2 Trips in One

Travel time can be one of a lawn care company’s biggest expenses, with technicians’ precious application minutes wasted while they’re stuck in traffic or driving from one jobsite to the next.

In many cases, lawn care operators (LCOs) remedy this problem by selling more service programs and increasing route density in areas where their crews work. Likewise, preparing trucks the night before for the next day’s service stops can ensure that crews hit the road early.

But many LCOs also take advantage of lawn care application materials that can eliminate many of a technician’s trips to a given site. Blended products like herbicide-coated fertilizer are just as easy to apply as straight fertilizer or herbicide treatments, and their two-for-one talents keep LCOs from having to make multiple passes over a lawn when just one will do.

MULTIPLIED PERKS. "By using a fertilizer plus a preemergent rather than just the preemergent alone, LCOs can save significant amounts of application time because they’re putting two visits worth of material down at once," explains Kyle Miller, senior technical specialist, BASF, Raleigh, N.C.

As an example, Miller explained that if a spray gun is calibrated to yield 2 gallons of material per minute over 1,000 square feet, a 10,000-square-foot lawn would take 10 minutes to treat. Adding in the time it takes to pull out and recoil a hose, the full weed control application can be as long as 20 minutes. "Eliminating the separate weed control application can save LCOs that 15 or 20 minutes per lawn," Miller says. "Altogether, that can add up to enough time to treat two or three more lawns in a day." This efficiency boost is the most obvious benefit of using blended products, but this type of application offers other perks, as well.

"Blended formulations certainly save time, but formulators also have to put these products together so they’re easy to use," says Ray Buckwalter, product manager, Lebanon Turf, Lebanon, Pa. "All these products are synchronized so that the LCOs apply the proper amounts of both fertilizer and herbicide at the same time."

Buckwalter adds that this doesn’t get technicians off of the hook when it comes to proper equipment calibration and label reading. "The contractor still has to know what rate of pesticide they want to put down before they go shopping," he comments. "Almost every analysis of fertilizer is available with a herbicide or other pesticide already on it, so the key is to study the label and find the right pesticide rate with the proper fertilizer. From there, the technicians also need to make sure that their equipment is calibrated correctly so their actual application rates match the recommendations on the label."

With such versatility and a wide range of combination products from which to choose, it’s no surprise that many LCOs wouldn’t dream of using anything but blended lawn care products in one form or another.

"We’ve always used blended products in either liquid or granular form," comments Tim Doppel, president, Atwood LawnCare, Sterling Heights, Mich. "Especially with preemergents and fertilizers, it’s one of those things we’d hardly consider doing any other way." Many other contractors feel the same way. In fact, 38 percent of respondents to a recent Lawn & Landscape survey said applications of blended products was their fastest growing service in 2003. Moreover, 51 percent expect the same service to be their fastest-growing segment this year.

Gary LaScalea, president, GroGreen, Plano, Texas, also prefers using blended products and both his and Doppel’s experiences have led them to prefer liquid blends to granular products due to the greater application accuracy and efficacy of liquid products.

"We buy our crabgrass control one of two ways," Doppel says. "It’s either a material we mix with the liquid fertilizer in a spray tank and apply as a spray, or we buy it already on the granular fertilizer. We don’t do any formulating ourselves."

With liquid blends, weed control improves, particularly at the edges of the lawn because accuracy with sprays is often better than with granular materials. Still, "you can’t go just one way," Doppel notes. "You need a lot of options to properly service the customer, so for our customers who are uncomfortable with spray treatments and insist on granular applications, we’ll have those materials available and still use a blended product."

Also, contractors like LaScalea, who mix their own fertilizer-herbicide blends, must use liquid products due to some pesticide regulations. "In many cases, LCOs are prohibited by law from applying a sprayable preemergent to granular fertilizer," Miller notes. "Tank mixing liquids is permissible because those concentrate products already are labeled as to what they can be mixed with and it’s much safer and easier to do. Most of the preemergents today are compatible with most liquid fertilizers, so that’s widely done in companies that spray pesticides."

Manufacturers note that, as with nonblended products, preferences toward liquid or granular blends can depend on client concerns and the type of pesticide that LCOs want to mix with their fertilizers.

