Table 1. Recommended transplanting times. 



Species 



Location 



Recommended time 



Eelgrass 



Shoalgrass , 

 Ditch Grass 



Alaska and Atlantic 

 coast north of 

 North Carolina 



Beaufort, North 



Carolina, south of 

 Atlantic coast 



Washington State to 

 southern California. 

 Pacific coast 



Gulf coast, Atlantic 

 coast south of 

 Cape Canaveral, 

 Florida 



Mar. (mild winters) or 

 May (severe winters) 

 to late July 



Late Sept. to early 

 Dec. 



Jan. to May (but can be 

 done throughout the 

 year) 



Anytime during year 



Turtle Grass, 

 Manatee 

 Grass 



Gulf coast, Atlantic 

 coast south of Cape 

 Canaveral, Florida 



Plugs: Dec. to Apr. 

 Seedlings of turtle 

 grass: Aug. to Nov. 

 as they are produced 

 in the field. 



Shoalgrass can probably be transplanted successfully any time of the 

 year. Turtle grass appears to be less tolerant of summer heat stress, 

 so transplanting should be limited to December, January, and February. 

 There is not enough information on manatee grass and ditch grass to in- 

 dicate a best tim.e for transplanting; however, manatee grass appears to 

 be similar to turtle grass in its requirements and tolerances. 



VI. SEED APPLICATION RATE AND PLANT SPACING 



1 . Seeding. 



Seeding is not recommended for eelgrass (Phillips, 1972; Churchill, 

 Cok, and Riner, 1978) . Flowering stalk production is variable from 

 year to year. Only 6 to 14 percent of the plant population produces 

 stalks. Seed germination at ambient water temperatures is low (about 

 2 percent in Puget Sound, Washington, and never more than 30 percent in 

 Great South Bay, New York) . 



Thorhaug (1974) and Thorhaug and Austin (1976) reported on a large 

 turtle grass seeding project in Biscayne Bay, Florida. They obtained 



20 



