Instant Green: Working with Sod

The sod industry is growing for the same reason fast food restaurants are multiplying and online shopping is becoming increasingly popular – sod is quick, easy and instant. “Everybody wants things now,” explained Ed Zuckerman, president and chief executive officer of Delta Bluegrass Co., Stockton, Calif. “Sod offers the perfect instant gratification for curb appeal.”

While contractors aren’t sodding lawns more than they are seeding them, the numbers are close. According to a Lawn & Landscape reader survey, 62 percent of respondents offer seeding as part of their company services and 56 percent offer sodding.

Not only do more contractors offer sodding as a service, but they are also the major buyers and installers of the product. Douglas Fender, executive director of Turfgrass Producers International Association, Rolling Meadows, Ill., said 80 percent of the sod being grown is sold to contractors. These statistics mean good news for contractors because they have access to most of the top quality sod grown across the United States. But these numbers also show that if any mistakes are being made during sod installation, contractors are usually blamed for them.

Landscape contractors can reduce customer callbacks on sod installation by purchasing quality material, putting more time into soil preparation, perfecting sod installation practices and identifying watering inconsistencies, making sod a more profitable service.

SOD FOR SALE. Sod was originally called junegrass, which was the wild grass that grew in the prairie, explained John Perkins, owner of Perkins Landscape Contractors, Minnetonka, Minn. “This type of sod was born in the early 1940s and 1950s, when people wanted instant curb appeal and had the money to spend on it,” he said.

Today, sod is grown in a variety of soils, blends and conditions. But what one contractor thinks is quality sod, another may not, pointed out Larry Le May, vice president of operations, A-G Sod Farms, Riverside, Calif.

Perkins said he looks for a good blend of seed in the sod he purchases. “I look for a minimum of five different blends of bluegrasses,” he explained. “A good blend can help the turf resist disease later. Contractors should ask the growers what blends of turf they are using. They can also call a local university agronomy department and find out what the region’s good blends are.”

When purchasing sod, contractors should also look for undesirable rough grasses and weeds, Perkins suggested. “Some weeds in bluegrass are annual and will die, but other weeds are usually easy to spot before the sod is purchased,” he said. “Premium quality sod will cost approximately 10 to 15 percent more per square yard or foot.”

Part of buying quality sod is making sure it’s bought from a reputable sod farm, pointed out Carla Herron, director of marketing and business development, BlueBird International, Denver, Colo. “Contractors should do their homework before purchasing sod,” she said. “A reputable farm will have its seed inspected regardless of whether or not its state makes inspection mandatory.”

Also, contractors have to be aware that sod needs to be laid within 24 hours of when it was cut, especially if it was cut in the morning when it was wet from dew, Perkins said.

“I actually prefer to lay sod within six to eight hours after it was cut,” he said, explaining that when sod is rolled, any moisture on the sod will mix with the fertilizer and start a chemical reaction that can kill the grass. This process, depending on how wet the grass is, can happen in as few as 12 hours from when the sod was originally cut.

“To avoid dead sod from this chemical reaction, try and purchase rolls that are as fresh as possible,” Perkins offered. “When you are purchasing a roll that was already cut that day, try and roll it out to as close to the center as possible and place your hand on it. If the sod roll center looks good and green but is warm, the sod will probably die. We’ve had to throw sod away because after we had it cut, rain added moisture to the sod, increasing the chance of chemical reaction and preventing us from being able to lay it quickly.”

Sod comes in a variety of sizes. Perkins purchases rolls that are 30 inches wide by 144 feet long.

These larger-sized rolls, however, brought labor problems, Perkins said. Because one 30-inch by 150-foot roll weighs between 800 and 1,000 pounds, and two or three employees can’t maneuver it by themselves.

When contractors start using 30- to 42-inch-wide sod rolls, using a machine can reduce the amount of labor needed to lay sod. Machines can be particularly worthwhile on commercial projects where they can lay larger pieces of sod, reducing the number of seams. Otherwise, contractors would have to manually lay many square pieces of sod to cover an area and merge multiple seams.

