Getting Ahead Of The Game: Pesticides

What a wonderful concept. Late in the fall, technicians put down an application of a weed control product that maintains its effectiveness throughout the winter.

Then, when crabgrass makes its move, the control product is already there, waiting to choke out the offensive weed. The customers’ lawns get a great start on the spring, early season stress is reduced, and everybody is happy.

Still, despite the fact that in the Northeast and Midwest researchers have several years of trials that prove the concept is highly effective, few lawn care contractors have made or even attempted to make the switch in their programs.

The truth is, there are both agronomic and business-related reasons why fall preemergence can be as challenging as the traditional spring application, according to both the skeptics and the believers.

THE EVIDENCE. About eight years ago, research began at the university level to see if the effectiveness of the then new preemergence herbicides could be applied in the fall and carry over control into the spring. The early returns showed that some of the control products could deliver spring control from fall applications, and years of replications have proven this to be true, according to Joseph Neal, extension specialist at North Carolina State University, Raleigh. Neal did some of this research while at Cornell, as has Prasanta Bhowmik at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

"We’ve done four or five years of research, and the numbers clearly show that fall preemergence control of crabgrass will work," explained Bhowmik.

"Late fall applications of preemergence herbicides are comparable to traditional spring applications across the board in the Northeast for crabgrass," Neal concurred.

Neal did point out one agronomic downfall, however. The same activity that prevents crabgrass from emerging will also keep desirable species from germinating as long as the product is active.

"In areas where there is a problem with winter kill, or where winter kill occurs, the customer will not be able to plant new grass seed right away," Neal explained. "As long as the product is there and controlling crabgrass, it will kill emerging grasses as well."

Effectiveness will also vary depending on location, according to Nick Christians, weed specialist at Iowa State University, Ames. "Preemergence fall applications will work for knotweed here in Iowa for the season, but its duration of effectiveness is shorter for crabgrass," Christians noted. "The longer the growing season is, the more likely crabgrass will slip past a preemergence application later in the season." Results in general have been most favorable in the Northeast and upper Midwest, according to Christians and other researchers.

EMERGING CONCERNS. Lawn care company owners have their own concerns about the new technique, and most of their concerns are business related. According to Doug Masters, sales and marketing manager of professional products with The Andersons, Maumee, Ohio, the enthusiasm over fall preemergence that has captured the golf market is diametrically opposed to the skepticism over the practice in the lawn care industry.

"Whereas the golf industry has embraced the practice, the lawn care industry has not accepted it in any way, shape or form," conceded Masters. "The main problem is that the customer is fickle. They get a mailing in the winter for $20 off a spring application from a competing company, and the contractor loses the customer. Or maybe the customer moves."

Gene Pool, president of Emerald Green/Bolton Lawn Care, Van Wert, Ohio, said his biggest concern is with the industry’s notoriously high cancellation rate.

"We believe the concept is sound, and we’d love to run a program using fall preemergence applications," stressed Pool. "It would get the customer off our back, because as soon as March 30 hits and the forsythia blooms, the customers are ringing the phone off the hook. It would eliminate a lot of pressure.

"But," Pool continued, "while we don’t have a large cancellation rate, you need to worry about cancellations in the winter months. You have competitors calling on your customers and luring them away with low prices, and you don’t want to lose them after you’ve already put down the product." In that case, not only do you lose the customer, but you also make the competitor look good, he explained.

"If we could get pre-paid in the fall, or lock all of our clientele up in the fall, this program could succeed for us," Pool said.

Ed McGuire, president of The Lawn Co., South Natick, Mass., agreed. "If there’s a problem with a large property and you don’t get the customer back in the spring, you haven’t gotten back the full price of the application," McGuire explained.

Detractors also note that such a program would require both the company and the customer to rethink the way applications are traditionally done.

"Traditionally, the last application of the year is your money maker," explained Bob Andrews, president of The Greenskeeper, Carmel, Ind. "It’s the lowest cost application of the year to make. And, you’ve already invested heavily in applications made throughout the season."

Many operators are also skeptical of the results that are possible in the field. "It’s critical for the fall preemergence products to have some real, demonstrated results out in the field, rather than only the results from test plots," said Andrews. "Your ability to control crabgrass is very weather dependent. If you have a wet spring that breaks down the product followed by a dry, hot summer that stresses grass and invites crabgrass infestation, I don’t care what control product you’re using, you’re going to see intrusion." Andrews said that in Indiana, contractors have seen several years when mid-March applications failed to produce results that lasted into the late summer.

"I’m not convinced it will work," concluded McGuire. "I’ve had March applications run out of steam in July, so I’m not convinced a November application will provide lasting spring control."

Customer habits can also be difficult to change, and many contractors noted that going to a fall preemergence strategy would require changing the customers’ perspective. "We’ve been applying weed control using the same program philosophy for about 30 years now," said Andrews. "It would be difficult to convince the customer that a fall application would carry through the spring."

MAKING IT WORK. One contractor that has bucked tradition and found a way to make a fall preemergence program make sense for his company is Jon Cundiff, president of Turf’s Up Lawn Service, Lee’s Summit, Mo. Cundiff has had the program in place for three years, and admits it has been a slow process of adaptation. Once he committed to converting to the strategy, he began with the outlying areas farthest away from his office who were typically the last customers to receive round one treatments in the spring.

These customers were not given the option of either a fall or a spring application strategy, but required to take the fall program. The news came to customers with a lot of education, Cundiff noted. "We took a lot of time to talk to the customer about the difference, and, once we explained it, we really didn’t have a problem," said Cundiff. "And, we’re getting great control."

The main reason Cundiff was interested in the program was to reduce the level of spring pressure his company experiences every year. "We’ve become much more efficient in our handling of spring business now," he commented.

Cundiff said getting the jump on crabgrass and foxtail gives his technicians some flexibility in what products are used in the second round of applications as well. "We can go with a fertilizer, or if we have broadleafs, a fertilizer plus pesticide combination," he pointed out. "We don’t have to find a preemergence product to tank mix with the broadleaf product and fertilizer. We’ve streamlined our service and that’s also reduced operator fatigue, which is important because the second round always takes a lot out of our technicians."

Despite the change in service, Turf’s Up has held the line on raising prices and instead tries to realize a savings on reduced labor needs in spring and the benefits of a more organized spring effort. Cundiff said the company now services 40 percent of its client base on a fall-to-fall program.

Cundiff said that the cancellation worries his peers cite as a concern has not been a major issue. "It’s one of those, ‘Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?’ questions," he explained. "We work to provide the highest quality of service, retain the customer and avoid cancellation. And it hasn’t been a problem."

The concerns about reseeding lawns that suffer winter kill was something Cundiff said he figured he would confront, but it has only been an issue "in one or two cases. You just have to talk to the customer and tell them what they can and can’t do," he stressed.

Cundiff admits that the competition often calls his customers during the winter offering spring applications, but most of his customers understand that the winter application will cover them in the springtime. Those that don’t will often call Turf’s Up and ask. "It’s comforting to know that when a customer calls in to ask about our spring weed control program in the winter that we can say, ‘It’s already there - we put it down in November.’"

The author is Managing Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.