Fertilizers and Pesticides
Is a Dry Fertilizer Program better than A Liquid?
In our Opinion YES!
Liquid fertilizers by design are very soluble and the nutrients are suspended in water. In many cases they can easily be washed away before the plant can use them.
Dry Fertilizers by design require moisture to activate, and the slow release type will release the nutrients over an 8 -10 week period.
Dry Fertilizers are also SAFER. Once applied the granules fall into the grass, making them inaccessible to pets and children.
Liquid Fertilizers tend to coat a lawn like paint, and until rainfall or other watering the fertilizers could be picked up by children or eaten by pets.
Liquid Fertilizer Programs always contain a weed control in the mix.
With our Dry Fertilizer Program, we can eliminate the weed control portion if the customer wishes.
Is there really a difference in Fertilizer Programs?
In our Opinion YES!
The 1st question you should ask yourself is this: If Company X is applying the recommended nutrients in 6-7 applications, and Earth Care can do it in 4. Why am I paying for 6-7 applications?
Isn’t it obvious? more visits + less material applied per visit = greater cost to the customer!!
Other programs typically use very little slow release, therefore they are at your home every month! This saves them a lot of money, because the slow release products that we use are 30-40% more expensive than the fast release products Company X uses. They may still be supplying the recommended amount of nutrients to your lawn, but you're paying more for the additional labor it takes to applying the product.
Are insect controls necessary?
In our opinion YES, but only when there is an indication of an insect problem.
Earth Care’s Program is designed to give your lawn the nutrients it needs to be healthy.
Many of our Competitors push the fact that they include an insect control for Grubs or other potential pests. It is our opinion that these materials applied over ones lawn on a regular basis actually does more harm than good.
The reason is quite simple: Insect Controls for the most part are not selective. When one applies an insect control – it will kill the bad insect, but IT WILL ALSO KILL THE GOOD!
The good guys unfortunately never recover as fast as the bad, and often a lawn on a steady diet of insect control has few good guys to fight the bad, because the good guys have been wiped out! This basically makes your lawn addicted to insect controls. And like all addictions, over time more is required for the same effect to occur. Eventually the bad guys develop a resistance and you'll be looking for another, possibly stronger pesticide.
In any lawn or garden the ecosystem is in a delicate balance. The bad guys move in, and it usually takes the good guys a little time to counter their attack. In agriculture and lawn care this is called a threshold. At some point if the bad guys are winning due to environmental conditions that favor them, some form of control will be required. Even then your whole yard may not require a control. Insects, like people, favor certain environmental conditions. Warm, dry areas attract grubs, shady areas do not. At Earth Care we will apply the control only when and where it is needed.