f. Date . Time of transplanting can be critical for many plant species, 

 and particularly for perennials. Consequently, planting date was one of 

 the first points examined in our study. Planting date experiments were 

 started in early November 1969, and some observations have been obtained 

 each year from then on. The data on survival and first -year aboveground 

 dry matter production are plotted in Figures 9 and 10. Although these 

 data are not all strictly comparable, particularly for yield, since some 

 sites tend to be more productive than others, these illustrations seem to 

 be the most useful way to examine the information. 



In general, these results indicate survival to be good from midwinter 

 to early summer (Fig. 9) . The very poor survival of December and January 

 plantings in 1970-71 is believed due to excessive wave action on an exposed 

 site. Aboveground growth has been satisfactory from about December 

 through May, dropping off sharply in the summer months, due presumably, 

 to the shortness of the growing season remaining at that time (Fig. 10) . 

 Both survival and growth have been poor from November plantings; this 

 probably can be attributed to the difficulty in identifying suitable 

 planting stock at that season and the long period of exposure to winter 

 weather before more favorable conditions for growth. 



S. alterniflora can be transplanted with considerable success almost 

 the year round. The desirable planting season depends greatly on the 

 particular situation. The late fall and winter period is likely to be 

 risky for exposed sites due to the probability of rough weather. The 

 April-May period seems ideal, coming after the period of high storm fre- 

 quency, but early enough to take full advantage of the length of the 

 growing season. Summer plantings produce little cover to go into the 

 first winter. However, if they survive the winter, these late plantings 

 can provide full cover early in the next growing season, and there are 

 circumstances in which they would be warranted. For these reasons, it 

 appears unwise to state any rigid rules, but rather to suggest that 

 planting date should be adjusted to each particular set of circumstances, 

 keeping in mind the limitations described above. 



g. Costs . The following are mean production figures taken from 

 several short periods of digging, processing, and transplanting over the 

 last 2 years. No allowance is made for travel time, machinery movement, 

 weather, and tides, or for management and overhead. 



Harvesting and processing plants 

 By hand 



Backhoe (natural stands) 



Lifted by plow 



(nursery planting) 



180 to 200 plants per man 

 per hour 



300 plants per man per hour 



400 plants per man per hour 



40 



