Utilization of Rice Hull as a New Substrate for Turf Grass Seed Germination in Sod Production as a Sustainable Approach

Sod culture is one of the important methods in establishing andrepairing of turf grass, especially in sport fields. nowadays, a mixture of sandand peat are commonly used in sod production in iran. because peat media isexpensive, it seems necessary to find an alternative medium. rice hull, teawaste and leaf compost as economical organic material that are available inhuge loads in north of iran. the objective of this study was to evaluate theutilization of low cost organic matter on seed germination and uniformity ofturf grass in sod production. therefore a completely randomized design with3 replications and 6 treatments: 1- mixture of leaf compost and sand (1:1)(v.v), 2- tea compost and sand (1:1) (v.v), 3- sand, 4- mixture of rice hull andsand (3:1) (v.v), 5- mixture of treatments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6- petri dish as controlwas carried out in the experimental field of agricultural school of islamicazad university, chaloos branch during summer 2008. turf grass speciesused was lolium prenne. according to the results, it was revealed that theeffect of different substrates was significant on seed germination percentage(p?0.05). results showed that mixture of rice hull and sand (3:1) (v.v)increased germination percentage over other treatments. this was probablyrelated to high water retaining capacity and well aeration of rice hull.furthermore, the lowest and highest uniformity rate was related to mixturetreatment and sand media, respectively. it generally seems that these wasteproducts can be used for this purpose economically and sustainably.