GroundKprs
LawnSite Bronze Member
- Location
- South Bend, IN
For newcomers to the green industry, here are a couple of important matters that should be noted about chemical use by landscape contractors:<p>1-LICENSING & LEGALITIES<p>States license companies and individuals for application of pesticides for hire. Anything used to control a pest is subject to licensing. PEST(relating to the landscape) = any undesireable plant, insect, disease, animal, or other condition. PESTICIDE = any chemical (natural or synthetic) used to control a pest. Most states have two categories of licensing affecting landscape: one for turf and another for ornamentals. If you only have a turf license, you cannot spray Roundup in the shrub beds. In Indiana, an unlicensed applicator can be fined $$$ for each INCIDENT. So if an inspector follows you around to 10 properties, you pay 10 x $$$. If he's in a bad mood that day, or you put him in a bad mood, he can probably find 3 regs violated at each site, so you pay 3 x 10 x $$$.<p>While many pesticides are available in the local hardware, Home Depot, or K-Mart, these are for consumer use. You are generally violating state and federal regulations if you buy Weed-B-Gon at K-Mart and apply to a customer's lawn, even if you are licensed. (OSHA and many state chemical applicator regs require you to have label and MSDS {Material Safety Data Sheet} available for any chemicals you are using. Most consumer chemicals are low rate formulations and escape the requirement that the mfr supplies an MSDS. So if you use the consumer product you cannot comply with the MSDS regs.)<p>To find info about pesticide licensing in your state, contact your state lawn care assn or the turf or horticulture dept at your state land grant university. Many of these land grant univs have terrific web sites to help you with landscape problems. Two years ago I diagnosed a problem I had not seen before in my mother's lawn in Denver, 1100 miles away. I had her on the phone while I was connected to the Colo St Univ site. There is a whole lot more on the web today.<p>2-CHEMICAL NAMES<p>You need to learn to observe the A.I.(active ingredient) and the CONCENTRATION of A.I. in chemicals available to you. Differentiate between COMMON name and TRADE name!! In a recent thread on weed control in beds, the trade names Preen and Treflan were used. If you read the label the A.I. in each of these is trifluralin.<p>chemical name: a,a,a-trifluoro-2,6-dinitro-N,N-dipropyl-p-toluidine<br>common name: trifluralin<br>trade names: Treflan (professional product), Preen (consumer)<p>The % A.I. in Treflan is 5%; the % A.I. in Preen is 1.47%. (Consumer products are often just 10% to 30% of the concentration of commercial products, to reduce the chance of overapplication.) So in this case you would have to use 34# of Preen to equal the potency of 10# of Treflan. This will help you to calculate which is the cheaper product for you to use, and almost invariably it will be the professional product.<p>Be aware that trade names may change their A.I. Snapshot started out as a dry flowable combo of oryzalin (Surflan) and isoxaben (Gallery). It is now a granular formulation of trifluralin and isoxaben. In consumer products, there are more frequent changes.<p>--A weed is any plant growing in a place it is not wanted:<br> A dandelion is not a weed in the garden when grown for salad greens, but it is commonly considered a weed in the front lawn.<br> An oak tree would probably be a weed in the middle of an corn field, unless the farmer wants some shade to relax under.--<p>----------<br>Jim<br>South Bend, IN<br>
