Pesticide Prognosis - FOCUS: Pesticides & Fertilizers

Lawn care operators with a Ph.D. in pesticides have the background to diagnose turf disease and prescribe treatments necessary to maintain a lush lawn. However, the nature of the business doesn’t allow haphazard decision-making. Lawn care operators must prepare with tools and training.

"Your lawn is a living thing - it’s like us getting a cold," related Marlene Patrick, owner, Avon Lake Lawn Care, Avon Lake, Ohio. "There are many kinds of barriers that can prevent your fertilizer from not working as well as someone else’s next door, including compaction and thatch problems.

"You need to be prepared with knowledge," she advised. "Know what you’re talking about, and be honest with yourself and with your customer."

Blending pesticide mixtures, stocking treatment products, organizing service routes, preparing and loading equipment - all of these preparation measures pay off when a lawn care operator (LCO) is en route. Planning these application details in advance helps technicians deliver effective, efficient service.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE. Technicians need tools to deliver successful treatments, and equipment choice - sprayers, spreaders or combination outfits - depends on the contents of a company’s lawn care program. Vehicle check sheets are similar at many lawn care companies, with a line item list of necessary staple, such as gloves, glasses, spill kits, invoice materials and paperwork.

However, LCOs (lawn care operators) must personalize their processes to match their pesticide prescriptions. For example, programs that emphasize granular products require different equipment and preparation than those that utilize liquid products.

Mike Pender, co-owner, Classic Gardens and Lawn Care, Birmingham, Ala., primarily applies granular treatments - what he considers a more environmentally friendly option. "Granular products go where you put them and stay where you put them," he noted. "With sprays, the minute you put them down, they lose effectiveness due to evaporation. Since they’re on top of the grass blade, photosynthesis breaks them down, so there is degradation."

Besides being preferred by his clients, granular products also allow his technicians to prepare for their routes the night before, Pender explained. "You wouldn’t be able to prepare in advance with liquids," he added. "They sit in the tank and lose their potency."

Kirk Hurto, vice president technical and support services, TruGreen-ChemLawn, Memphis, Tenn., stressed that different applications require different preparation. Technicians who stock trucks with liquid treatments might not have the luxury of organizing their supplies the night before. "Filling of spray tanks, especially, must factor into what products are used and how stable they are in a spray mix," he explained. "Some insecticides are prone to rapid breakdown through a process called hydrolysis. The rate of pesticide degradation is influenced by several factors, including water hardness, temperature, pH and, in some instances, what else may be included in the spray tank."

Pender’s program allows his advanced planning to begin when technicians return in the evening after daily routes. The 30 minutes LCOs dedicate at the end of the day to restocking their trucks and organizing the next morning’s schedule alleviates rushed, morning supply stress, he noted. Technicians can take off immediately at 7 a.m., beat rush hour traffic and get a head start on service calls so they have ample time to deal with complications that crop up during the day.

"It’s a lot less hectic to prepare in the evening than in the morning," Pender confirmed. "In the evening, the technicians don’t all come in at the same time - they show up when they are done for the day, so you can handle the trucks at a more relaxed pace rather than in the morning when you are frantic and have six trucks that have to go out at the same time."

Evening tasks include taking a bag inventory, which assures that technicians applied the correct amount of product to properties, Pender explained. Also, mileage, gas and global positioning system information is recorded nightly and serves as "proof of service" should customers claim their property was bypassed. This inventory checklist, which is updated in the morning and evening, teamed with the traditional tools such as spreaders, backpack sprayers and extra insect or disease treatment, builds a solid system, he said.

In addition, sharp scheduling will usher preparation systems to the service route. Timing is everything for LCOs, and it encompasses more than hours clocked in vehicles. Seasons, weather conditions, application increments - these intricate elements must piece together to form a secure schedule, Patrick stressed. Sprouting weeds will generate customer complaints, while overzealous applications will burn the lawn.

Patrick’s preparation and scheduling depends on timing, so her ‘checklist’ varies at different points during the season. Extras she adds to service trucks include a spray bottle to spot-treat weeds, preemergent treatments, insecticides or broadleaf herbicides. "The treatments I include also depend on which insects are prevalent at that time," she added.

Treatments also figure into route scheduling for Lynn Tootle, manager, Gro-Masters, Garden City, Ga. He organizes his technicians’ service routes based on geographic area and grass-type, since different lawns require different antidotes.

"Our scheduling is organized to meet the needs of each different grass, which requires a different set of nutrients and requirements," he explained. "By dividing routes by the type of grass, we’re able to keep our guys from going back to the shop to fill up on materials."

He creates territories in Savannah, where his company’s client base is focused, assigning each technician to a route. This way, they become regulars on the property and can then build relationships that result in satisfied, long-term clients, Tootle explained. In turn, the LCOs’ familiarity with their regular route allows them to manage their time.

"Also, my technicians are really good about routing themselves," he added. "They know the area so well that I can give them five days of work at one time, and they can figure out how to get that done in the fastest way possible."

Pender also relies on geographic divisions to schedule technician routes, but his commission-based company orders a slight variation on territory scheduling. Desirable accounts are split up among the technicians to even out earning capability, he described. "All of our guys work on commission, so we try to make it so they can all have some cream of the crop routes and some bizarre routes that are harder to travel," he said.

