(c) Planting . European beachgrass may be seeded in the 

 nursery but in view of seed costs and availability, transplanting is more 

 practical. Nurseries should be stocked during the winter or early spring 

 when the air temperature is likely to remain at or below 16° Celcius for 

 several days and the soil is moist. Plantings spaced 30 to 45 centimeters 

 apart in rows, one stem per hill, is best for limited supplies of planting 

 stock. However, where plants are available, closer spacing will greatly 

 increase production per hectare. Brown and Hafenrichter (1948) obtained 

 the highest production from five stems per hill spaced at 30 by 30 centi- 

 meters. However, they were working on dune sand under exposed conditions 

 which probably placed a premium on early stabilization. Machine planting 

 is preferred, and plants should be set 15 to 30 centimeters deep. 



(d) Culture . Cultivation should be avoided except where 

 essential for weed control. Production will usually be increased by 

 the application of 40 to 60 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare soon 

 after spring growth begins. Fertilization is essential for strong 

 nursery stock on sands and infertile soils. 



(e) Harvesting. Plants in nurseries may be pulled by hand 

 with little or no digging. Plants from dune stands are harvested by 

 cutting them about 5 to 8 centimeters below the surface to leave one 



or two underground nodes, using a sharp, flat-blade garden spade with 

 a straight cutting edge, 15 to 20 centimeters wide. Clumps are lifted, 

 shaken free of excess soil, cleaned of trash, the underground stems 

 broken back to one or two nodes, and separated into individual one- to 

 five-stem transplants. These may be heeled-in in narrow trenches or 

 stacked upright in tubs or boxes for local handling or packaged for 

 shipping or long-term storage in bundles of 100 to 1,000 plants with 

 the lower half wrapped in paper to avoid drying, as is done with forest 

 seedlings. Dipping the lower 8 to 10 centimeters, in a clay slurry before 

 packaging provides an economical deterrent to drying and a desirable margin 

 of safety against careless handling and planting. 



No data are available on suitable temperatures for cold storage of 

 European beachgrass. The optimum temperature, 0° Celsius, for American 

 beachgrass is probably satisfactory for this species. 



Stems should be trimmed to an overall length of about 50 centimeters 

 after packaging for easy handling, storage, and transplanting. 



(6) American Dunegrass . This species is considerably more 

 difficult to propagate than the beachgrasses (McLaughlin and Brown, 1942; 

 Brown and Hafenrichter, 1948) so attention has been focused largely on 

 the beachgrasses and little specific information is available on the 

 culture of this dunegrass. Therefore, the following suggestions are 

 speculative. 



(a) Soil Selection . As the grass thrives under foredune 

 conditions, nurseries probably should be located on very sandy soil close 



