buries the culms and increases harvesting time. Similarly, bitter panicum should be sought 

 from sites where accumulating sand is not actively growing a dune. Although bitter panicum 

 and sea oats are vigorous and dense on these sites, the culms must be individually excavated. 

 Natural bitter panicum stands on the lee slopes of foredunes and on a low plain behind a 

 forming dune line are the best locations. 



d. Source of Transplants: Nursery. Woodhouse, Seneca, and Cooper (1968) felt that 

 nursery-produced sea oats culms were superior to wild stock because of a better developed 

 root system. Several nurseries of both species were established on north Padre early in the 

 study to test the superiority of nursery stock. The first nursery was established in February 

 1969, with sea oats, bitter panicum and shoredune panicum (Fig. 24). The advantages of a 

 nursery are that they: (a) produced a stand of uniform transplant material; (b) reduced 

 harvest time since the plants were dense, localized, and shallowly buried; and (c) provided 

 more uniform material for mechanical transplanting. 



Sea oats transplants from 2-year-old plants had more mass per tiller, which aided ii 

 handling and transplanting. Transplants from 1 -year-old plants were highly variable, an< 

 many tillers were too small for machine planting. Sea oats nursery production average* 

 20.9, 28.9, and 20.8 transplants per original culm planted after 8, 10, and 22 month.' 

 respectively. Comparisons of wild harvest versus nursery-produced transplants revealed n 

 significant survival differences between the two sources of planting stock (Table 14). 



After 15 months, bitter panicum yielded an average of 20.9 transplants per original cub 

 planted. However, these transplants had to be further subdivided to allow machine plantin 

 consequently, the number of usable transplants per original nursery plant exceeded 20.' 

 Planting stock was vigorous with large culms from the first year, and unlike sea oats, r 

 advantage is evident for transplanting from 2-year-old plants. 



e. Establishing a Nursery. Experience from nurseries allows the following conclusio 

 for establishment : 



(a) A moist, loose sand is best. Ideally, the site should be protected by natural 

 dunes or vegetation from encroaching sand. 



(b) If not weed-free or if virgin land, fumigation with methyl bromide will reduce 

 maintenance costs. Clearing and leveling the site with a bulldozer before fumigation 

 may be necessary. 



(c) An area of barren, moist sand exposed by a migrating dune field is a good 

 location for a nursery if protected from beach sand drifts and high tides by a 

 mid-island location or reformation of a dune line. Advantages over virgin land are leve 

 surface, lack of vegetation to be cleared, and moist surface sand without irrigation. 



(d) Supplementary irrigation may be necessary to wet the surface before plantin; 

 and to maintain moisture at the root zone during the first few months, and to retan 

 excavation of plants during periods of high wind. 



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