North American Green HydraCM Quickens Vegetation Growth

Background

For Christ the King Cathedral School in Lubbock, Texas, expansion was a necessity. With the school incorporating K-12 classes, the school grounds required additional building space. One construction project required the relocation of the practice football field to make way for the school expansion. Problem

The project site was being built from scratch on a site near the school that had previously been an open pasture. With limited time before the fall football season, the practice field needed to be completed and fully vegetated within a few months. Selecting the correct products to control erosion and aid in vegetation reestablishment would be essential to the success of this project. As a community volunteer John Wanjura with the USDA assisted in the design of the football field project. Solution

The top 6-8 inches of silt loam soil were prepared and leveled with the use of a Grader/Maintainer. Herbicides were then used on the field to kill off any remaining unwanted vegetation. Soon after the site grading was complete, the irrigation system was installed followed by top soil preparations. The difficult part of reestablishing dense vegetation on the field was then addressed. After conferring with other engineers at the USDA, Wanjura decided that the use of a hydromulch was needed to prevent soil erosion and to aid in vegetation establishment. North American Green’s HydraCM hydromulch was evaluated based on several of its performance properties. The proprietary blend of straw, reclaimed cotton plant material, tackifiers and polymers of the HydraCM allows for high moisture and soil retention. The HydraCM mulch was applied on Memorial Day 2008 with a Bermuda seed mix along with a blend of fertilizers.

Establishing Vegetation with HydraCM on a Sports Field Application

CASE STUDY

Volume 11 Number 3

14649 Highway 41 North Evansville, Indiana 47725 812-867-6632 1-800-772-2040 FAX 812-867-0247 www.nagreen.com Updated 10/2008

View of the fully established football field six weeks after application of HydraCM

Project Concerns

Several issues during the project created concerns with how effective the project results would be. During mulch application, HydraCM

mulch was mistakenly applied at a rate of 2500 lbs/acre instead of the recommended 3000 lbs/acre leading to concerns on how the mulch would perform. Also, just 2 days after the mulch application, the project site received 2-3 inches of rain, followed a week later by another heavy rain. Results

Even with all the rain, HydraCM held its ground, and no signs of erosion or rilling occurred. Within days, the vegetation was growing, and by the end of week two the field could handle mowing. Ashton Walden with Ashton Walden Landscaping, the installation contractor, was pleasantly surprised by the performance of HydraCM. “I had not used HydraCM mulch before. In the past I have only used wood mulches. I was skeptical on not adding more tackifier to the mix. With other wood mulches with tackifier I always needed to add more tackifier, but this [HydraCM] didn’t need it.” Walden was also pleased with how it sprayed, and claimed he would use it again. Wanjura believed that the HydraCM mulch aided with the establishment of the grass. “We have planted in the same area before with seed alone and it took 5-6 months before the stand was established enough to be mowed.” In addition to quick vegetation establishment, the use of the HydraCM mulch and seed was at least 5-10 times less expensive than placing sod.

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For more information on this project, contact North American Green at 800-772-2040

14649 Hwy 41 North • Evansville, IN 47725 • 800-772-2040 • 812-867-6632 • Fax: 812-867-0247 www.nagreen.com • www.vmax3.com

The quick establishment of the vegetation can be seen in the weekly progression (above).