fertilizer management effects on summer savory (satureja hortensis l.) production as a medicinal plant in mashhad condition

in order to study the effect of fertilizer management on summer savory production, a field experiment was conducted at the agricultural research station, college of agriculture, ferdowsi university of mashhad, iran during growing season of 2009. a randomized complete block design with three replications was used. treatments included: 1) nitroxin biofertilizer 2) phosphate solubilizing bacteria 3) vermicompost 4) nitroxin biofertilizer + phosphate solubilizing bacteria 5) vermicompost + nitroxin biofertilizer 6) phosphate solubilizing bacteria + vermicompost 7) vermicompost + nitroxin biofertilizer + phosphate solubilizing bacteria 8) chemical fertilizer (nitrogen+ phosphate) and 9) control. because of having two cuts during the experiment, collected data was analyzed as a split plot design in time which cuts allocated as sub plots and fertilizer treatments allocated as main plots. results showed that different cuts had no significantly effect on all measured traits. also inoculation of summer savory seeds with biofertilizers treatments had significant effects (p≤0.05) on all measured traits except number of stem lateral branches per plant, percent of browse with flower and percent of essential oil. the combination of nitroxin biofertilizer + phosphate suloblizing bacteria and control treatments had the highest (51 cm) and the lowest (39 cm) plant height, respectively. it seems that using biofertilizers alone or combined with other organic fertilizers will improve qualitative and quantitative characteristic of summer savory.