Plant Sea Oats – Plugs in Spring or Fall

Plant sea oats from a nursery plug in spring or fall, while the sand is damp. Set the root ball at least six inches down, then firm the sand so wind cannot pull it.

Plant nursery plugs in spring or fall, into damp sand

Plant sea oats into damp sand, well above the wrack and the usual line of dune plants. [1] Spring or fall gives the roots time before the hottest, driest weeks. [2] Set the strip as far landward as the existing dune plants allow, so a high tide cannot lift the plugs. [3] Sun, salt, and keeping people off the stand stay on How to Grow Sea Oats.

How to plant sea oats

Work one hole at a time. Keep the plugs in the shade until they go in. Dry wind on a bare root ball is the usual reason a planting fails before it starts.

1. Buy nursery plugs grown for your coast. Wild plants are protected, and a dug clump often dies on the trip home. [4]
2. Open a hole with a dibble, a long-bladed shovel, or the heel of a spade. Dig until the sand feels cool and damp, not until you hit the hot, sliding surface layer.
3. Set the root ball so its top sits at least six inches down. Leave about three inches of leaves and stem above the sand.
4. Fill and firm the sand with your foot so there are no air pockets. A loose hole dries the roots and lets the wind pull the plug.
5. Space holes about eighteen inches apart on a staggered grid, in rows that run with the shoreline. Use a gallon pot on a wider grid if that is the size you bought.
6. If rain is not coming, water the hole once at planting. Then let the stand take the weather. Overwatering in sand can rot a young crown.

Split a nursery clump into planting units

Sea oats is increased by stems with a live rhizome, not by a seed packet this year. A planting unit is one plug, or a small cluster of stems on a short rhizome.

1. Keep the clump moist while you work.
2. Pull or cut it into pieces that each have green leaves and about six inches of rhizome. A stem with no rhizome will not root.
3. Replant at once, at the same depth, and firm the sand.

What fails at planting

A shallow hole leaves the root ball in hot surface sand, and the plug dries or blows out. A midsummer planting into dry sand hits the same problem. Seed heads look useful in August, but wild collecting is illegal in several states, commercial seed is scarce, and seedlings rarely take on a live dune, so do not sow a packet and call the job done. Do not dig plants from a public beach to stock a new strip. If you cannot plant within a few days, keep the plugs in the shade and slightly moist, or heel them into a trench of damp sand until you can finish.

If a new hole is shallow or loose, reset the plug today so wind and sun cannot pull it dry.