Comparative analysis grass carpets sizes and plugs for zoysiagrass cultivation

The zoysiagrass is currently the most used in Brazil for the formation of lawns, mainly due to their aesthetic characteristics and hardness. Planting is usually done using carpets with 1.25 x 0.40 m, covering all the area. But in some situations, aiming to reduce costs, may be suggested planting plugs or carpets with spaces of each others. This work aimed to evaluate the lawn formation using different formats of carpets and plugs in various planting distances. Thus, the land in a ground level were prepared and planted with zoysiagrass carpets with dimensions of 0.20 x 0.25, 0.40 x 0.25, 0.05 and 0.10 x 1.25 x 1.25 m spacing 0.10, 0.20 or 0.40 m. beyond the use of plugs at spaced 0.20 and 0.40 m. Every 30 days there were performed measurements of the area and observed the percentage of occupancy with zoysiagrass. The analysis results indicated that plaques formats that approximate to a square, 0.40 x 0.20 x 0.25 m, with high width / length, and spacing of 0.10 m, have an occupancy rate of the larger area, 75.89% and 62.07% respectively compared with carpets with rectangular shapes, and also higher than the planting of plugs. The use of 0,40 x 0,25 m plaques, spaced of 0,10 m, allowed an economy of 36,5% in the initial costs.