In The Mix: Hydroseeding (w/ exclusive online copy)

A few customer requests drew Charlie Garabedian into the hydroseeding business six years ago.

Garabedian, vice president of Garabedian Landscaping and Hydroseeding, said hydroseeding was only something he had read about before he became the first contractor in Salem, N.H., to offer the service.

“Developing a good hydroseeding service took us a few years of trial and error,” Garabedian said, pointing out that his winning hydroseeding recipe required “a little more of this and a little less of that,” seed being the ingredient he was always adding a pinch more of.

While hydroseeding replaced Garabedian’s seeding service and turned out to be a successful addition to his company, only three other contractors within a 15-mile radius of Salem currently offer their own hydroseeding services. Nationwide, the numbers don’t improve. In a Lawn & Landscape reader survey, only 15.1 percent of contractors offer hydroseeding. A similar study conducted by Finn Corp., Cincinnati, Ohio, resulted in the same number, pointed out Al Schrand, Finn’s consumable product manager.

“Hydroseeding is all about taking the basic science of what makes a seed germinate and formulating that into one package – not very different from mixing chemical elements to make a compound,” Schrand explained. “The biggest concern with hydroseeding is the result. Contractors aren’t real comfortable with their ability to mix a formula that will yield good, quick results.”

But unknown and varying seed germination results aren’t long-term hydroseeding hassles, according to contractors who offer the service. These contractors, along with product manufacturers, claim that hydroseeding can be a profitable service.

THE GREEN STUFF. Customers who request hydroseeded lawns are either commercial and need erosion control, are builders who want green lawns surrounding their newly built homes in one to two weeks or are residential customers who have seen the process done successfully on a neighbor’s lawn, said Bob Jerszyk, president of Bob Jerszyk Landscapes in Millbury, Mass.

Contractors who decide to offer hydroseeding to their customers need to educate themselves first. “Unfortunately, there’s no school of hydroseeding,” Garabedian explained. “Once contractors decide they want to add the service to their business, the process is trial and error with advice from manufacturers. I’m comfortable with a certain hydroseeding recipe, but my competition may use a completely different mix.”

Hydroseeding is a process of new turf establishment where turf seed is sprayed onto soil in a mixture of water, green dye and paper or wood fiber, creating mulch to keep soil warm and moist to encourage faster and more uniform germination. Contractors and manufacturers also add other additives to the mix to encourage seed germination and eliminate excess seeding steps, such as:

• gibberellic acid – a hormone that encourages the cracking of the turfgrass seed
• soluble fertilizer
• humic acid – a negatively charged acid that holds positively charged nutrients in the soil
• liquid lime – to adjust the pH of the soil
• bacteria – encourages beneficial microbial activity
• tackifier – a glue-like substance that helps the hydroseeding mix stick to the soil

“To germinate, a seed needs oxygen, warmth, moisture and good soil,” Schrand explained. “If more beneficial products are mixed with the seed then the seed germinates faster.”

Jerszyk’s hydroseeding recipe is basic: four bales of paper fiber, 30 pounds of seed and 25 pounds of fertilizer to every 500 gallons of water, seed being the most expensive part – approximately $2 per pound.

After using this mix for a few years, Jerszyk noticed that hydroseeding subtracts four to five days from the germination period compared to regular drop seeding. Others reported similar results. “Hydroseeding typically reduces the speed of ryegrass seed germination to three days and fescue and bluegrass seed germination to seven to 10 days when compared to drop seeding results, which are two to four times those numbers,” said Bob Lisle, president, Easy Lawn, Bridgeville, Del.

A hydroseeded lawn is ready to be mowed in five to seven weeks, as long as the seed is watered often after planting, Jerszyk said.

“The green dye doesn’t last long after hydroseeding because the sun bleaches it out and the rain washes it away in less than one week,” Jerszyk noted. “What’s left is the tan color of the fiber. By the fourth or fifth day, there is a shine to the soil where the seed has germinated. On a residential lawn that has been hydroseeded, homeowners should be able to mow every eight to 10 days the first season. However, establishing a good base takes two seasons with a hydroseeded lawn.”

JUST ADD WATER. Of course, the magic ingredient in hydroseeding is water, which can be a pro or a con to contractors thinking about adding hydroseeding as a service. “Water availability can be a problem for landscape contractors who want to try hydroseeding,” Lisle commented. “To hydroseed, a contractor has to have access to a lot of water all the time.”

Jerszyk carries auxiliary pumps and draws the water he needs from lakes or open streams, which is legal in Massachusetts. Buy contractors need to be mindful of state laws when attempting to pull water from public water sources. As a safety precaution, they should also use a backflow preventer or make sure there is a space between the tank and pumping hose so if the water stops flowing in one direction, it won’t flow back in the opposite direction, possibly contaminating the original water source.

Some areas have fill stations where landscape contractors can load up on water inexpensively, pointed out Ray Badger, president, Turbo Technologies, Beaver Falls, Pa.

