Background Spray seeding for land greening in created from the United States highway construction period slope soil and water conservation needs, is based on the theory and technology of fluid mechanics, pedology, botany and other natural sciences. It can quickly cover a large area of bare slope, soil erosion control, construction of a mechanized vegetation construction technology with landscape value, occupies an increasingly important position in the bare slope vegetation restoration project.

Methods The authors, as the first researchers to introduce, improve and develop spray seeding technique in China, combined with R&D and engineering practice, based on a comprehensive study of the relevant information of spray seeding technology, expounds the origin and development of spray seeding technology in the United States, Japan and China from the aspects of process flow, equipment performance and material preparation.

Results 1) Spray seeding technology originated from the promulgation of soil erosion control regulations and the development of road greening in the United States, and then gradually evolved into the fields of courtyard greening, golf course construction and environmental protection. Since the invention of hydraulic spraying technology model registration in 1953, the United States has successively derived hydraulic spraying fiber coating and convenient ornamental grass spraying technology. With the spread of the concept of low-impact development in the 19th century, the application range of spray seeding technology expanded from surface soil improvement to vegetation habitat optimization to vertical layered structure of soil reconstruction. 2) Japan is a mountainous island country, prone to natural disasters, serious soil erosion, thus in 1960 it introduced from the United States jet highway embankment slope ecological protection. Subsequently, based on the technology of Europe and the United States, Japan has developed a variety of methods such as organic earth slurry spraying, thick layer substrate spraying technology, high-order pelleting technology and continuous fiber greening technology. In the aspect of spray seeding machinery, transplantation and modification are combined with independent innovation, and the material technology is dominated by independent production and supplemented by import. 3) The introduction of spray seeding technology in China was relatively late. With the improvement of national economic strength and the improvement of environmental protection policies, the spray seeding with fiber coating covering to prevent soil erosion, the seeding with vegetation restoration as the goal, the seeding with surface soil improvement, and the systematic classification of bare rock and passenger soil in surface soil layer have been completed, and the localization of spray seeding technology application and the autonomy of equipment production have been gradually achieved.

Conclusions At present, it is imperative to reverse the extensive development, understand the regeneration value of clean water and green mountains, improve the spray seeding technology system, strengthen the industry standard of spraying technology, supplement the short board of mechanical equipment, and pay attention to the combination of environmental protection and ecological restoration.