Isolation of Trichoderma species from vegetable fields
A total of 20 (7 from Anantnag and 13 from Baramulla) Trichoderma isolates (plate 1) were isolated from 40 randomly collected rhizospheric soil samples from various commercially grown chilli fields and kitchen gardens of district Anantnag and Baramulla of Kashmir valley by using Trichoderma specific medium. Nomenclature given to these Trichoderma isolates, the collection sites and source of soil samples is detailed in Table 1. Similarly Trichoderma species were isolated from chilli rhizosphere by Wani et al. (2014) and the technique used for isolation of Trichoderma species is in agreement with chaudhari et al. (2011) and Khandelwal et al. (2012).
Table (1):
Details of Trichoderma isolates isolated from rhizospheric soils of chilli fields.

Screening of Trichoderma isolates for ammonia production, chitinase activity, HCN production and phosphate solubilisation
During ammonia production test thirteen isolates (AT1, AT2, AT3, AT4, AT5, AT6, AT7, BT1, BT7, BT8, BT10, BT11 and BT12) were found to be positive and seven isolates (BT2, BT3, BT4, BT5, BT6, BT9 and BT13) were found negative for ammonia production (Table 2). These findings are in agreement with the earlier reports (Aarti and Meenu, 2015). Similar findings were reported by Chadha et al. (2015) in Mucor hiemalis, Aspergillusnigerand Fusarium moniliforme. Ammonia production by T. harzianum, KT6, SE6, KT28 and BRT11 has widely been documented (Rawat and Tewari, 2011) as means to offer nitrogen to plant and culminate the pathogens in the vicinity as a result of its toxicity. The production of lytic enzymes by Trichoderma species is known as one of the major mechanisms for biocontrol activity against phytopathogenic fungi (Lorito et al., 1994). Chitinase activity is one of the important beneficial character exhibited by Trichoderma species as chitinases are known to contribute to the biocontrol properties of Trichoderma atroviride (Limon et al., 1999; Woo et al., 1999; Viterbo et al., 2001). This might be due to the reason that chitinases attack directly on the fungal structural components (Sela-Buurlage et al., 1993), while checking chitinase activity twelve isolates (AT2, AT3, AT7, BT1, BT3, BT4, BT7, BT8, BT10, BT11, BT12 and BT13) were found to be positive and eight isolates (AT1, AT4, AT5, AT6, BT2, BT5, BT6 and BT9) were found negative (Table 2). This is in agreement with earlier reports (Sharaf et al., 2012). Lytic enzymes like chitinases and b-1,3-glucanases, proteases and cellulases are potential mechanism associated with the ability of Trichoderma to control phytopathogens (Harighi et al., 2007).
Table (2):
Screening of various isolates of Trichoderma species for ammonia production, chitinase activity, HCN production and Phosphate solubilisation.

HCN production is also an important trait found in various soil micro-organisms as it indirectly promotes plant growth by controlling some soil borne diseases (Kremer and Souissi, 2001; Siddiqui et al., 2006), while screening for HCN only three isolates (AT3, AT5 and AT7) were found positive and rest were found negative. This is in agreement with earlier reports (Aarti and Meenu., 2015). The metabolite HCN production by fungal isolates SE6, KT28 and BRT11 has widely been reported as a possible mechanism of disease control (Rawat and Tewari 2011). Similar results were obtained by Ngoma et al. (2013) in case of bacterial isolates. While in case of phosphate solubilisation test, none of the isolate was found to be positive. Trichoderma species are widely known for releasing phosphatases into soil and release the otherwise unavailable phosphate forms from tricalcium phosphate primirily (Saraf et al., 2013). Phosphate solubilizing efficiency of different isolates of T. harzianum was observed by Tallapragada and Gudimi (2011) on Sperber‘s medium with modifications and it was observed that many of the isolates of Trichoderma isolates do not solubilize phosphate.

Production of IAA by various isolates of Trichoderma specie
Microbial synthesis of the phytohormone auxin (indole-3-acetic acid/indole acetic acid/IAA) has been known for a long time. It is reported that 80% of microorganisms isolated from the rhizosphere of various crops possess the ability to synthesize and release auxins as secondary metabolites (Patten and Glick, 1996). During IAA production test all the isolates were found to produce IAAhowever their production amount varied considerably. Maximum IAA was produced by isolate BT9 (6.605 ìg mL^-1) followed by BT6 (5.278 ìg mL^-1), BT11 (3.408 ìg mL^-1) and AT3 (3.317 ìg mL^-1) while minimum IAA was produced by isolate AT1 (1.538 ìg mL^-1) (Fig. 1). Resende et al. (2014) also reported the production of IAA by various isolates of Trichoderma and the amount of IAA produced varied from as low as 1.21ìg mL^-1 and as high as 2.18 ìg mL^-1and thus supporting our findings. Similar findings were recorded by Aarti and Meenu (2015), Gravel et al. (2007) and Badawi et al. (2011) in Trichoderma species.

Carbohydrate metabolization by various isolates of Trichoderma species
During these tests, it was found that all the isolates metabolized glucose. Similarly all the isolates metabolized Fructose except isolates BT5 and BT6. It was found that only five isolates (AT1, AT2, AT3, AT4 and AT5) metabolized lactose and sucrose while seven isolates (AT1, AT2, AT3, AT4, AT5, AT6 and AT7) were found to metabolize maltose (Table 3). Kubicek et al. (2003) also detected the species-specific metabolic properties of Trichoderma. The carbon sources supported best growth in all species detected were: d-mannitol, N-acetyl-d-glucosamine, l-erythritol, glycerol, fructose, fucose, l-arabinose, d-galactose, and xylitol and thus authenticatingour findings further even though there were some isolates lacking the ability to metabolize lactose and sucrose may be as a result of certain enzymatic complications. Similar findings were observed by Monga (2001) and Mehta et al. (2012).
Table (3):
Cultural and morphological characteristics of Trichoderma isolates.

Cultural and morphological characterization of Trichoderma isolate (AT3)
Although cultural and morphological characteristics of all the isolates were studied, our main focus was on the potential Trichoderma isolate (AT3). The characteristics which were studied include colony growth rate, colony colour, reverse colour, colony edge, mycelial form, conidiophore branching, conidial colour and presence or absence of chlamydospores (Table 4). After studying these characteristics Trichoderma isolate (AT3) was found to resemble Trichoderma harzianum.
Table (4):
Carbohydrate metabolisation by various isolates of Trichoderma species.