ON THE PROGRAM. Preparation checklists and scheduling systems paired with an effective application program create a full-circle approach for providing pesticide prognoses. However, technicians can only nail down an efficient system once they personalize their preparation measures to match their treatment methods.

Patrick’s six-step application program is a common formula. These increments allow enough time between applications, without providing so much time that customers spot the problems in their lawns that they wanted to avoid.

"Timing is so crucial," Patrick emphasized. "It is so critical for having the product put on at the right time." Preemergents cannot be applied too soon, she noted, admitting to be "meticulous about things."

The second site visit includes a "weed and feed," which is a broadleaf herbicide and a granular feed. Depending on the environment and temperature, the third visit consists of an insecticide or feed treatment and the fourth and fifth service calls include an insecticide application. The fifth and sixth treatments also include a feed treatment, again, depending on weather.

"If it is windy, we’ll have to wait until the next week, and we can’t put an application on, so that will change whether or not the treatment is an insecticide or a feed." Fungicides are applied only when needed, as they tend to be rather expensive, Patrick explained.

Additionally, she couples these bi-monthly check-ups with a detailed form that tracks data including the materials applied. This sheet then can be referenced when preparing for a route as technicians determine equipment and products need on a service truck.

Tootle files information dating back to each client’s initial phone call and request for service, he said. He tracks all correspondence between the customer and his company - every letter, every invoice. "Any time the technicians have a question about what part of a property needs to be serviced, they just pull the file," he explained. "For example, if only part of the yard is supposed to be treated, there will be a map that marks the location."

He, too, benefits from this background information when preparing for service routes. These records eliminate guessing when a property is assigned to a different technician or a technician leaves the company entirely, Tootle added.

His seven-application program consists of mostly liquid treatments, which requires him to prepare accordingly. "When customers sign up with us, I like to think of it as a turn-key job," he described. "We will take care of the fertilizer, insect, weed and disease control." This all-inclusive approach demands all-encompassing preparation and planning.

"We like to have the trucks empty when technicians come back each day because the pesticides break down rapidly," he said. "We don’t mix the pesticide until right before they spray to keep the breakdown to a minimum."

Tootle’s program calls for equipment that differs from those that are predominantly granular. His trucks are furnished with 600-gallon main tanks and 100-gallon drop tanks to hold liquid treatments. Powered beam pumps deliver applications. He also builds weed and insect control into the program, which incorporates a continuous scouting program, where technicians tune into potential problems.

Continuous for Pender, however, means a year-round program - a variation from most companies’ six-visit schedule. His program consists of a 12-month application process. "I always kid the customer and say that in the South we’re blessed that the weeds emerge 12 months a year," he joked. "But we have a long growing season. We’re preemerging six times per year and, in between that, we’re liming in December and putting out fertilizer in the summer."

These application models prove the importance of matching the preparation to the treatment. Each company’s philosophy influences the organizational system.

BASIC TRAINING. Tools are not limited to sprayers and spreaders. Training is a vital prerequisite to prescribing lawn care treatments, and technicians that side-step education will not have the background to identify turf terrorists.

Today’s lean job market means that on-the-job training replaces historic intensive winter training sessions, which were the norm in many companies. This new, hands-on education familiarizes technicians with the company’s application methods while orienting them to the trade, work atmosphere and client base - three key service elements.

"Training is adjusted to the needs of the seasonality of hiring workers to address employee turnover, as well as building their confidence to address the challenges they face in performing their duties," Hurto explained. "All employees require a basic training program upon hiring, but it’s more than just classroom activities. Be sure they receive proper hands-on training by pairing them with an experienced mentor who knows the walk."

Hurto tags this method "contemporary training," and added that adopting a field mentor can reduce new employee turnover. Regular meetings that emphasize seasonal topics or explain new technology motivate employees and bolster their industry knowledge, noted John Steiner, Midwest regional manager, NaturaLawn, Frederick, Md. His company hosts 20- to 30-minute weekly meetings to review goals, investigate relevant issues and supply additional training.

"We discuss issues such as insects and pests, depending on what time of year it is, and provide some training material and a short quiz for technicians to be able to take during the time we hold the meeting," he explained. "We’ll include education on threshold levels for insects, and discuss whether or not a technician should treat a problem or if it can be scouted, monitored and controlled in a different way."

In turn, technicians educate their clients, pointing out problematic areas on the lawn and involving them in the application treatment decision-making process, Steiner added.

Training also allows technicians to make informed choices. "We educate the customer as to what the problem is in order to make a conscious decision, and we also empower the applicators to make a decision as to whether or not a problem has reached a level where it could be causing damage, if we can change what the consumer is doing to alleviate the problem or if the problem is at such a level that it needs to be treated," he said.

Patrick accompanies her technicians on their routes when they are first learning the ropes so that these choices can be joint decisions while her new technician is learning company’s decision-making criteria. "Making an even application is everything," she commented, adding that this is one area she stressed while training employees. "You have to teach them how to use the equipment and the proper way of putting on an application."

Reading books, asking questions, taking classes - all of these training supplements create a well-rounded industry education.

"The most important thing is being knowledgeable," she accentuated. "The customer will question you and you have to know what is wrong with the lawn if a problem arises. Know what you’re talking about, and be honest with yourself and with your customer."