Hydroseeder.......Pointers For A Start-up

[Turboguy]

Originally Posted by fl-landscapes

Did you know turboguy manufactures hydroseedeers? He is to humble to mention it I guess. But I bought a unit off him, had it shipped to Florida and would highly recommend working with him as he is about as good as it gets with customer service as well as building a machine. By the way Ray can you make a hose 150 foot length? I would rather that than a 100' plus a 50'. Not a whole lot of hydroseeding going on here these days but I do need a hose.

Thanks for the very nice comments. Yes, I really just try to be here to help people more than to try to sell something or promote my machines. After 22 years of building units and even though the hydroseeding part of my business is small compared to the manufacturing I do a lot of hydroseeding locally and think I have a lot of knowledge that I can share that may help people. I have also hydroseeded in a lot of different places from the Caribbean to Azerbaijan (south of Russia on the Caspean sea) so I have experienced a lot of different conditions. Actually I really enjoy the hydroseeding itself. I like being out of the office and its fun to see the new lawns come in so well. I find it sort of nice when work is fun. Of course it is also a plus that the profit is good.

The hydroseeding business has been slower since the housing crash but there has still been a lot of business out there and the new home part seems to be getting better. A lot of my hydroseeding over the past few years has been people whose lawns have burned out or who redid their lawns, put in a pool or for cities and schools who were putting in a ballfield of some sort but I have noticed this past year that the new home part of my business picked up a lot so I do think that part of the business is coming back. I do have about 3 home builders I seed for and about 6 landscapers who sub out their hydroseeding to me.

Brian, the hose only comes in to us in 100 ft lengths and we don't have an option for anything longer. I would also like it if longer lengths were available. I too am glad you posted in this thread since your weather and conditions are similar to what ed2hess would encounter. Ed might want to check out the hydroseeding photos you posted a few years ago in the photo section here. They are quite beautiful and well done.

[fl-landscapes]

I really enjoy seeding too. Everyone I know in the landscape business who seeds seems to really enjoy that end of their business. I think it is the satisfaction of seeing the results of a properly planned seed job. The fruits of your labor aren't always so drastically visible on the maintenance side, but seeding gives you that sense of accomplishment. I just wish there was commercially available St. Augustine seed

Originally Posted by Turboguy

Thanks for the very nice comments. Yes, I really just try to be here to help people more than to try to sell something or promote my machines. After 22 years of building units and even though the hydroseeding part of my business is small compared to the manufacturing I do a lot of hydroseeding locally and think I have a lot of knowledge that I can share that may help people. I have also hydroseeded in a lot of different places from the Caribbean to Azerbaijan (south of Russia on the Caspean sea) so I have experienced a lot of different conditions. Actually I really enjoy the hydroseeding itself. I like being out of the office and its fun to see the new lawns come in so well. I find it sort of nice when work is fun. Of course it is also a plus that the profit is good.

The hydroseeding business has been slower since the housing crash but there has still been a lot of business out there and the new home part seems to be getting better. A lot of my hydroseeding over the past few years has been people whose lawns have burned out or who redid their lawns, put in a pool or for cities and schools who were putting in a ballfield of some sort but I have noticed this past year that the new home part of my business picked up a lot so I do think that part of the business is coming back. I do have about 3 home builders I seed for and about 6 landscapers who sub out their hydroseeding to me.

Brian, the hose only comes in to us in 100 ft lengths and we don't have an option for anything longer. I would also like it if longer lengths were available. I too am glad you posted in this thread since your weather and conditions are similar to what ed2hess would encounter. Ed might want to check out the hydroseeding photos you posted a few years ago in the photo section here. They are quite beautiful and well done.

[ed2hess]

Well Flordia I looked at you first job with planting zoysia, guess that is why you said there isn't any seed for shade. And the other comment you made was "people think you can throw the hydroseed out there and it will just come up". That has kinda got me thinking about Texas weather and the lack of frequent rain. We got a 100K area on an HOA that they want to get grass going on it. Now this property is almost 10 acreas but this last little part has no irrigation and they don't want to put it in. So the plan was to spread thin top soil and a moisture product and hydro seed. We will sub out the seeding. But I see in my near future a water truck making runs twice a day for several days or even weeks.

[Turboguy]

One option for the jobs that don't get watered and for the hotter times of the year is to use a co-polymer gel in the mix. It looks about like sugar but will hold 400 times it's weight in water. They say it will cut watering requirements about 50% and it isn't expensive to use. $ 50.00 worth will do an acre. It comes in different grinds. The larger ones are used under transplanted shrubs and the finer grinds in hydroseeding. I use it some of the time and it does seem to work well and help with the water problem.

[ed2hess]

Originally Posted by Turboguy

One option for the jobs that don't get watered and for the hotter times of the year is to use a co-polymer gel in the mix. It looks about like sugar but will hold 400 times it's weight in water. They say it will cut watering requirements about 50% and it isn't expensive to use. $ 50.00 worth will do an acre. It comes in different grinds. The larger ones are used under transplanted shrubs and the finer grinds in hydroseeding. I use it some of the time and it does seem to work well and help with the water problem.

Yes we used that product under new sod jobs and put it on with compost on top of yards. The jury is still out on how much affect it made as top dressing on our test plots. This year we will be running some test plot with local nursery using their compost tea.

[Turboguy]

Sometimes it is better to just sub something out and let someone else deal with it but that would have been a good job to help pay for a hydroseeder. When I seed 100,000 sq. ft. I usually end up with $ 5,000 - 6,000 in profit.

[Weekend cut easymoney]

Originally Posted by Turboguy

One option for the jobs that don't get watered and for the hotter times of the year is to use a co-polymer gel in the mix. It looks about like sugar but will hold 400 times it's weight in water. They say it will cut watering requirements about 50% and it isn't expensive to use. $ 50.00 worth will do an acre. It comes in different grinds. The larger ones are used under transplanted shrubs and the finer grinds in hydroseeding. I use it some of the time and it does seem to work well and help with the water problem.

You ever use readyplay? Much like the copolymer gel , but this
Product is more like sand...they use it on several ball fields...ewing carries it

[Turboguy]

No, I haven't tried that and haven't even heard of it. I have seen the usual gels, liquid products and one that was really cool. It would pull moisture out of the air to feed the lawn. If you poured it out onto a table top it would be granular and then start getting wetter and wetter. I saw that one ages ago and haven't seen it since so I have a feeling it worked better in the demo than in real life.

I will be out at the IECA convention (International Erosion Control Assn.) in San Diego in about 3 weeks. That is probably the biggest show for that kind of thing. I will look and see if Readyplay is there and check it out if it is. Ewing is mostly in the South and South west so we don't have Ewing stores here but they will have a booth at the show so if Readyplay isn't displaying I will try and check it out with Ewing.