Feeding Frenzy - FOCUS: Pesticides & Fertilizers

"One fertilizer that does it all," summed up Louis Carta, owner, Connecticut Lawn Care, Bristol, Conn., laughing at the possibility of a lawn care cure-all. "A one-shot product would be great, but that’s not going to happen."

Pinpointing the perfect formula might not be a realistic industry development, however many lawn care operators are experimenting with various products, methods and mixtures. With slow-release nitrogen penetrating the market, natural gas costs pressuring price and granular products dominating formula choice, some predict a fertilizer future quite different than its tank-sprayer past.

GOING GRANULAR. Historically, liquid-based fertilizers dominated the market, their precise application capabilities and easy mixing qualities creating a "double-time treatment" when combined with control products such as preemergent herbicides or insecticides, noted Ray Buckwalter, product manager, Lebanon Turf Products, Lebanon, Penn.

Today, granular treatments shadow liquid products. A rising concern for the environment pushed the popularity of this type of fertilizer, Buckwalter explained. "Dry applications are less likely to be perceived as ‘potentially dangerous lawn chemicals’ by customers or casual observers," he commented. "This also prompted many turf managers to switch. Many new granular fertilizers are available with herbicides or insecticides, which allows labor savings when doing two applications simultaneously."

Preference for granular material continues to peak, and has swelled steadily since companies began to add granular products to their all-liquid programs 15 years ago, explained Bill Hubbell, vice president of service centers, LESCO, Rocky River, Ohio. Another reason for the popularity of granular is that equipment and training requirements are lower for this material, which does not involve the chemistry of mixing formulas, he noted. "You don’t need expensive sprayers to make applications, and you don’t have the mixing involved with liquid fertilizers - you don’t need fill charts."

In addition, shipping liquid fertilizer costs significantly more than transporting granular products, so many companies favor dry products for the economy of ordering material, Hubbell added. Granular products also offer a greater variety of options for slow-release nitrogen formulas - dry products outnumber liquid roughly 10 to 2, noted Dean Nelson, owner, Nelson Plant Food, Bellville, Texas.

"Liquid in the southern United States burns in the summer," Nelson added. "So, you have to be really careful with that."

While many lawn care companies are going granular, still, many turn to liquid formulas to spot-treat. Others are further exploring dry fertilization options by playing chemist and creating combination products that meet soil needs. Concocting an effective blend means fortifying fertilizer with weed and insect control products. Carta uses combination products for blanket insect control, applying these puffed-up pesticides to control widespread problems where spot spraying would be time consuming, he said.

"Combination products are a much cleaner, safer, more efficient way of treating a lawn," he said, adding that many LCOs (lawn care operators) are choosing this mix for the same reason he did. "They’re tired of walking around the lawns spraying. It’s a one-time over the lawn instead of two trips. It’s probably more cost effective also."

Besides time and money, organic concern rules some lawn care companies’ fertilizer product choices.

Green-centered thinking has spread to many lawn care customers in recent years - they want to know that applications will not harm the environment. This pushes many technicians to consider alternative, environmentally friendly treatments with less potent ingredients. In recent years, pesticides have acquired a negative connotation and LCOs must address this reality when considering fertilizer products, Carta reasoned. "People are being forced to be more environmentally responsible," he said. "That’s why some companies are working hard at coming up with lower active ingredients."

Ecological inspiration motivated Carta to experiment with biosolids, a treatment that is growing in popularity, he observed. Composed of sewer bi-products, Carta said the material is affordable and the environmentally conscious ingredients make waste workable.

"We’re taking something - waste - and making it into something," he reasoned. "Not only are we gaining the benefits of it as a fertilizer, but we’re also helping the environment and recycling."

PICKING AND CHOOSING. LCOs must tailor the product to match their program, which spans from simple "weed and feed" applications, including fertilization and weed and insect control, to more sophisticated preventive and curative fungicide treatment. Some companies have expanded into core aeration, thatch management, lawn renovation, slit seeding, tree and shrub fertilization and leaf removal, Buckwalter listed, noting that service options reach as far as an LCO is willing to explore.

"There are no limits as to what can be done by the imaginative LCO," Buckwalter commented.

If options are endless and products are plentiful, lawn care companies need to evaluate key fertilizer features. Technicians should consider turf quality, number of applications and timing of applications in addition to conducting a soil test to identify relevant data for their specific geographic regions, Buckwalter noted. "Knowledge of soils, weather and turf varieties helps determine what types of fertilizer are needed to achieve the desired results."

Some soils might require special blending to create a concoction that caters to local turf characteristics, added Jim Collins, owner, Komp Horticulture, Houston, Texas. He relies on his providers to custom blend fertilizers. "We work hand in hand, trying to look at what is going to be most effective for a particular application," he explained.

The variegated soil composition in Collins’ area calls for versatility. Some areas of the city contain clay-based soil while other locations hold a more acidic soil, he noted. "In some cases, we have to custom blend for a particular project."

Buying and blending fertilizer still requires attention to quality and not necessarily cost. Price shopping is not limited to customers who weed out expensive service providers. LCOs also play the numbers game, some of them seeking rock-bottom fertilizer prices and settling for what Buckwalter considers an inferior option, in many cases. "With fertilizer, you get what you pay for," he summed up, noting that less expensive options tend to have lower quality nutrient sources and lack slow-release nitrogen. These two negatives can both be detrimental to turf.

"Everything else being equal, it makes sense for the LCO to choose the most economical fertilizer that meets his or her specifications," he added. "If there is a significant disparity in price, everything else is probably not equal."

Buckwalter noted that size and uniformity of fertilizer granules often is overlooked during the purchasing process, along with how well application rates match desired nutrient rates.

