Sustainable ecological agriculture is achieved by regulating the benefits of trees. The application of leguminous trees as alley cropping protects and increases soil fertility, improves the quality of water by intercepting pesticides, changes the local climate, improves biodiversity, and thus improves productivity. In order to evaluate the impact of alley cropping upon the growth and productivity attributes of fennel, an experiment was carried out during two seasons. The experiment included eight treatments. Fennel seeds were cultivated between Sesbania alleys and treated with N and endophytic fungi according to the eight treatments. After harvesting the fennel, different parameters were determined and biochemical analyses were conducted. All of the alley cropping treatments showed remarkable superiority in all measures of fennel growth and productivity compared to the sole crop treatment. Among the different alley cropping treatments, applying Sesbania at 4 m spacing with N fertilizer and EF increased most of the studied parameters in terms of the least number of days from planting until harvesting of fennel, herb dry weight, number of umbels, fruit yield, essential oil, N, P, and K content, and pigments. In contrast, the highest plant height was recorded with fennel–Sesbania at 2 m spacing + N fertilizer + EF. Applying fennel–Sesbania at 6 m spacing + N fertilizer + EF treatment resulted in higher stem diameter and increased the number of main branches compared to the other treatments.

Background The infestation of the fall armyworm [Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)] in maize is currently becoming a serious problem, and it might endanger the future maize crop in Egypt. We conducted this study for the current status of S. frugiperda infestation on maize and survey & identification of the associated fungi in Luxor Governorate, Egypt. S. frugiperda invasion began on maize plants were detected during the period from the 3rd week of June until the corn harvest. Results As for the larvae counts, and the infestation percentage, there were three peaks recorded for each of them in each season, which were displayed at 1st week of July, 1st week of August and 1st week of September in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. As well, there are the highly significant positive relationship between the larvae population and the percentages of Infestation by Pest. Conclusions Thirteen fungal species were recovered from infected maize ears (picks). The identified fungi are attributed to the genera Aspergillus, Fusarium, Myrothecium, Penicillium, Rhizopus, and Trichoderma. The fungal species; A. flavus, A. welwitschiae and A. niger, A. brasiliensis had the highest incidences followed by T. viride and P. variable. These findings can help farmers and decision-makers form effective strategies to control this pest.