of the disease in the orchards by utilizing the various Trichoderma spp. T. harzianum gave best control against F.mangiferae by depicting 71% inhibition against the pathogenic fungi. The use of Trichoderma spp against the pathogenic fungi will open new avenues in the biological control tactics of the plant diseases.

Malformation is one of the most destructive mango diseases. Although trees are not killed, the vegetative phase of the disease impedes canopy development during vegetative phase of the host plant and floral phase dramatically reduces fruit yield with overwintering inoculums during dormant phase of the host plant. Environmental conditions and trend of spore liberation of its pathogenic fungus “Fusarium mangiferae” were recorded during flowering phase (Feb-April, 2014), fruit development phase (May-July, 2014), vegetative phase (Aug-Oct, 2014), and dormant phase (Nov-Jan, 2014-15), of the mango plants. Through installation of spore traps of various distance levels containing Nash-Synder media in petri plates. During these phases, different environmental variables including temperature (T), relative humidity (R.H) and wind speed (W.S) were observed. Maximum number of colonies were observed through the spores trapped from the centre of the experimental block (0m) while minimum numbers of colonies were developed from the spores trapped at 150 m distance. Amongst different phenological phases of mango, fruit development remained very much contaminated with spores of the fungus while minimum spore liberation was noted during flowering phase of mango indicating very rare infection during this phase. This study also reflected that maximum number of airborne macro conidia of F. mangiferae were recorded when R.H was below 55%. Low R.H appeared to be a major factor associated with the diurnal conidial dispersal of airborne pathogen. Hence primary infection of F. mangiferae starts from vegetative and floral buds differentiation and control strategy including spray of systemic fungicides should start at this stage of development.

Pakistan is the 6th largest producer of mangoes which are known world over for their superior traits but export of mangoes from Pakistan is quite limited due to post-harvest diseases like anthracnose and stem-end rot (SER) mainly caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and Lasiodiplodia theobromae, respectively. These diseases are aggravating day by day due to environmental changes in mango producing region of Pakistan. Quarantine of mangoes through physical methods like Hot Water Treatment (HWT) is always preferred by the foreign markets because of its high effectiveness in reducing the post-harvest diseases. During 2012-13, keeping in view the importance of HWT, a comprehensive study was conducted to standardize the temperature and dip duration levels for HWT along with a fungicide named Nativo (Trifloxystrobin + Tebuconazole) @ 0.3g/L of water for mango Cvs. Sindhri, S.B. Chaunsa, Fajri and Sufaid Chaunsa using newly developed HWT facility at Agricultural Mechanization Research Institute, Multan for the control of post-harvest diseases with a little focus on other fruit quality parameters as well. HWT resulted in better marketability of fruits due to uniform peel color development and visual quality rating (VQR). Control of (SER) with either of both high levels of temperature (54°C) and dip duration (06minutes) simultaneously or any of one high level along was noted in all the tested varieties with 77.27 to 85.26% disease reduction in contrast to control of anthracnose which was effectively minimized with the range of 77.24 to 90.36% through low temperature (52°C) and low dip level (03minutes) in case of Sindhri and S.B. Chaunsa while 52°C for 06 minutes and 54°C for 06 minutes showed good performance in case of Cvs. Fajri and Sufaid Chaunsa, respectively. Surely, this study developed the understanding of mango industry stake holders with efficient use of safe and cheaper physical method i.e. HWT to control post-harvest diseases to enhance the mango export from Pakistan.

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