Liquid or granular residential lawn care?

[ToadHill]

I've owned a tree and lawn care business for the last 5 years, and I'm also a Master Gardener. As mentioned before it will take about 3 bags of granular product to fertilize or controll weeds per acre.
At a cost of $30 per bag for weed control that's about $90 per acre or $270 per application. If you want to controll weeds you will need 2 applications per year.
Fertilizer in granular form is about $15 per bag, or $45 per acre again about $140 per application.
The liquid weed control will cost about $65 for a 2.5 gallon container, most likely 2-4D. This can be mixed at about 2 oz per gallon of water. 128 oz per gal, at 2 oz per gal mix= 64 gal of water mix for each gal of weed control or 160 gal of mix per container. You need only a drop on the weed leaf to kill the plant so you can use a very light application, but keep the nozzels low and spray on a calm day.
The main product that keeps the lawn green is nitrogen, (urea) and liquid N can be purchased quite inexpensively. It can be mixed with the weed control to reduce the number of times you have to work on the lawn.
The most important fertilization for the lawn is in the fall, as the roots will store the nutrients for the winter and give it a good start the next spring. So with a 3 acre lawn I'd use granular fert only in the fall. Research at Cornell has shown that than a lawn can not use more than 3 lbs of N per 1000 sq ft. any more than that and your wasting your money.
Use a mulching mower, or mow the lawn and leave the cuttings to decompose and fertilize the lawn.
Most importantly set your mower at 3 to 3.5 inches. Most weed seeds need light to germinate and the longer grass blades keep the sunlight from getting to the weed seeds.

 

[dholly]

Appreciate the professional advice. Another Q. for you: if I use 2,4D for broadleaf control but find I need to add Banvel (dicamba) for clover control, I've read only 2,4D can be used in the drip line of trees but dicamba migrates too much and could harm your trees. Any truth? Thanks.

 

[kenmac]

I performed my own weed & feed control for approx 2 yrs. It was costing me approx $ 110.00 per application + my time /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. I called a national lawn care co. & got an est. They now perform the same service I was performing. If the weeds don't die, they return at no charge & retreat.. The price is $ 44.00 per application . /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[ToadHill]

Clover is hard to control, and it fixes nitrogen in the soil so, it is good for a lawn to have clover in it. Some of my customers who who want organic lawns have clover planted because of the N added to the soil.
I've not seen trees harmed by dicamba, maybe with overuse, but I;ve found that most broadleaf weed controls will take care of clover with regular application.

 

[bdog]

Arthurb,

I would not worry about wasting your house water by spraying your 3 acres. Most sprays work well with 10-20 gallons per acre and you are only going to spray a couple times a year so estimate 90 gallons a year. I just did a quick google search and an average american home of 4 uses 243 gallons of water a day.

 

[dholly]

kenmac - we used a very well-know, national lawn care service at our last home for 6 years. You are 100% correct... it was easy, priced competitively vs. DIY and, if needed, they would come back. It was also the worst-looking lawn in the area and a 6-year exercise in frustration. Missed appointments (they would show up unannounced and apply even though we were on their 'call ahead' scheduling because we had 3 young kids and 3 dogs), missed pre-emergent applications (that typically ended up being re-scheduled and applied after the effective timing), burnt-out lawns after fertilizer applications in drought conditions, billing errors, etc. It was just a ridiculous, long-standing comedy of errors. I'm sure I ended up paying for only half of the service, probably shouldn't have paid for any based on the results. At this point, I am willing to spend time doing it myself, particularly if I can do it for less with results. I may be singing a different tune next year but I'm going to give it a go.

 

[Panache]

If you are going to build your own boom consider some of the boomless nozzles. I can do a 10' pass with nothing sticking past the sides of my ranger. 1 nozzle at each rear corner. It puts out 7 gal per acre at 5 mph.

 

[dholly]

Jeff - I am sure boomless would cut time in the open lawn areas, but I have lots of planting beds and curved borders that I need to get right up next to. Maybe unfounded fears, but I'm a litte nervous about drift and complete coverage in the 'tight' areas with boomless nozzles. Do you have notable control problems when trying to get up next to borders?

 

[kenmac]

Dholly, sorry to hear that you had that problem . There are several companies here that also perform those services so, if they give me any problems (not returning etc,) I will put them on notice that they can & will be replaced as I don't have a contract with them & can change to another company at any time. I've been using them 2yrs. now & so far it's been good.

 

[jeffinsgf]

I spent most of yesterday spraying different types of weed control on my lawn, so I thought I might pass on some personal experience with regard to booms, spray vs. spread, etc.

I have close to an acre that is irrigated lawn and another 3 acres that is planted in prairie. I used my PTO roller pump and 55 gallon boom sprayer to kill everything on the 4 acres last summer. Yesterday I sprayed Bayer "Revolver" on the lawn to kill the volunteer fescue clumps and 2-4-D for broadleaf control. I agree with someone earlier in the thread that sprays are better for herbicide application and spreading granuals is better for fertilizing. I used one application of spray fertilizer last year and was not impressed. Yet, when I have used granular weed control products, I have not seen the same results I get with the sprayer.

I think that whether you use a boom or boomless sprayer that you really have to watch overspray. I have a boom and a hand held gun. I use the gun close to the house and around desirable plants, then use the boom in the wide open areas. I put off yesterday's applications for almost a week waiting for a nearly windless day.

I have a cheapy Agri-Fab broadcast spreader that I tow behind my little JD 455 for seeding and fertilizing and the sprayer with roller pump goes on my 4410.