Soil samples were collected from fields of different cotton varieties along with diseased plant eliciting hypocotyls rot/seedling blight syndrome. Laboratory studies showed the 100% prevalence of the disease infection of the pathogenic entity Fusarium solani in diseased plants. Except the cotton variety FH-901, all other seven varieties, FH-207, FH-114, FH-100, BH-162, FH-2925, NIAB-78 and FH-900 found infected with the pathogenic and saprophytic fungi Fusarium solani, Fusarium moniliforme, Rhizoctonia solani, Rhizopus sp., Cladosporium sp. and Alternaria alternata. The pathogenic fungi caused 100% seedling mortality in pots where pure culture of the entity was mixed in sterilized soil before sowing of the seeds. Control treatment without culture remains free of infection. Soil borne infection of the disease leads towards the development of the entity and produced seed-rot symptom in pre-emergence conditions while the entity progressed in the reviving plants and caused hypocotyls rot, and post-emergence seedling blight disease and drying at all plant growth stages up to adult stage.

Keywords: Cotton fields, fungal propagules, hypocotyl rot, infected soils, seedling mortality.