At Pungitore Irrigation & Fertilizer, Owner Mike Pungitore says lawn care and irrigation go hand-in-hand.
Especially when it comes to keeping customers satisfied with their lawn and its color.
However, Pungitore says those customers, who admittedly aren’t experts, don’t always know what’s best for the lawn when it comes to watering. So, he suggests a technical solution that will handle it for them.
“What has been a huge gamechanger for us has been the Wi-Fi controllers,” he says. “We do irrigation as well, so when we install new systems now, we use those controllers.”
Pungitore says from the very beginning, when a new lawn is installed, customers are wary about how much to water it.
“We can put lawns in and hydroseed lawns, or hand seed lawns, or even sod and people ask, ‘How often should I water it?’” he explains. “There’s no simple answer. You have to change it as the weather changes. We can tell people five to 10 minutes on average per zone, if they have irrigation, a couple of times a day just to keep the seed damp until it germinates.”
With the Wi-Fi controllers, Pungitore says it genuinely takes the responsibilities out of the client’s hands.
“That reads the forecast and adjusts based on the past weather and the future weather,” he says. “It gives you a lot more parameters and algorithms to put in so you can be a lot more specific to each client and zone of the yard.
“Having irrigation in general does that, but having the smart controllers just completely changes the industry,” Pungitore adds.
But it’s not just paying off in terms of irrigation but for lawn care, too.
“It’s been huge as part of our fertilizer program, our new seed program and just helping us with water conservation,” he says. “It’s also helping us just give the best results.”
And customers appreciate it — as it takes something off their to-do list.
“Clients try. It’s an investment for them and they’re spending a lot of money on it… they have the best intentions to water, but life gets in the way…They get home late from their kids’ sports games and are too tired or whatever, I’m guilty of it too, and they don’t want to water,” he says. “This takes it completely out of their hands. They don’t even have to think about it.”
And they shouldn’t have to think about it Pungitore says. That’s why they’re hiring professionals.
“For us, we do this every day — it’s second nature you don’t even have to think about it,” he says. “For a typical homeowner their lawn is the last thing on their mind. They just want to come home and see that the grass is cut, it’s green and there are no weeds. They don’t want to think about it. That’s why they’re paying you for it.”
Pungitore says the Wi-Fi controllers have some other added benefits too, specifically for the environment.
“It really does help with water conservation,” he notes. “Your old-school systems would have a rain sensor, but if that sensor got wet at the wrong time or the sprinklers were going off at 2 a.m. and it doesn’t rain until 5 a.m. you’re overwatering the lawn.”
