Hydroseeding has both an interesting history and an exciting future. This method has been around for for decades ands looks to play an exciting role in the future of agricultural developments.

Despite being difficult to pinpoint the exact inception of hydroseeding, most sources attribute the discovery to Maurice Mandel. In 1940s America, Maurice, from the Connecticut Highway Department, discovered that by mixing seed and water, the resulting mulch could be used to coat the steep and inaccessible slopes of the Connecticut expressways. This saved precious time and man-power.

The next development was made by Charlie Finn a few years later. Whilst working on a project for the West Virginia Turnpike, he took Mandell’s idea and developed it, marketing it as the ‘Hydroseeder’ – a two-part machine with a large mixing tank and an attached engine, pump, and spray platform.

 

 

Hydroseeding continued to grow in popularity and later saw widespread use in the USA because of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. This Act helped create new vegetation cycles on areas devastated by surface mining.  This was one of the largest uses of hydromulching up until that point. The 200-foot-high inclines of the Appalachian coalfields were a simple task for the machines that could produce a 400-foot distance spray.

Hydroseeding’s popularity caught on in the UK in the 1960s and has since become a flourishing industry, producing jobs and a simple and affordable seeding and erosion control solution.

Alongside more and more people finding uses for hydroseeding, the machinery used has also developed at a rapid rate in recent years. The very first machines that had an agitator used a ‘T’ shaped paddle – completely different from modern machines. The issue with the first designs was that the original mixture was too hard to be mixed using this paddle. This lead to modifications being made to the paddle blade.

Around the same time, Bowie Industries created the ‘Rotary Gear Pump’. This was such a success that they created the ‘Hydromulcher’ – the same concept as other hydroseeder models but with their Rotary Gear Pump and an additional mulch shredder. This helped to shred up any particularly hard pieces of fibre. Sales of paper fibre soon dropped due to the complications that came with the hardness of them when they were packaged, and wood fibres, which were packaged loosely, took over. The ease of being able to tip them straight out of the packet into the hydroseeder was a big advantage.

Hydroseeding Machinery

Centrifugal pumps are better for spraying at long distances and Gear pumps can sometimes handle a little thicker slurry and will pump through longer lengths of hose than centrifugal pumps.

Centrifugal pumps are better for spraying at long distances.

Gear pumps can sometimes handle a little thicker slurry and will pump through longer lengths of hose than centrifugal pumps.

This is just one example of how developments shaped and modernised the hydroseeding industry. At its very core hydroseeding is about providing simplified solutions, being cost-effective, and being highly effective. As technologies develop we can expect to see these solutions becoming more creative in order to deal with more advanced problems. Cities and urban areas are expanding and the demand for clean green space is higher than ever; hydroseeding will lead the charge in reinvigorating our landscapes as the demand for quick and efficient solutions continues to grow.