Evaluation of Essential Oil, Morphological Traits and Crop Yield in Satureja mutica Fisch. & C. A. Mey. in Rainfed Cultivation under Different Row Spacing

Rainfed cultivation of drought-tolerant medicinal plants is a way to decrease of using water in agricultural systems. Satureja mutica (white savory) needs little water requirement and it is tolerant to drought. To investigate the change in essential oil (EO) quality and quantity, plant yield and yield components of white savory under different planting densities in rainfed cultivation, an experiment was conducted by completely randomized factorial design with three replications during 2017- 2018 and 2018- 2019 crop years. The row spacing treatments were 25×50 cm, 50×50 cm and 75× 50 cm. Results showed that the highest percentage of plant survival (63.37%) was observed in the lowest density (75×50 cm). The highest plant height (35.40 cm) was observed in the second year× low density. The highest average crown diameter (34.35 cm), the highest fresh weight of the plant (49.01 g), and the maximum plant dry weight (23.54 g) were obtained in the treatments of medium density planting× second year. The highest wet yield (2940.46 kgha-1), dry yield (1319.00 kgha-1) and EO yield (26.62 kgha-1) were obtained in the treatment of high planting density× year2. The highest EO percentage (2.04%) was found in the treatment of low planting density (75×50 cm). the highest percentage of thymol (57.7%) was obtained in 50 × 50 cm row spacing and the highest percentage of carvacrol (7.59%) was obtained from 75 × 50 cm row spacing. In rainfed conditions, the suitable distance between the cultivation lines is 25 × 50 cm.