Abstract:
Lawn establishment is a lucrative industry around the globe and popular for its
instant effect for the landscapes. Sods and lawn mats are commonly used for this
purpose in the Sri Lankan context. Both require coir dust in media, hence the cost
of production is high as coir is expensive and freely unavailable. Hence, this study
was conducted to introduce an alternative substrate for the production of lawn
sods/mats using Axonopus compressus ‘Dwarf’. Five different substrates were
used as treatments including four replicates in each treatment, and fresh rooted
grass were used for propagation inside a net house (12,000 lx). Plots were
arranged in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) and data were collected after
ten weeks of planting. The data were analysed by General Linear Model. Fresh
weight of lawn mats, growth performance of grass and quality of lawn mats were
evaluated. The mean weights of fresh lawn mats were significant among the
treatments and substrates consisted of 100% coir and coir dust: sawdust (1:1)
showed the lowest values (P<0.05). Higher pore spaces in both coir dust and
sawdust, contribute to the light weight of substrate. The growth of grasses and
quality of lawn mats in all treatments showed a better performance leaving no
any significant difference. Rolling ability and integration of substrate were
different among the treatments. Substrates associated with coir dust recorded
better rolling ability compared to the substrates incorporated with topsoil. The
best mat was recorded with 100% coir. In order to overcome the problems
associated with production using 100% coir, coir dust: sawdust (1:1) can be
recommended as the alternative substrate and sawdust is an economical
substitute, as it is a waste product. Further research could be carried out on cost benefit analysis of this alternative solution.
