How to keep turf rolls alive

We all live busy lives nowadays, which means we can’t always do exactly what we’ve planned as soon as we would like to. This includes laying turf. You might plan to lay it on the day you have it delivered, but find this isn’t possible. Or you might not know exactly when the delivery will take place, meaning there’s every chance you could be at work or otherwise engaged in some vital task.

Whatever the reason, sometimes turf has to remained in its rolled up, delivered state, for longer than you plan. So, how do you ensure it remains in good health and condition until you have time to lay it?

In this article, we take a look.

How long will turf last?

The first thing to consider how long turf actually lasts once it has been harvested and rolled up.

The unfortunate truth is ‘not long’! In fact, due to the lack of nutrients being taken up by the roots once it has been lifted, turf soon begins to deteriorate.

So, the quicker you can get it laid, the better. Turf, like all plants, needs nutrients, water, air, and sunlight to thrive. Stored in rolls, with the grass roots not touching any fresh soil, it is getting none of these.

That said, turf will last a certain amount of time in its rolled form. Stored appropriately, it can live for up to 48 hours without being laid. But that is the maximum. In fact, in summer, when it is prone to drying out quickly, you may have a window of just 12 hours to get it laid before it starts to die off.

How to store turf rolls

Extending the life of rolled turf comes down to how you store it. Get this right, and you have a good chance of ensuring that when you do roll out your turf, it will root well, become established, and create a fantastic lawn or wildflower effect as desired.

Get it wrong, and you will have wasted your money. If your turf dries out, or vital air cannot get to the swards because it is too tightly packed, it will soon start to spoil. This means that when you do come to roll it out, no amount of watering or fertiliser will bring it back to life.

So, what is the best way to store rolled turf if you have no alternative?

Following these simply steps will give you the best opportunity of keeping it alive.

·         Keep it cool

We all know turf needs plenty of watering to get established and to root securely into the soil below once laid. So there’s no surprise that preventing it from drying out when in a roll is vital to its long term ability to grow.

Temperature has the biggest impact on this. The obvious fact is the warmer the conditions the turf is stored in, the quicker it will dry out. This is why it is particularly risky to leave turf rolled up in summer.

So, if you do have to store turf before you can roll it, find as a cool a place as you can. This will mean water loss is slowed the turf will stand a far better chance of survival.

This might lead you to think that warm, damp conditions are better than dry. But this isn’t necessarily the case. Warm, damp conditions are the perfect breeding ground for bacteria, and increased microbial activity generates heat which can spoil the turf.

·         Take it off the pallet

Another good tip is to take the turf off the pallet and to store it in smaller stacks. This prevents the build up of heat and ensures more air can get to it.

If you have the room, unrolling the turf will enable some light to get to the swards and that will help to sustain it in the short term. And on no account should you water it while it is rolled up. This will simply speed up the deterioration.

·         Ventilation

As already mentioned, air is essential to turf and in a rolled up position, it is already being starved of water and nutrients. Letting air get to it is the least you can do.

So, stack your turf in such a way as to let air get to as much of it as possible. This won’t work miracles in sustaining your turf, but not being well aerated will certainly speed up its demise.

·         Keep it uncovered

Never, under any circumstances, cover your turf rolls. Not only will this lead to the generation of heat, it deprives it of everything that would help sustain it, such as moisture and carbon dioxide in the air, and light.

Covering turf is a recipe for disaster. It will be all but dead in a matter of hours, and then you will have wasted all the time and money you’ve invested.

Prepare your soil

So, the long and the short of it is do your best to lay turf on the same day that it is delivered. That is only way to guarantee it is fresh, full of life, and will grow into a plush, verdant lawn, or a colourful wildflower meadow.

This also means ensuring your soil is prepared for the turf. Preparing your soil takes time and if you only get round to it after your turf has been delivered, there’s a good chance you won’t finish it before the turf deteriorates.

If you want to know more about this, read our blog ‘How to Prepare the Ground for Laying Turf: A Comprehensive Guide, which you can find here.

Always choose plastic-free

Whatever turf you choose, always ensure it is plastic free.

Some turfs are grown using a plastic mesh in the soil to help it stay together when being harvested. Unfortunately, however, that plastic mesh is then buried in the soil once the turf is laid and over time will break down into microplastics to pollute the local environment and even get into watercourses where it can enter the food chain.

At Lindum Turf, we believe this practice is outdated and should be stopped. That’s why all of our turf is plastic-free or grown on sandy loam soil.

By choosing plastic free, you’ll be able to enjoy your fantastic new lawn guilt-free, knowing laying it has in no way harmed the environment. 

To view all of our plastic-free turfs, click here https://turf.co.uk/all-products.