IV. PLANTING METHODS 



1. Seeding . 



Seeding turtle grass has been successful. Seeds are ready for 

 harvest as early as mid-July and can be planted as late as November. 

 If holding methods are used, seedlings could be planted during Sep- 

 tember, October, or November. Thorhaug C1974) discussed various 

 methods for holding seeds. 



Seeds may be collected from mature fruits (0.5 to 1.5 inches or 

 1.3 to 3.8 centimeters wide) or as germinated seedlings lying on the 

 sediment surface. To harvest, clip the fruit from the stalk and break 

 open the spongy ovary wall to expose the four to five seeds. Seeds and 

 seedlings may be planted immediately or stored in the field or in the 

 laboratory if irrigated with flowing seawater (Thorhaug, 1974) . Be- 

 cause seeding techniques are poorly understood, seeding is not recom- 

 mended for general use by those inexperienced in planting seagrasses. 



Seeding has not been successful with any other seagrass species. 

 In general, seeds of other species are extremely small and easily 

 washed out, and germination rates are low. 



2 . Planting Sprigs Unanchored . 



For eelgrass and shoalgrass, sprigs of leafy shoots have been 

 successful. These sprigs consist of a small bunch of 3 to 4 shoots 

 (eelgrass) or 15 to 20 shoots (shoalgrass) on the same rhizome. The 

 sprigs should be planted by digging a small hole in the substrate 

 (about 3 inches or 8 centimeters deep), placing the sprigs in the hole, 

 and covering over with the same substrate. This technique is only 

 successful where wave or current energies are low. 



3. Planting Plugs . 



Plugs are cores of plants with substrate intact. Diameter of plugs 

 can be as small as 4 inches (10 centimeters), for shoalgrass, to a 

 recommended 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 centimeters), for eelgrass, turtle 

 grass, and manatee grass. 



A cylindrical coring device (e.g., a PVC sewer pipe with a wooden 

 handle) is pushed into a donor grass bed to obtain the plug (Fig. 9). 

 The grass plug is then transplanted in a hole, 6 to 8 inches deep, dug 

 by the same coring device. 



Phillips, Vincent, and Huffman (1978) recommended that plugs of 

 shoalgrass for transplanting be taken 1.5 feet (46 centimeters) or more 

 apart in natural stands. At Port St. Joe, Florida, several large open 

 spaces resembling blowouts were observed in the shoalgrass donor site 

 where plugs had been taken at 6- inch intervals. Where the plugs had 

 been taken at 12-inch (30 centimeters) intervals no blowouts had occurred, 

 and after 1 year, the bottom had nearly recovered from regrowth of sur- 

 rounding shoalgrass. 



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