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Lawn Sprigging
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Some grasses spread rapidly by creeping stems (stolons). With these grasses it is entirely practicable to establish excellent lawns by planting small pieces of rootless and leafless stolons or of stolons with roots and leaves or by setting pieces of turf close enough together but still at fairly distant intervals to assure that when they begin to grow they will soon touch one another. Grasses that can be propagated in this way are chiefly subtropical sorts such as St. Augustine, Bermuda, centipede, and zoysia. Cool-climate creeping bent also lends itself to stolon planting, and some varieties of it can only be increased in this way. Many golf course putting greens are produced by planting bent grass stolons. Bent Grass Lawns from Stolons Before beginning a creeping bent lawn, consider these facts. The labor is more costly than the labor in making lawns from seed. Stolons are more expensive than seed (but possibly you can obtain them from an established lawn without cost). Lawns of creeping bent require a tremendous amount of upkeep  frequent mowing, watering, fertilizing, top-dressing and so forth. They are really for specialists. One other point. Seaside bent is a kind that creeps and can be easily raised from seeds. It produces a turf almost as good as the Washington and metropolitan strains of true creeping bent which can only be increased by stolons. Here's how to begin a lawn from stolons. Chop the stolons into pieces half an inch to an inch long and scatter them over soil that has been prepared as thoroughly as it should be for seed sowing. Make sure it is firm and raked smooth before you distribute the stolons. Sow them as you would seed, but not as thickly. The pieces should be spaced about half an inch apart. One and a half bushels of chopped stolons are sufficient for 1,000 square feet. Make sure they are distributed evenly and press them into the surface by rolling. Spread a covering of fine soil, one-quarter to one-half inch thick, over the stolons and roll again. An easy way of doing this is to lay a flexible steel door mat over the newly distributed stolons, heap fine soil on it, then, with the back of a rake, spread it level with the tops of the treads of the mat. Remove any surplus soil, lift the mat carefully (a two-person job) and treat the adjoining area in the same way. Repeat this until the whole planted surface is covered with soil. Then roll lightly. It is very important to water a lawn newly planted in this manner often enough to keep the soil moist. Where a lawn of a kind exists and the soil is known to be good to a depth of six or eight inches, it is possible to establish a turf of creeping bent without spading or turning it over. Simply destroy the grass already there. This you may do by skimming it off very thinly with a spade or by applying a very heavy dressing of sulphate of ammonia. Scratch the surface with a rake and then sow the stolons and treat as advised above. |
  
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