A FRESH LOOK AT
FERTIGATION
It’s time for contractors to take another look
at the economic and environmental benefits
of supplying nutrients to living landscapes.
BY RON HALL EDITOR-AT-LARGE
FERTIGATION, THE PRACTICE of supplying nutrients to plants through
irrigation, is going mainstream with
landscape maintenance contractors.
Economic, environmental and aesthetic
considerations are converging to put it
in the property maintenance spotlight.
The higher costs of labor, granular
fertilizers and, in many regions of the
country, irrigation water, are prompting contractors to investigate fertigation. They’re following the path that
many golf course superintendents and
institutional grounds managers took a
generation earlier, finding fertigation
to be a more efficient way to create
healthy, attractive landscapes.
“Until recently, landscape maintenance contractors hadn’t recognized the
huge potential of fertigation for their
businesses,” says Michael Chaplinsky, Turf Feeding Systems, Houston.
“It’s getting their attention now that
everybody in the industry is looking to
address landscape quality issues while
reducing inputs — in particular fertilizers and pesticides. Contractors are
looking for ways to increase efficiency,
too. I’m getting more calls every day
from large landscape maintenance
companies and irrigators.”
required to apply it — is one of several
drivers for the newfound interest in
the practice of delivering nutrients to
turfgrass with irrigation water. Contractors maintaining sizable properties
can save considerable expense and get
better results by “fertigating” the common areas (a streetscape in an HOA,
for example) and freeing up manpower
for the smaller areas of a property that
require more intensive maintenance.
“It’s a huge labor saver for the
contractor, especially on large commercial properties,” adds Darin A. Brasch,
national sales manager for EZ Flo, a
Sewickley, PA-based fertigation equipment supplier. “For example, it was
taking a company in San Diego four
days using seven employees to feed one
commercial property. One employee
can feed 20 properties in a single day
with fertigation. Basically, he just travels
to the sites and fills the tanks.”
Better water
Another consideration is environmental
as well as economic: the growing concern over the availability, quality and
cost of fresh water. All three factors are
addressed by fertigation, say proponents of the practice.
PHOTO COURTESY: STATE FARM DUPONT OPERATIONS CENTER
Labor saver
Chaplinsky, whose company has been
supplying fertigation equipment
worldwide for more than 20 years, says
simple economics — the rise in the cost
of dry fertilizer and the cost of labor
Bob Knapp and
Nadja Galadram
see the benefits
of fertigation.
