Professional vs Homeowner products for Lawn & Garden

February 4, 2011

At my home there is about 15 to 20 inches of snow outside.  This is being written from sunny 70 degree Phoenix.  Several vendors at this show are demonstrating plants that commonly grow in warm desert climates.  I am here teaching store employees how to recommend products to keep plants insect free, to kill weeds and keep landscapes weed free. 

Homeowners often feel that they can’t purchase the same products that are available to regular agriculture. This isn’t true.  Homeowners can buy many of the same chemicals used in regular agriculture.  There are some products that are dangerous and shouldn’t be used around homes for safety reasons. 

A year ago the Green Light Company, owned by Valent USA Corporation made available two products, Tree & Shrub Insect Control with Safari and Grub Control with Arena which are professional products put directly into smaller packages for consumer use.  These products were hailed by “The Bug Doc” from The Ohio State University as good news for the lawn and garden industry.  Bayer Advanced is a consumer product company wholly owned by Bayer, the conglomerate company from Germany.  Bayer has several products they have made available directly to consumers that they also sell to the professional lawn and garden industry.

Why would homeowner products be more dilute than professional products?  Sometimes they are the same but usually it just makes sense to sell dilute products or smaller packages.  A commercial product often is worth hundreds of dollarsper container, even though it may be in a quart container or smaller.  These containers may be sufficient to spray 50 or more home lawns or 5 to 20 acres.  The average home lawn is only about 5000 sq ft or 1/8 of an acre.  It makes much more sense for a consumer package to come in a package for less than $20 and only enough to cover one yard.

Happy gardening,

The Garden Doc