Determining The Effect Of Different Planting Densities On Yield And Quality In Summer Savory (Satureja hortensis L.)

Abstract

The aim of the experiment was to detect divergent inter- and intra-row spacings on the yield, yield atttributing characteristics and quality characteristics of sater (Satureja hortensis L.). The experiments were conducted in experimental field of ESOGU, Agricultural Faculty using Randomized Complete Block design with split plot arrangement in 2014 and 2015. The experiments were replicated 3 times. The treatments included three inter row distances (20, 40 and 60 cm) were randomized in the main plots and three intra row distances (10, 20 and 30 cm) randomized in the sub-plots. The influence of various inter and intra row spacings on plant height, habitus diameter, fresh herb yield per plant, fresh leaf yield per plant, dry leaf yield per plant, dry leaf yield per hectare, volatile oil ratio, volatile oil yield and volatile oil composition of summer savory was determined in these experiments. Increasing plant density reduced both the yield components and yield of individual plants while increasing dry leaf and volatile oil yield per unit area. İncreasing inter row and intra row sapacings resulted in significantly higher habitus diameter, fresh herb yield per plant, fresh leaf yield per plant, dry leaf yield per plant. The highest dry leaf yield per hectare (3.24 t per hectare) and volatile oil yield per hectare (84,8 l per hectare) were obtained from plant density of 20 × 10 cm. The main compounds of volatile oil samples were carvacrol and γ-terpinene. These two main compounds constituted 80.92-85.49% of the total essential oil.