Moretta also attends continuing education conferences from his supplier.
Most states offer state conferences on turfgrass or even have specific turf grass councils, says John Benefield, lawn care specialist at Green Leaf Nursery based in Glasgow, Kentucky. Green Leaf Nursery offers landscape, design and installation services, along with lawn care maintenance. Customers are almost entirely residential and the company has 10 employees with an annual revenue of $650,000.
He also recommends staying in communication with local and state regulators.
“Make sure that you know what products you’re able to use. They (local inspectors) know what can be used in your state versus other states because not all chemicals and fertilizers are allowed in all states,” he says.
Lastly, Benefield says it’s helpful to work with the sales reps and companies you buy products and supplies from. They can also provide education and training.
To ensure every application is correct, Moretta advises double-checking the product and application amount before applying. “It’s one of those things you get paranoid about,” he says.
Sometimes the unexpected can happen during applications, putting a day of fertilizer applications on hold. When Moretta returns to applying the product, he wants to make sure he starts where he left off.
“I write a lot of stuff out, so I have all the calculations and stuff right in front of me at all times,” Moretta says.
For Benefield, one of the main ways he makes sure he is applying the right products in the right amounts is through soil testing.
“That’s pretty much the most important first step you can take in making sure that you’re developing a good turf grass fertility program,” he says. “Soil testing is the best way to see what particular and specific nutrients need to be added to the soil to improve your turf’s health.”
Moretta has team members spray broad-spectrum herbicides under his supervision. Training for this is performed annually.
“We always take a backpack sprayer with clean water in it and turn it on and start spraying with it and then we turn a fan on in front of it,” he says. “We have them put their hand 5 feet from it, so they can feel what drift actually is.”
In addition to the hands-on training, Moretta says employees are instructed to write down the weather conditions at every job prior to making an herbicide application.
“They’re constantly on their phone looking at the weather to see what wind direction is, temperature, that kind of stuff,” he says. “I always make sure to tell them if it looks like it’s going to rain within an hour not to mess around with Roundup and just to hand pull (weeds) and then (also to) make sure that the foliage is actually dry before they do any spraying after a rainstorm.”