“Three days after sodding, people are able to play on the field,” Perkins pointed out. “Plus, using a machine on larger properties cuts labor by two-thirds. We can lay 1,000 to 1,200 yards in one hour with three employees and a sod-laying machine. Laying that same amount of sod manually with smaller rolls would take more time and eight to 10 employees.”

Machines equipped with sod rollers should have low ground pressure coupled with rubber tracks to prevent turf damage, explained Brad Lemke, product manager, ASV, Grand Rapids, Minn. The machines themselves can cost $40,000 to $50,000, but they also perform other tasks like a skid-steer loader, Lemke said. The sod roller attachment can range in price from $2,000 to $4,000, he added. Perkins said some sod-rolling machines can cost as little as $25,000.

While most of the machines on the market today are restricted to larger properties, Lemke said ASV is working on producing a sod-cutting machine that will handle 24- to 30-inch sod rolls for smaller residential areas.

A HEALTHY BASE. Fender cites improper soil preparation as one of the greatest reasons for customer callbacks. “Contractors aren’t preparing the soil as if they were seeding, but they should,” he said. “They till it slightly or throw the sod down without preparation, which doesn’t give the sod a good base to grow into. Irrigation also becomes less efficient when the soil isn’t properly prepared.”

Zuckerman suggested a 12-inch cultivation of the soil to open it up and ensure a healthy root system. Turf roots, he explained, will go down 3 to 4 feet, if possible.

“The top 18 inches of soil are the most important,” Zuckerman said. “Sod will grow anywhere. However, opening and loosening up the ground will bring less stress to the plant and help the turfgrass fight disease, not to mention establish a strong root system.”

Perkins’ soil preparation includes tilling a 6-inch depth of soil, adding a starter fertilizer and then fine grading the soil.

One difficult aspect of introducing sod to a new soil is forcing the merger of different soil types. Perkins said most sod is grown on peat soil and growing sod from peat soil into Midwest clay soil can mean more work.

“Peat soil and clay soil don’t marry well,” Perkins said. “But finding sod grown in clay soil is difficult. Peat soil will eventually dissolve when installing sod grown in peat soil into clay soil, but this process takes some extra maintenance and care by the homeowner or maintenance contractor.”

Besides tilling the soil, using a soil ammendment, such as an organic blend of fertilizer, is also good soil preparation, according to Herron.

And contractors shouldn’t worry about weed seeds located in the soil getting into sod either, Herron pointed out. “If sod is lush and thick, it won’t allow weed seeds to germinate.”

INSTALLATION TIPS. Installing sod is the most expensive method compared to seeding or hydroseeding, Herron said. “Sodding isn’t cost effective for contractors, however, the lawn looks good right after sod is installed and sod takes care of any erosion problems on the site. Sod is good in this way because it is like a sponge, soaking up water and preventing run-off.”

Sod installation takes a lot of preplanning, remarked Perkins. Special consideration has to be given to the layout of the land and the site drainage because they dictate how the sod will be installed.

Sod seams should run perpendicular to the site drainage because this pattern will slow the running of water through the sod and discourage erosion along the seams, Perkins pointed out. If there are slopes on the site, sod should run parallel to the slopes.

When merging two pieces of sod together, seams should be butted together. “This is where an extra laborer can be used with the big rolls,” Perkins explained. “Someone should follow the roll and pull the seams together with a sharp pick.” (For more tips on installing sod, see The Tricks of the Trade, left).

The cost of sod may be greater for the contractor and the client – 25 cents per square foot for the product and 6 cents per square foot for the labor costs, according to Zuckerman. But many of the steps involved with establishing a new lawn are taken care of at the sod farm, including germination and weed elimination.

“You can’t hand a newly seeded lawn over to a client and have it come up weed- and disease-free in a short time,” Zuckerman said. “Getting a seeded lawn up to sod level takes about six to seven months.”

The author is Associate Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.