Sod – Wikipedia

Sod or turf is grass and the part of the soil beneath it held together by the roots, or a piece of thin material.

In British English such material is more usually known as turf, and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricultural senses (for example for turf when ploughed).

Sod is typically used for lawns, golf courses, and sports stadiums around the world. In residential construction, it is sold to landscapers, home builders or home owners who use it to establish a lawn quickly and avoid soil erosion. Sod can be used to repair a small area of lawn,[1] golf course, or athletic field that has died. Sod is also effective in increasing cooling, improving air and water quality, and assisting in flood prevention by draining water.[2]

Scandinavia has a long history of employing sod roofing and a traditional house type is the Icelandic turf house.

Following passage of the Homestead Act by the US Congress in 1862, settlers in the Great Plains used sod bricks to build entire sod houses.[3] While it might be hard for some to imagine sod as a suitable primary building material, the prairie sod of the Great Plains was so dense and difficult to cut it earned the nickname Nebraska marble. Blacksmith John Deere made his fortune when he became the first to make a plow that could reliably cut the prairie sod.[4]

Sod is grown on specialist farms. For 2009, the United States Department of Agriculture reported 1,412 farms had 368,188 acres (149,000.4ha) of sod in production.[5]

It is usually grown locally (within 100 miles of the target market)[6] to minimize both the cost of transport and also the risk of damage to the product. The farms that produce this grass may have many varieties of grass grown in one location to best suit the consumer's use and preference of appearance.

It is usually harvested 10 to 18 months after planting, depending on the growing climate. On the farm it undergoes fertilization, frequent watering, frequent mowing and subsequent vacuuming to remove the clippings. It is harvested using specialized equipment, precision cut to standardized sizes. Sod is typically harvested in small square or rectangular slabs, or large 4-foot-wide (1.2m) rolls.

Mississippi State University has developed a hydroponic method of cultivating sod. For the very few sod farms that export turf internationally, this soil-less sod may travel both lighter and better than traditional sod. Additionally, since the sod is not grown in soil, it does not need to be washed clean of soil down to the bare roots (or sprigs), so time to export is shortened.[7]

In many applications, such as erosion control and athletic fields, immediacy is a key factor. Seed may be blown about by the wind, eaten by birds, or fail because of drought. It takes some weeks to form a visually appealing lawn and further time before it is robust enough for use. Turf largely avoids these problems, and with proper care, newly laid sod is usually fully functional within 30 days of installation and its root system is comparable to that of a seeding lawn two or three years older.[8] Sod reduces erosion by stabilizing the soil.[9]

Many prized cultivars (such as Bella Bluegrass) only reproduce vegetatively,[10] not sexually (via seed). Sod cultivation is the only means of producing additional plants. To grow these varieties for sale, turf farms use a technique called sprigging, where recently harvested sod mats are cut into slender rows and replanted in the field.

Bermudagrass is quite commonly used for golf courses and sports fields across the southern portions of the United States. It tolerates a range of climates in the US, from hot and humid in the Gulf Coast to arid in the southwest and lower Midwest. "Established bermudagrass is a network of shoots, rhizomes, stolons, and crown tissue together that usually form a dense plant canopy. This dense plant canopy can be used to propagate clonal varieties by sod, sprigs, or plugs.[11] The aggressive and resilient nature of Bermudagrass make it not only an excellent turfgrass, but also unfortunately a challenging invasive weed in land cultivated for other purposes. Its one noted weakness is shade tolerance. Given the economic importance of Bermudagrass (as a sod product, agricultural forage and, at times, an invasive weed), it has been the subject of numerous studies.

St. Augustine Grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum) (also known as Charleston grass in South Carolina and Buffalo Turf in Australia) is warm season, perennial grass that is a widely used. A native grass of tropical origin that extends from water marshes (salty & fresh), lagoon fringes, and sandy beach ridges.

Saint Augustine lawns are a popular wide bladed (coarse) lawn planted throughout many areas of the Southeastern USA. This grass is found in Mexico, Australia, and in tropical parts of Africa. It is a warm season grass that does not handle cold weather very well. The majority of this grass is planted vegetatively (PLUGS, SOD) as seeds are not usually available commercially each season due to production difficulties.

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Sod - Wikipedia