Background Eco-blanket, a convenient material for the restoration of mining area, can control soil erosion and reduce water evaporation. Traditional eco-blanket generally use non-woven fabrics as the upper bearing material. The non-woven fabrics can effectively bear the substrate of eco-blanket and prevent soil erosion, but sometimes it will impede the water infiltration and plant germination. Therefore, it is necessary to find a substitute for the non-woven fabric as the upper bearing material to improve the performance of eco-blanket in mining area restoration.

Methods A greenhouse experiment was conducted to compare the performances of four different upper bearing materials (fiber paper, thin non-woven fabric, thick non-woven fabric and knitted fabric) in affecting plant growth, water infiltration rate and soil water content. Bermuda(Cynodon dactylon)grass was planted in a plastic slope with a length of 50 cm, a width of 25 cm and a height of 10 cm for 30 d. The plant growth indexes (vegetation coverage, plant height, plant density and aboveground biomass), the water infiltration rates and changes of soil moisture were detected regularly.

Results 1) After 30 d of planting, the hierarchy of plant growth indexes was observed as follows: the knitted fabric group showcased superior plant growth and demonstrated the most even distribution of plants on the slope, followed by the thin non-woven fabric group, the fiber paper group, and lastly, the thick non-woven fabric group. 2) At the day 30, the descending order of infiltration levels was the knitted fabric group leading with 0.52 L, then the fiber paper group at 0.47 L, followed by the thin non-woven fabric at 0.44 L, and finally the thick non-woven fabric at 0.41 L. Compared to the day 10, these values increasedby 18.0%, 14.3%, 17.5% and 17.9%, respectively. 3) Within 24 h, soil moisture content for each treatment decreased progressively over time. The fiber paper group, in particular, recorded a significantly lower soil moisture content than the other three groups. The fiber paper group experienced a 28.4% reduction in soil moisture, substantially more pronounced than the reductions in the thick non-woven group at 12.7%, the thin non-woven group at 16.2%, and the knitted fabric group at 17.2%.

Conclusions Based on the above results, the knitted fabric seemed to be the best upper bearing material in this study. Its performance in water infiltration and evaporation reduction were ideal and showed no suppression for plant germination, leading to the best vegetation restoration in the four materials. The knitted fabric is therefore an ideal up-bearing material, which can replace traditional non-woven fabric and improving the performance of eco-blanket in slope vegetation restoration.