Tools of the Trade: Spot On

Ninety-five percent of Hillsborough, N.J.-based Fairway Green’s business comes from residential lawn care. And during the brutal 2008-2009 winter, customers weren’t thinking about their lawns.

And with a struggling economy, they were also hesitant to spend money. After sending out prepayment offers to sign up customers in January, company President Bob Windish was disappointed to find out cancellations were up 18 percent. “I understand cancellations from people who have lost jobs, but I think others need to stop panicking,” he says.

Needless to say, Windish is optimistic – only 40 customers have cancelled services out of a customer base of 5,000, and with 35 employees and $5 million in revenue, Windish still has a job to do, despite these early delays. Fairway Green’s services include fertilization, integrated pest management (IPM) and weed treatments, and handheld sprayers come in handy for spot treatments on all three.

When it comes to handheld sprayers, Windish prefers 2- and 3-gallon Chapin sprayers because they are made of polycylinder and therefore weigh and cost about half  of the weight and price of comparable metal units. Each sprayer costs between $25 and $60. When full, the larger 3-gallon sprayer weighs close to 25 pounds, so “it is still a good weight to carry around, but you wouldn’t want it much heavier,” Windish says.

Since each job calls for a different solution, Fairway Green keeps concentrated solutions on its company vehicles. When a lawn care technician determines a treatment is needed, he mixes the granular or liquid concentrate with water in the appropriate sprayer on site. The sprayers are separated and labeled so herbicides are not put into a sprayer used earlier for fungicides. Windish says technicians usually keep a broadleaf weed control product, a crabgrass treatment, a grub control product and a fungicide available as they go from job to job. If another pest is present, another sprayer is added. The technicians also treat shrubs with their handheld sprayers.

Handheld sprayers are perfect for these spot treatments because they save the company from wasting product on an application over an entire lawn. The issue is a trade-off between the cost of materials and the cost of labor, Windish says. “We start with a treatment of the entire yard if it is especially weedy and then go to spot treatments to hit troublesome areas during later trips to the property.”

While Chapin sprayers work well for Fairway Green, Windish does modify the spray nozzles based on the pesticide he’s using. The manufactured tips do not have the right pattern and droplet size for all of his needs. “They are too generic,” he says. The added tips ensure the pesticide is applied only to the spot desired. Windish also adds pressure regulators to his sprayers to improve spray control.

Sprayer maintenance is fairly simple. The company cleans the strainer screens and nozzles regularly, based on use. They also check pressure seals annually.

When he needs new sprayers, a Chapin dealer is 10 minutes away – this is where Windish purchases all his sprayers.

Though business dropped slightly earlier this year, Windish expects calm to set in soon and expects by spring “customers will realize they would rather have me take care of their lawns than add the task to their already busy schedules.”

The author is a freelance writer based in Colorado Springs, Colo.