"Granular products are ideally applied at between 3 and 6 pounds per thousand square feet," he explained. "Poor coverage can result if the rate is too low, and excessively high rates require the handling of large amounts of material." Safety, application quality and environmental factors play into pricing, and LCOs who ignore these important factors sell themselves short, he said.

Jim Rhodes, owner, Texas Green Turf, Houston, Texas, noticed waning quality in available fertilizer products. Prices are climbing and value is falling, he criticized. "I’ve bought bad fertilizer in the past that caked up in the mildest humidity and really turned into a block of cement," he described. "I could see all kinds of trash in it - cigarette butts, a dead rat. Those kids of things happen all the time, which is why you need to look at the products suppliers give you."

Rhodes looks for fertilizer products that are clean and free of trash with a medium prill size, which eases application. Fertilizer that is too dusty is challenging to apply, he noted. He also evaluates the fertilizer’s past performance. "The bottom line of any kind of fertilizer performance is what it does to help the turf," he explained. "Good root development, good green up, does it flow well when you spread it? All of these factors are involved."

Other basic considerations lawn care companies should review when purchasing fertilizer might include storage capabilities, quality and consistency of the product, particle size and percent of slow-release nitrogen content, Hubbell added. A company with minimal storage capacity should recognize the space that large, liquid tanks consume, and instead opt to stock bags of dry fertilizer.

Also, medium-sized, consistent particle size is important to ensure even application, and nitrogen content will change depending on the season, he said. The key is to identify the lawn’s needs.

"One of the larger variables with fertilizer is the slow-release source and the amount of slow-release formula in a bag," Hubbell explained.

"If you put down a fertilizer, the lawn looks great for about 10 days because the fertilizer is quickly absorbed by the plant, but what doesn’t get absorbed can leach away from the root zone," Hubbell added.

"The lawn goes from being dark green to not dark green until it is fertilized again."

"GREEN-UP," THUMBS DOWN. "Green up" pleases customers, who are often more concerned about color than chemical composition. And often, fertilizers that focus on quick green up also result in quick burnout. Nelson relates slow-release nitrogen to eating habits. "It is better to eat smaller meals more frequently than one giant meal every day," he compared. "If you do that for grass with slow-release nitrogen, the lawn won’t have surges of growth that have to be chopped off at one time."

The results from cutting grass after a growth spurt are less than appealing, added Mark Barbera, vice president and general manager, Nu-Gro Technologies, Powell, Ohio.

"Besides environmental benefits, quality slow-release products provide turf and soil benefits," he explained.

"I compare it to human nutrition. It is easy to make turf dark green with regular applications of straight urea (found in traditional fertilizers), but you are just feeding top growth and too much of that will actually stress the root system. It is like living on Snickers bars for a few weeks. They provide energy to keep you going, but neither case does much for long-term health and is no substitute for a balanced nutritional program."

By pairing slow-release nitrogen fertilizers with organic products, Carta hopes to decrease the chemical content of his applications while enhancing the soil’s nutrition level. A mixture of slow-release nitrogen and an organic base will feed and nurture the soil while providing constant, long-term fertilization. "The lawn will get organic matter, which is an important thing, and you’re freeing the grass plant and the soil," he described.

Slow-release nitrogen fertilizers also are accompanied with ingredient decisions. Quality nitrogen sources differ from their mediocre counterparts in that they feed longer, allowing for more time in between applications, Buckwalter said. The increased time increments between applications reduce fertilizer burn and allow grass to flourish with minimal treatments, he explained. Fall fertilization also provides a useful outlet for slow-release nitrogen products, Carta added. This way, the soil can receive vital nutrients during the winter months, and LCOs extend their window of service while getting a head start on upcoming spring work.

Some companies, however, are hesitant to adopt slow-release nitrogen products because they fear losing money due to fewer applications on a client’s property, he added.

A COSTLY REACTION. Natural gas price hikes create expensive heating bills, but what consumers might not realize is how these steep cost increases inflate the price of fertilizer.

"If you’ve gotten that natural gas bill lately, the prices are having the same effect on fertilizer," Hubbell explained. "The fertilizer business has been pretty consistent over the last few years with pricing, but it’s not like that this year."

Barbera commented that, "it may help to have an abbreviated ‘Nitrogen Basics 101’ course," to understand the chemistry behind the cost. In a nutshell, ammonia, the building block for all nitrogen fertilizer, is produced by combining natural gas in the presence of a catalyst with air. Urea, a primary fertilizer ingredient, also is produced indirectly through an ammonia reaction.

High natural gas prices intensify the cost of producing urea, and therefore increase prices of all urea-based products. Today, ammonia on the Gulf Coast runs $290 per ton compared to last year’s $112 per ton cost.

This means lawn care companies will be paying top dollar for fertilizer this year, and in turn, will be forced to pass this cost to the consumer, Barbera explained.

"North American nitrogen producers cannot buy $10 natural gas and make money selling $300 ammonia," he detailed. "It is estimated that 50 percent of the North American ammonia production capacity has been idled in the last several months. Producers cannot afford to produce ammonia or urea at today’s selling prices."

Supply is likely to be more of an issue than price, Barbera concluded.

"An LCO who has not done any buying yet is going to find fertilizer prices up significantly for the coming season and, again, availability will be an issue," he stressed. "I think we will see some homeowners taking a second look at having their lawn fertilized when they see the increased costs."

Barbera is advising his customers to buy fertilizer early and buy in bulk. Though some lawn care companies have secured pricing for their customers because of their generous inventory, others have not had this luxury, and instead are left explaining the discrepancy.

Hubbell emphasized that customer communication is crucial in lieu of these sharp price increases. "Cost will hurt companies if they haven’t raised their prices," he predicted.

"Right now the industry is tied to natural gas, and we’re going to see some economic issues in 2001."