2/17/2015 8:02 PM
I worked for them in the spring of 1987 right out of Purdue when they were simply Chem-Lawn. I had 6 seasons on golf courses during high school and college before that.
I can say there is not, or at least then there wasn't, a program tailored to each individual customer. The same things were added to every tank, at the same rates, every day. There was no individual lawn analysis performed. The lawn diagnostic and analysis sheet was simply a check list that we would go through pretty quick. You could pretty much check off all the potential problems and pests and recommend the same treatment for every customer.
This was reaffirmed a few years ago at our last home that my wife and I had custom built. I installed a turf type tall fescue lawn from bare soil that was a corn field. I would allow the lawn care guys to give me an analysis and estimate every year then allow them to pitch their service. It was really fun to tell them what I did for a living and the look on their faces was priceless when showing them that they checked off that we had a blue/rye/fine fescue lawn but we really had tt tall fescue, it was less than 5 years old, and we didn't have a thatch build up yet, even though it was their recommendation to dethatch. I would use my pocket knife and cut out a plug and show them.
Back then most route managers, lawn techs, or whatever we were called, had no formal education in the business, only what they learned through their training at their respective branches. We were simply hose jockeys. It is probably a little different now and I know many former superintendents and some others with a solid turf background who own their own companies and are doing well. Their current web page implies that their employees are phD's when really it is just a few guys who write the generic programs.
Chris Thuer, CGCS, Bear Slide Golf Club, Cicero, IN