Emerging Trends

Many homeowners take pride in mowing their own lawns and keeping them tempting for barefoot toes. But when the inevitable, unsightly weeds like dandelions and crabgrass stain their closely tended lawns, it’s time for the professionals to take care of business with strong herbicide applications.

To bring damaged lawns back to their green glory, the question for lawn care operators (LCOs) becomes, what combination of preemergence and postemergence herbicides provides the best course of action?

RESEARCH & REVISE. Determining the advantages and disadvantages of different herbicides takes a good deal of time and research. “I’ve got a pretty set program now that I’ve been using for about four years,” remarked Doug Harris, owner/operator, Harris Lawn Care, Mitchellville, Iowa. “But thing change and different products come and go. You’ve got to keep up with them.”

Harris conducted a lot of research before nailing down his weed control plan. He now uses frequent postemergence applications due to excessive broadleaf weeds in his area. By talking to other LCOs and conducting his own product trials, Harris developed a program that worked best for his Midwest clients.

Craig Martin, manager/supervisor, Greener Lawn Care, Cumberland, Md., takes a different approach to herbicide use. “We use the preemergents as our mainstay and postemergents as kind of a quick fix,” Martin noted. Because the preemergence products he applies control weeds well, this maintains customer satisfaction. Additionally, less frequent and more targeted postemergence applications keep material costs down.

Martin did research similar to Craig’s when choosing his herbicides and both men know that LCOs have many factors to consider in the decision.

“There are a lot of factors that are driving what LCOs choose to use,” acknowledged Quenton Jackson, regional marketing manager, Monsanto, St. Louis, Mo. “Primary among them are price, convenience and safety, but decisions are also driven by thing that are outside the chemistry.” Jackson mentioned that legislative issues and environmental concerns must also be taken into account when the topic is herbicides.

Researchers are knowledgeable contacts for LCOs, and results of trials performed by universities are available on many university Web sites. For LCOs performing their own test, Brian Unruh, extension turfgrass specialist, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla., had some suggestions. “Don’t just try one product in one location,” he urged. “Choose three or four landscapes or lawns and see how that product works.” The amount of coverage and duration of treatment a product provides compared with its costs are also important considerations for LCOs.

A HEALTHY COMBINATION. Remembering that preemergence and postemergence herbicides are two different animals is important when LCOs are choosing products. Though they both result in weed elimination, “comparing postemergents to preemergents is like comparing apples to oranges,” Harris stressed, explaining their difference. “The idea behind a preemergent is that it puts a barrier down so that as the weeds begin to grow, they come up through the barrier and it kills them. For a postemergent, the weeds have up be up and actually growing for the treatment to work.” Understanding this difference, most LCOs us both preemergence and postemergence herbicides in their lawn care routines.

“I’ve got two categories of customers: Some that just want me to come around and kill their dandelions and other customers want full service,” Harris said. With a range of customer expectations, he reasoned that having both types of herbicides available is the best solution.

Likewise, Scott Eicher, senior product manager, Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis, Ind., expects preemergents and postemergents to be used in combination for quite a while. “In some cases, split or multiple treatments with a preemergence product may give a business the type of control and at a cost they believe is a good investment,” he noted. “Others may choose to manage their business with a combination of pre- and postemergent control. The key is delivering a service to their customer that meets or exceeds their expectation levels.”

Moreover, products in each category are designed to deal with either grassy or broadleaf weeds, but rarely both. Generally, postemergence herbicides control broadleaf weeds and preemergence products control grassy weeds and crabgrass.

Knowing all this, the next consideration is whether to use a liquid or granular form of material.

“Ours is strictly a liquid program,” Martin offered. “In our area, the biggest benefit is ease of application. We’ve got rather rough terrain and some of our lawns are steep, so pushing a spreader isn’t feasible. A hose drag is better.” Along with other LCOs, Martin stressed that broadleaf weed control with a liquid postemergent is superior to results gained with a granular material.

Harris explained that granular products require moisture to stick to the turfgrass plant. However, trying to schedule applications for first thing in the morning or after it rains is impractical and often impossible. He also noted that liquid postemergents work better than granulars because as weeds pull in nutrients when they go dormant in the fall, they also pull in pesticides put down during mid- to late-season applications.

At YardApes, New Milford, Conn., President Shayne Newman also prefers liquid products. “We tank mix a liquid postemergent broadleaf weed control and a crabgrass preemergent,” he described. Tank mixing allows him to cut down on labor by letting him make only one blanket application instead of two.

As a caveat to this practice, Unruh reminded LCOs that lawns can be overloaded if too many chemicals are applied. “A lot of times, we think that when we spray herbicides on the turf and it doesn’t kill it, that it doesn’t hurt it,” he said. “That’s not always the case. It can slow the turf down metabolically, for instance.”

GREENS FEES. Homeowners and property managers want to know up front what weed control will cost. Determining the appropriate amount to charge is often tricky, though most LCOs base their prices on square footage.

“Charges vary per application,” commented Mike Leahy, president, Blades of Green, Churchton, Md., whose properties range from townhomes to 12-acre lots. “Most people base it on square footage, but I’ll even base it on things like what the client expects of me,” he continued. “If they want me to bend over backwards, they might spend 20 percent more than other people, but they’ll get what they pay for.”

Newman’s pricing plan, based on a materials cost of about $2 per 1,000 square feet of preemergent and postemergent mixed together is a simple $5 per 1,000 square feet. Oftentimes, he doesn’t additionally charge for things like spot spraying callbacks because his clients are already investing their money in his mowing services, pruning, etc.

Even in situations where costs for spot treatments are absorbed into other prices, when customers don’t have to pay “extra” for certain applications, this often translates into more renewed business. “A callback in the lawn care industry is one of the most expensive portions of running a business,” Eicher remarked. “If you can reduce callback complaints, customer retention will be higher.”

OF course, working out the pricing details in the first place, and pricing services to compete can offset costs when callbacks are necessary. Harris’s approach to pricing is involved, but effective.

“First, I figure out what my overhead is and what the cost of materials are, and then I compute it down to what my cost is on someone’s yard,” Harris outlined. “You need to know what your cost is for labor, equipment and material, and then figure out what your profit is,” he continued, adding that while finding out what competitors are charging is sometimes difficult, knowing the fair market rates in a given area is also important when pricing applications.

Martin’s strategy is similarly detailed. “Our overall pricing gets cheaper per thousand square feet, the more square feet you have,” he explained. “I put together our pricing structure by determining overhead and the time it takes to get to the property. The pricing per 1,000 square feet states the same, but it’s the number of square feet on the lawn that gives you the variable,” he said.

For example, Martin’s average lawn is 10,000 square feet, for which he charges about $50. A lawn half that size though, costs slightly more than $35. For those two lawns, the price of labor and materials per 1,000 square feet is the same, but the acreage changes. For a smaller lawn, the overall price per 1,000 square feet goes up.

Nailing down an effective herbicide program is no easy task. With the number of products, combinations and techniques to consider, in addition to pricing services, there are a multitude of questions to answer, but several places to find those answers, as well.

“Most states generate a pest control guide for turfgrass managers,” Unruh offered and also suggested using the Internet as a source of information on products. “I really think you should be your own researcher,” he advised. “Get these products and stack them up next to each other.”

But, don’t forget the most important rule: always read the label.

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