Baking Soda to Control Crabgrass
Baking soda sprinkled on crabgrass has been known to kill it without causing damage to the surrounding turf.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Should I hire a company to spray my lawn?

The following are some of the main benefits to having us treat your lawn.

  1. Knowledge - We are professionals that know exactly what your lawn needs in order to look it’s best and be as healthy as possible.
  2. Convenience – We do the work so you don’t have to. Your home is your sanctuary and should be enjoyed while you are there. If you notice anything that doesn’t look good with your lawn, all it takes is a phone call.
  3. Safety – Hiring us to treat your lawn eliminates the need for you to store fertilizers, insecticides, or herbicides on your property. We treat your property with specialty equipment that is calibrated to ensure exact application rates. This not only reduces your exposure to chemicals, but also significantly reduces the chances of over application and chemical runoff, which can harm the environment.

Why should I choose Turf Tech over other lawn spraying companies?

Turf Tech is a locally owned and operated company that has been around since 1978. We are a family business and we pride ourselves on our customer service. So many companies these days, both inside and outside of our industry, focus only on their bottom line. As long as they are gaining more customers than they are losing, they are satisfied. We, on the other hand, strive to keep our customers for life. We do that by combining expert knowledge of our industry with excellent customer service.

How much does a basic lawn program cost?

Because the sizes of lawns vary so much, our prices have to vary also. Bigger lawns require more chemical and time to treat, so our prices are directly related to the area of turf needing to be treated. Having said that, our prices start out at $40 per treatment. We offer free estimates, so feel free to give us a call or e-mail us to find out exactly what your cost would be.

If I sign a contract, can I cancel it at any time? If yes, is there a penalty to do so?

You are more than welcome to cancel your service at any time (although we don’t want you to), and there is no penalty to do so. People cancel for many different reasons, whether they are moving, they know someone who started working for another company, or they aren’t happy with how their lawn looks. We want our customers to stay with us because they want to and are happy with our service, not because they are locked into a contract and can’t get out.

How many treatments will I get during the year?

Our basic lawn program consists of 7 applications per year, spaced out every 6-8 weeks. However, if you sign up for our Pre-Emergent for Crabgrass program, or for shrub treatments, that number will increase.

What can I do about Crabgrass?

Unfortunately, Asulox (the good post-emergent herbicides for Crabgrass) was re-labeled in 1999 and residential turf was excluded from the label. Because of this, there is nothing we can use to kill existing Crabgrass. There are a few herbicides that claim to work on Crabgrass, but none of them are effective enough to warrant their cost. Because of this, Turf Tech offers a Pre-Emergent for Crabgrass program consisting of 3 treatments per year in order to help prevent Crabgrass seeds from germinating in your lawn.

If you currently have Crabgrass in your lawn and want to get rid of it to re-sod the area, we can spray it with Round Up, which will also kill the turf around it. If, however, you only have a little in your lawn, you can sprinkle baking soda on it in the morning while there is dew on the grass. This is not guaranteed to work, but several people have had luck with it.

When is it safe to be on the lawn after a treatment?

Generally, it is safe to be on the lawn as soon as the chemicals dry. In the summer, that can be as soon as 30 minutes, but it may be over an hour in the cooler months.

I am only allowed to water my lawn on certain days. What happens if the treatment needs to be watered in and is done on a day I can’t water?

Although the watering restrictions may stipulate which days of the week you are allowed to run your irrigation, they contain a provision that grants you permission to run your irrigation after any treatment that requires being watered in. If, by chance, an inspector stops by due to your irrigation running, all you have to do is show them your invoice from us. If the inspector still thinks you are in the wrong, have him or her call us and we will clear things up.

Why does Turf Tech use liquid for the turf applications instead of granular?

We use liquid treatments instead of granular for several reasons.

  1. Coverage - The main reason is that it allows us to get better coverage with our chemicals. Instead of granules that are spread up to several inches apart, liquid allows the chemicals to completely cover every square inch. It is much the same principle as using a paintball gun to paint a wall instead of using a paint sprayer.
  2. Mixing – Although there are herbicides and insecticides in granular form, there is a much larger variety to choose from in the liquid form. This not only allows us to choose the best chemicals out there, instead of only the ones available in granules, but it also allows us to mix them with our fertilizer to give you the most effective treatment overall.

Ok, so liquid applications allow you to mix chemicals and offers better coverage, but does the fertilizer work as well as a granular fertilizer?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is that all of our liquid fertilizers we use on lawns start out as granules and powders when we get them. We mix the fertilizers in each truck and suspend them in the water we have in the tanks. The fertilizers we use contain the same nutrients found in the granules, but are merely in a different form. Much like an ice cube is the same as water, only in a different form.

Granular fertilizer requires water before it can be available to the plant. A plant cannot absorb a granule, so it must first be dissolved in water and then can be taken in by the plant. By mixing our fertilizer into water and spraying it onto the lawn, we are essentially taking a step out of the process. When we do our application, the fertilizer is instantly available to the plant.

This doesn’t mean that granular fertilizer doesn’t have its uses. We use truckloads of granular fertilizer each year, but each type of fertilizer has its benefits. Over the past 30 plus years, we have used many different types and variations of fertilizer. We have found that over 90% of the time, we get better results on home lawns with liquid fertilizer, so that’s what we use. However, each lawn is judged individually, so if we feel your lawn could benefit from us using a granular, we will do so.

Will the chemicals be washed away with rain?

This is a good question, and one that varies with the chemicals we apply. On average, the lawn spraying chemicals we apply are rain-fast once they dry. However, there are others that are not. For these, we have to look at their modes-of-action.

About the only chemicals we use which may not work after rain are contact chemicals. In order for these chemicals to work, they must be in contact with either the plant or insect they are trying to control. Some of these only need 30 minutes to work, while other specialty treatments may need up to 12 hours. Also, some insects such as sod webworms are only active at night and hide down in the thatch layer, or below ground. In order for the contact insecticide to reach them, it needs to be watered in.

Other chemicals we use are systemic chemicals. These chemicals travel through the plants after being absorbed, either through the leaves or through the roots. These typically are more tolerant of rain. Because they can be absorbed by the roots, they can be washed into the soil and still provide the desired results. In fact, some chemicals actually work better if they are watered in.

With that being said, most of our invoices have watering instructions on them if the chemicals require any special consideration. Along with that, we are constantly watching the radar and weather at the office, and we try to plan our treatments around the weather as best as we can. However, there are always times when a stray rain shower pops up unexpectedly in the summer months. We keep an eye on yards we’ve done treatments to and will re-treat if we don’t see results.

Are the treatments harmful to my pets?

We strive to use the safest chemicals available to us and have not had any experiences with customer’s pets getting sick. However, we advise that you keep your pets off the lawn at least until it has dried, in order to be on the safe side.

I have tunnels in my yard. Does that mean I have Mole Crickets?

Chances are if you have tunnels in your yard and have noticed them, you probably have moles (mammals) and not mole crickets (insects). They both tunnel in your yard, but mole crickets make tiny tunnels, while moles make much more noticeable tunnels. Mole Cricket tunnels will be less than an inch wide, while mole tunnels can be 3-4 inches wide. If you have mole crickets, we can treat for them and keep them from damaging your turf. However, moles require us to set traps in your lawn. Give us a call if you have moles to find out about our trapping service.