"For a preemergence application, liquid products may get stuck in the canopy of the plant, whereas coated granular products are heavy enough to get to the soil," notes Rich Baker, turf and ornamental sales manager, United Horticultural Supply, North Brunswick, N.J. "That same liquid in a fungicide or postemergent application gets stuck on the leaves, making liquid the preferred method." Also, Baker notes that many clients perceive granular products as being safer than liquids because the technician doesn’t have to wear a suit or mask to apply the product.

LaScalea notes that weather also can play a part in an LCO’s choice of liquid or granular blended applications. "For instance, you don’t want to apply blended liquid materials in January in Texas when the temperatures are still freezing because you won’t get as much control," he says. "Also, we find that granular materials are convenient to keep on stand-by for use in the spring when the weather can be windy. In that case, we’ll use the preemergent on granular fertilizer until the winds die down and we’ll come back and use a postemergent to spot treat any weeds that have already come up."

Though this type of situation would require LaScalea to make a second pass over the lawn to treat for broadleaf weeds, being able to apply two out of three materials at once still saves time.

COST CONSCIOUSNESS. Because making multiple lawn care applications at once increases LCOs’ efficiency and, therefore, their bottom lines, the slightly higher prices of blended materials are negligible for most contractors.

"Typically, granular blends are going to be a little bit more expensive to use than if we were to buy the materials separately or make a liquid application," Doppel says. "But because some of our customers would rather we not spray on their properties, we do what we need to do for customer satisfaction, so we always can switch to blended granular products."

Miller comments that the price difference between granular products and liquid products is only a few dollars but can add up quickly. "If you were to apply a granular fertilizer plus a preemergent to a 10,000-square-foot lawn, that might cost you $15," he says. "However, if you were mixing a sprayable preemergent and a liquid fertilizer, the preemergent might only cost $5 and the liquid fertilizer might be $5 to $7. It’s not a huge difference, but if you treat 20 lawns in a day and you save $5 per lawn, that’s $100 right there. Over the course of the week you’re saving $500 and if you have 10 technicians doing the same thing, it adds up."

Buckwalter adds that formulators must put more time and labor into manufacturing granular blends because the process is more complicated than blending several liquid concentrate products. This extra labor drives the cost up, and for fertilizers coated with specific pesticides, he notes that formulators must take the time and money to ensure that the pesticides are properly registered in every state in which the product will be sold.

LaScalea also mentions that tank mixing liquid products on his own eliminates the significant labor costs associated with granular materials.

"Liquids are always less expensive than granular products," Baker agrees, "but to be efficient, you might need a 500- or 1000-gallon tank or a spray truck for applications. If you don’t already have them, these cost a lot more money than a pickup truck and a spreader."

Also, fluctuations in fertilizer prices throughout the year can influence the prices of both liquid and granular blends. "There has been a bit of a spike in fertilizer prices the last couple of years, but we’ve seen pricing stay in line with what LCOs would have to pay to put preemergent on an inert carrier like sand or corncob," Miller says. "Fertilizer is a relatively inexpensive carrier and you really get the most from your investment by making multiple applications at once."

Most manufacturers report that blended products will cost $10 to $20 per quarter acre – about 11,000 square feet – and that timing of the applications remains the same as with regular fertilizer applications, with few exceptions.

"Of the fertilizer products available that are blended with some sort of pesticide, 60 to 70 percent of those are fertilizer/preemergence herbicide blends," Buckwalter says. "Because preemergents are preventive treatments, they can easily be used during the first early spring fertilizer application. There are fewer blends with postemergent herbicides or fungicides because these are mostly spot-treatment applications. In those cases, the fertilizer component would be less effective because the technician wouldn’t necessarily be treating the entire lawn."

LaScalea and Doppel note that using blended products does not cause them to change their pricing strategies. Doppel reports that his residential clients will spend about $280 per year on their lawn care service for programs between four and six applications – averaging $45 to $70 per visit. Most of Doppel’s early spring applications include a blend of fertilizer and preemergent crabgrass control, which is charged as a single application.

With just one pass over a lawn and one charge to the customer, liquid and granular applications of blended fertilizer/pesticide products are quick and easy, actually increasing LCOs’ efficiency. Because of their benefits and little extra cost to contactors, it’s no wonder the service is becoming increasingly popular.

The author is associate editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at lspiers@lawnandlandscape.com.