Main Sector of relevance\IRC classification 1. Agriculture, Food and Marine Resources
1.38 Technology of roll-up lawn grass growing
Developers’ contact information
Republican Scientific Subsidiary Unitary Enterprise "The
Institute For Land Reclamation of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus"
153, Bogdanovich Str., 220040 Minsk
Tel/ Fax: +375 (17) 292-64-96
Summary
Technology of roll-up lawn grass growing in artificial conditions, landscape gardening application.
Description
Commercial production of roll-up lawn grass in places with application of machine means, analogous to those used for growing agricultural crops, harvesting of green carpets and using them for erosion-preventive protection of engineering earth structures, creating of lawns, covering of stadiums, golf courts, etc.
Technology type
Technical advantages and economic benefits
Roll-up lawn grass are formed on appropriately prepared soil as a
result of formation of a solid carpet of green sprouts in the overground part
and strong turf in the underground part made of interlacement of fascicular
root systems, rhizomes and sprouts bases.
To increase the strength of turn, plastic netting with cell-size of no less
than 1 cm is used. The netting makes it possible to cut younger turf, while the
rhizomes and sprouts have not been fully developed yet.
The optimal thickness of removed turf layer is between 15 and 20 mm, the width
of removable stripe is between 45 and 50 cm, the length is between 1.0 and 2.0
m. For large-scale landscape gardening (if technically feasible) stripes of
more than 2 m in size are removed and rolled-up in rolls. The roll diameter is
usually no more than 40 cm.
Roll-up lawns have their advantages as compared to widely popular native meadow
turf. They:
- are grown using industrial methods with mechanization of all
labour-intensive processes;
- provide for the required herbal composition according to the site of
landscape gardening and customer requirements;
- do not require the diversion of land for hayfields and pastures with
re-grassing;
- are elastic and quite strong;
- strike roots fast and are very erosion-resistant.To ensure maximum profit,
fields that have been vacated after harvesting are prepared and sowed as
quickly as possible (2 week on average). The approximated project cost of 1 m2
of turf, that is commercially grown using the suggested technology, is $0.35
(US dollars). For reference, the cost of production of 1 m2 of turf
according to Eure Sod Company of the University of California is $1.68 (US
dollars)
Technology differentiation and uniqueness
Technology of commercial production of roll-up lawn grass is fully adapted to conditions of the Republic of Belarus.
Context in which technology was identified
Commercial production of biological carpets for lawns and bind of
earth structure slopes (provisional recommendations).— RUE “The Institute
of Melioration and Meadow Cultivation of the National Academy of Sciences of
Belarus”.– Minsk, 2004, 36 pages.
The recommendations have been studies and approved by the Research Board of the
Institute (Protocol No. 2 of 13 October 2003), and the Research Counsel of
Minselkhozprod of the Republic of Belarus (Protocol No. 1 of 15 January 2004)
Technological keywords
Pre-sowing soil processing, herbal seeds, planting of herbs, crop care, watering, additional fertilizing, pest protection, harvesting, laying roll-up lawn grass, mechanization means.
Development Stage
Intellectual property rights
Range of applications
Commercially grown turf is used for landscape gardening (lawns) in private and urban construction, sport grounds, stadiums, soil erosion protection on natural and artificial slopes, binding of dam slopes and other engineering structures.
Classifier Used at the EU Innovation Relay Centres
Preferable Regions
Practical experience
The technology used in production of roll-up lawn grass belongs to the Unitary Enterprise “Brovki”, Minskzelenstroi.
Environmental impact
Ecologically safe. Makes it possible to preserve native meadows and pastures.
Type of collaboration sought
Terms and restrictions
The technology may be transferred on the condition of associating it with local conditions.
Available technical assistance