Trying New Products

At this time of year sales representatives are out in full force introducting all sorts of new and old products at your place of business and at trade shows such as the Ontario Turfgrass Symposium and Landscape Ontario Congress. A great number of calls coming into my office at this time of year reflect this flurry of sales activity. Often what people are looking for from my office is more information on products - and preferably data collected on these products through trials at the Guelph Turfgrass Institute. Some of the time there is more information on products from research conducted elsewhere (usually the U.S.) and some of the time there is some local data that is available through the Guelph Turfgrass Institute. Quite often however, the type of information that people are looking for is not available. Where does this leave you? One excellent way to find out more about a product, to see if it does what the sales reps claim and to see if it fits into your operation, is to give it a try. I would always advise doing this on a small scale at first. Secondly, it is very important to leave (what we call in research) a check plot. What happens more often than not is that a someone will try a new product that we will call "Product B". They will apply it to an entire lawn. How then do you know what the lawn would look like without "Product B". Is the result you are seeing because it has been a good year for growing turf or is what you see due to "Product B"? Another important aspect about trying a new product it to use it in more that one location (what we call in research replicating the treatment). Is the result you are seeing from Product B because of the soil type that you are applying it to or will it always give results regardless of the soil type? Below are a few guidelines to follow when trying a new product "in house".

1. List the claims that are made buy the sales representatives. This becomes your hypothesis, ie. this product provides longer lasting nitrogen release or this product will give you a quicker green up that other products.

2. Make a list of the questions that you want to be able to answer as a result of trying the product, ie. does it give me a dark green colour that lasts longer than the fertilizer that I am currently using or does it give me a quicker green up that the product that I am currently using?

3. Write down how you can answer these questions. I currently fertilizer every month with a product. If I try this new, longer lasting product I should look at it at 4 weeks and compare it with my current product. I should also leave it without another fertilizer application for 5,6,and 7 weeks and compare it with my regularly fertilized lawn (the check). For a product such as a fertilizer with iron you could apply the fertilizer with and without iron side by side. Look at them daily over two weeks and see which one greens up most quickly.

4. Determine what treatment the check plot will get. In some instances the check plot will get no treatment at all or else it will get the regular treatment. In the case of the fertilizer with iron, the check should get the same fertilizer but without the iron. There should always be a check plot or else no valid comparisons can be made and it is difficult to evaluate if the new product is working. One good way of creating a check plot is to have a piece of plastic that is roughly 1m x 2m and put this over the turf that you do not want to treat.

5. Determine where you will try the new product. One good bet is your own lawn. I usually recommend the back yard over the front yard. It might not be good for business to have half your lawn a dark green and other half a light green. Another advantage of using your own lawn is that you should be able to look at it frequently. Even during your busiest season you should be at home.

Related Links

• Ontario Turfgrass Symposium
• Landscape Ontario Congress
• Guelph Turfgrass Institute

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