“Filling up a 300-gallon tank with water costs us 75 cents and filling up a 500-gallon tank costs $1.25,” Badger said. “Filling up each machine takes us approximately 60 seconds. On smaller sites, we’ll just fill our tanks with the customer’s garden hose. This costs us nothing, but filling up a 300-gallon tank using this method takes us 25 minutes.”

Badger said for a $200 deposit and a permit from their local water companies, contractors can also get a meter box and a special wrench used for opening fire hydrants to obtain water. “Every few months, we take the meter into the water company, we are are given a bill and then we pay for the water we used,” Badger said.

Also important is the amount of water contractors transport. Weight restrictions are set forth by the Department of Transportation. “Water weighs 8 pounds per gallon,” Jerszyk said. “A 500-gallon tank then holds more than 4,000 pounds. With a typical driver’s license, a contractor can only transport up to 26,000 pounds before needing a commercial driver’s license. For me, having two 500-gallon tanks is more practical and anyone in my company can drive them.”

IS THE GRASS REALLY GREENER? Last year, Jerszyk hydroseeded 100 acres of land, and he said hydroseeding is five times more profitable than drop seeding. “Hydroseeding is one forth the price of drop seeding and one-fifth the price of sod,” Jerszyk pointed out.

Most contractors and manufacturers say cost is the No. 1 advantage of hydroseeding a lawn vs. drop seeding or sodding it.

“The actual installation cost of hydroseeding is only 10 percent of the cost of sodding,” Lisle said. “Hydroseeding can be done for 2 cents per square foot. Sodding can be done for 20 cents per square foot, which is 12 to 15 cents per square foot just for the materials before labor costs are included.”

Badger’s numbers are a little higher. He said the cost to the customer is 6 to 8 cents per square foot for hydroseeding and 27 to 35 cents per square foot for sodding a lawn.

The cost of hydroseeding, drop seeding and sodding to the contractor, however, is half a penny per square foot, 2 to 3 cents per square foot and 17 cents per square foot, respectively, Badger pointed out.

Besides cost, the fact that less labor is needed to hydroseed a lawn rather than to sod it is also a reason hydroseeding is a more attractive approach to establishing turf, especially in an industry where the labor shortage is considered severe.

Most contractors use two-man crews to hydroseed. In this setup, typically one person stands at the end of the hose and another person stands 10 feet back to control the hose and make sure it doesn’t run over the already hydroseeded area. While most contractors are comfortable using two-man crews, Lou Santora, sales and technical information, Terra Firma Industries, Rio Rancho, N.M., said he uses three-man crews on residential properties.

“Many of our residential clients have stucco walls, lighting fixtures and stone benches in their yards,” Santora explained. “We need that extra person to hold a splash board – a 4-foot by 8-foot sheet of masonite – to protect the house and garden accessories from the green dye and glue, which we’ve found can stain a light-colored house.”

Sodding a lawn is typically a more labor-intensive process, consisting of a five- or six-man crew, Jerszyk said. “But sodding provides instant results,” he pointed out. “Hydroseeding still takes five to seven weeks before it can be mowed.

“Sodding can also generate a bit more profit than hydroseeding even with the need for additional labor because a different clientele requests the service,” Jerszyk continued. “For example, sod is more practical for athletic fields that will be used heavily shortly after installation because getting a good, sturdy base with hydroseeding takes about two seasons.”

Jerszyk said sodding is also preferred when establishing turf along a river or near a water source because contractors don’t have to worry about possible water contamination with a hydroseeding mulch that contains additional ingredients besides the basics, such as fertilizer or tackifier.

Areas near a water source or steep areas tend to need erosion control, as well, and sod tends to soak up the water like a sponge, preventing soil run-off, where hydroseeding may not work unless additional measures are taken, such as adding tackifier to the mix or using a straw blanket to hold the mix in place so the seed can germinate, Jerszyk said.

THE GREEN MACHINE. Despite many contractors’ lack of formal education and the limited number of contractors who offer the service, hydroseeding has been around for almost 50 years. Finn Corp. came out with its first models of hydroseeding machines with mechanical agitation in 1953, Schrand said. These machines were equipped with paddles to break up all the added ingredients and work smoothly with wood fibers. Today, more advanced versions are available.

Jet agitation machines, which use jet-propelled water bursts to mix the materials, were introduced 12 to 13 years ago, Lisle said. Jet agitation machines, he added, have been improved and can handle paper and wood fibers.

Machines with jet agitation can cost from $5,000 to $25,000. Contractors will pay $3,000 to $5,000 more for mechanical agitation machines, Schrand said.

Hydroseeding machines range in size from 300-gallon to 3,000-gallon machines. “A 900-gallon machine can do 3 to 4 acres per day,” Lisle said. “The most popular right now is the 600-gallon machine, which can hydroseed 1½ acres per day, because it is a middle-of-the-road machine – not too big or expensive and not too small.”

The author is Associate Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.

The following sample of an Estimated Cost Sheet is provided by Easy Lawn Inc., Bridgeville, Del., 800/638-1769.