Down the road

It’s always important to stay ahead of the game if you want to win market share. And in the lawn care business, it’s no different. Lawn & Landscape asked suppliers about what new products they have coming out next year, as well as their general thoughts on the future of the lawn care industry.

What new products do you have hitting the market next year?

Bryan Gooch, marketing manager, Agrium Advanced Technologies: While this product officially launched in 2010, it hit the market a little too late for many customers to take advantage of. The product is called Spread it & Forget it and it is a controlled release fertilizer that lasts all season with just one application. It is designed especially for lawn and landscape professionals to use in commercial, municipal, parks and sports fields and institutional turf.

A number of progressive companies have also found a way to make this product work in residential services.

Adam Manwarren, product manager, turf and ornamental, FMC: SquareOne herbicide is a starter herbicide for newly seeded turf, including overseeding and interseeding. We have federal registration and are awaiting state registrations. It controls crabgrass and broadleaf weeds with a flexible application window of up to one day prior to seeding or as soon as seven days after emergence in either fall or spring turf renovation projects.

Blindside herbicide offers lawn care professionals an all-in-one solution for post-emergent control of difficult broadleaf weeds, including dollarweed and sedges in St. Augustine grass and other warm season turf.

Talstar EZ is a granular insecticide for broad spectrum control of surface-feeding pests like ants, chinch bugs, billbugs and more. Verge granule technology enables Talstar EZ to provide more uniform coverage for consistent control against surface-feeding pests. 

Talstar XTRA granular insecticide eliminates fire ant colonies and other surface-feeding lawn pests, often in as little as minutes.

Nancy Schwartz, marketing manager for turf and ornamentals, DuPont Professional Products: Much of our focus next year will be on introducing the product we are launching this fall.

DuPont Imprelis herbicide is a post-emergent broadleaf weed control product with new technology that lawn care professionals can use to control weeds, like ground ivy and wild violets, even during reseeding or rainy days.

Plus, they will see residual control of common weeds like dandelion and clover. Its single active ingredient has one of the lowest application rates, combined with low toxicity to mammals.

Professionals can treat residential and commercial lawns, sod farms, parks, athletic fields and areas around schools.

Dan Steltz, market manager, lawn and landscape for Syngenta: We are working on some exciting, new products for the lawn care industry. We anticipate introducing them during the first quarter of 2011. During the past year-and-a-half, two of our newer products have received a lot of attention from LCOs.

Monument is a selective herbicide that is very versatile for use on warm-season grass. It provides broad spectrum control and is especially effective for controlling major sedge species. We’ve also launched Heritage G fungicide. This granular formulation of Heritage has shown to provide as effective broad-spectrum disease control as our liquid formulation.

And new for 2011 – Tenacity is a new herbicide that’s already labeled for sports turf, sod farms and commercial turf, as well as golf. Many cool season grasses are tolerant to Tenacity. For extended pre-emergence control, it can be tank mixed with Barricade.

Bill Stringfellow, managing director, Quest Products: Main Event Dry Iron and Main Event Dry Manganese – both of these products are dry concentrates and have 100 percent chelated micro nutrients (they contain six different chelating element release systems). They also don’t stain pumps, tanks, concrete or clothing, and they contain a vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae sustaining food resource for soil activity.

The Cut Guard Tree and Shrub Biological Wound Dressing is designed for application for plant wounds caused by string trimmer damage, pruning, mower bumps, lightning damage and other impacts to plant bark areas.

When a wound occurs, the material is applied and it immediately is absorbed into the vascular system of the plant in and around the wound area.

What trends do you see in lawn care technology in the next five years?
 
Gooch: A major trend we see happening are professionals doing more with less. As I mentioned, Spread it & Forget it only has to be applied once to last six months or longer and this helps eliminate labor and overhead costs. Obviously when companies get paid per fertilizer application, this may not be well received, but may make a lot of sense in commercial settings or customers under contract.

Manwarren: Trends in lawn care technology in the next five years will involve doing more with less – more specifically, less pounds of active ingredient on the ground while not sacrificing any results, as well as combination products that do more than a tank mix by capitalizing on the synergy between chemistries based on the ratio of active ingredients.

Steltz: As the market becomes more competitive, the emphasis on technology to help run the LCO’s operation is going to become more important. The ability to optimize resources – trucks, equipment and labor – can have a big impact because of their contribution to the input cost of the operator.

Schwartz: The trend is toward highly effective products that are also favorable to the environment. An increasing number of lawn care operators want to have reliable products that also allow them to be good stewards of the environment.

Stringfellow: Better utilization of time and labor through improved longer lasting and superior products, while, at the same time, increasing use of lower priced generic product for increased profit and cost reduction because of a competitive market place (a blending of both).

What do LCOs ask you to develop?

Gooch: There is a definite trend toward putting less chemicals and fertilizers into the environment. Controlled release fertilizers allow 25 to 40 percent less nitrogen to be used and still get high quality turf.

Manwarren: The biggest unmet need in the market is life after Monosodium Acid Methanearsonate (MSMA). This was a low cost, but effective chemistry for control on a wide number of weeds.

A MSMA replacement will likely involve different products and different treatment programs and put more emphasis on the importance of applying a preemerge product, which will most likely be used in a split application to lengthen the window of control.

Steltz: Because the industry is mature, fewer opportunities exist to solve problems that have never been addressed. Sometimes, several existing options are available to solve a given problem, which is why a number of the products coming out soon are niche-type products.

Schwartz: LCOs have grown accustomed to the limitations of many of the available turf products but will welcome anything new that makes their job easier and meets or exceeds their standards.

They are looking for newer chemistries that provide reliable and lasting weed and insect control, and can play a key role in resistance management programs.

Stringfellow: LCOs are always asking how we can expand the number of registered products that can be basal bark applied with Pentra-Bark, because of speed and efficacy of the application method in the landscape.


The author is associate editor of Lawn & Landscape. Send him an e-mail at bhorn@gie.net