The following article is an excerpt from Total Landscape Care's web site. The full article is available here.
Enhanced efficiency fertilizers are proving their value in environmentally sensitive areas and beyond.
Maryland recently passed into law what some are calling one of the toughest measures in the country regulating the use of lawn fertilizer, limiting both the content and application of fertilizer for urban and suburban areas. With a precedent now in place, other states are looking to follow suit, and it could mean a whole new way of doing business for turf managers. While the new law places limitations on traditional fertilizer use, it does make special allowances for coated fertilizer products. This has many lawncare professionals taking a serious look at controlled-release products as a way to save their business and stay in compliance with the new regulations. Of note is the fact it was a lawncare professional who helped convince Maryland lawmakers that one blanket law for fertilizers would not accurately address the objective of decreasing excess nitrogen levels in turf. Ken Mays, president of Scientific Plant Service, a lawncare company that services Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, lobbied the Chesapeake Bay Commission, presenting research demonstrating that controlled-release fertilizers provide nitrogen on an as-needed basis in turf. Perhaps the most persuasive piece of research considered by the Commission was this: During the course of a year, if you use a product with a polymer coating (controlled release), you’ll end up applying up to 40 percent less nitrogen to turf compared to what you would with traditional products — getting fertilizer where it needs to be and, more importantly, preventing it from going where it shouldn’t. While the outcome of the Maryland legislation was favorable for controlled-release fertilizers, manufacturers of coated products are gearing up to educate the market about the environmental benefits of using these products, especially now that fertilizer use in general has come under more scrutiny. Pennsylvania is expected to be the next state to enact a law similar to Maryland, and Florida is trying to sew up its patchwork of locally enacted fertilizer restrictions. Currently, counties can specify application rates.
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