Professionals discuss their choices in tank size, pumps, and agitators.
Ryan Goff, owner of A Cut Above Landscaping, finds himself in a lot of “precarious areas” when doing seasonal hydroseeding. Therefore, he favors a hydroseeding machine that will allow him easy access in tight spots.
To that end, his company—a full-service landscaping company with nine employees in Horseheads, NY—uses the Easy Lawn Landscaper Series L90, which is available skid or trailer mounted. It has a 1,000-gallon tank and features an electric mulch grinder that can process a bale of mulch every 15 to 20 seconds. The top agitation jet under the grinder wets down the mulch and mixes it into the slurry.
“The advantages are there are fewer mechanical parts to go wrong and it’s lighter. It’s been a good machine for us. We use a lot of wood in it and it’s run through fairly well,” Goff says.
He also uses Easy Lawn’s products, which include Hytac II, “the Blue Goo”; Hydrolizer (fertilizer); Hydrostimulant (biostimulant); Hycal (lime); Hygel (co-polymer); Hynet (hydroseeding fiber); Hygreen (dye); and Hycover (mulch). He says he finds the tackifier is easy to mix and effective on heavy slopes.
His company has done highway hydroseeding, using Hycover Easy Pour pelleted mulch, which he finds quicker to use with a jet agitation machine. “There are fewer clogs,” he notes.
Goff has had to deal with many highway restrictions regarding the weight he’s allowed to haul and ensuring the hydroseeding machine fits within his state’s load restrictions. “With the larger machines, you have to purchase larger, more heavy-duty trucks,” he says. “Just about any truck we have in our service can haul this tank.”
In addition to its size, another reason Goff favors the L90 is its ability to run both the turret and hose at the same time, “which is a huge advantage, especially when you are trying to unload the tank quickly and efficiently,” he notes.
The hydroseeding machine’s tank offers efficiency, says Goff. “We do residential and commercial applications. An average yard is typically an acre or less, so with this—depending on your fill area—you can do four tanks in two hours.”
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Photo: Finn |
| Ensuring the hydroseeding material sticks is a tough job on steep slopes. |
Goff says if there is ever a clog with the hydroseeding machine, it is easy to clean it out. The hoses have a cleanout hooked up directly to the hydroseeding machine. “You can flush out your hoses directly off the water source, which is helpful if the machine is sitting overnight or for a couple of days and there’s some product left in the hose—you can flush it right back into the tank.”
He also appreciates the relationship he has with the vendor when he needs a quick response time for parts, because he can’t afford downtime in his business. Goff purchases hydroseeding machines rather than leases them and tries to update his company’s equipment every two to three years.
“The reason is simply for the warranty,” he says. “The only reason we would ever consider changing the size of this machine is because we are getting into more highway work and larger projects like landfills—projects where you need more wood mulch outflow. Jet agitation machines don’t take the wood as well as the mechanical to allow you to mix the wood better. That’s the only drawback—the fact you can’t use 100% wood consistently through the jet agitators, where it’s expected out on highway or other state jobs.”
Working Under a Deadline
Brian Anderson, director of turf grass management for Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington, PA, found himself with a tight deadline two years ago when his golf course was hydroseeding a 12-acre driving range it had constructed.
“We had six weeks to get it grown in, because we had the PGA guys coming in and this was the practice facility we were going to use,” Anderson says.
Another challenge: slopes of 2:1 and 3:1. “We were looking at some sort of product we could use that would bind to the soil, and it was such a slope, we needed it to stick,” he says.
He chose Finn Corp.’s HydroMax, HydroGel, and StikPlus, as well fiber mulch for the application. “The nice thing about the products was that we hydroseeded a half-acre shot or a quarter-acre shot, depending on the slopes and elevation, and adjusting to what we were going to do,” he notes. “What was interesting with this material was that we shot it on mixed with the seed and fertilizer, and it got hard as a rock. It bonded to the soil particles.”
The golf course’s hydroseeding work is done by a subcontractor with a 1,500-gallon truck-mounted Finn T170 HydroSeeder. As for choosing the size of the hydroseeding machine, Anderson says he looked to get “the biggest bang for our buck. We could get the biggest area done in the least amount of time with the least amount of damage done to the surface of the prepared area prior to seeding it.
“We were in such a time crunch because we weren’t filling onsite. We were filling offsite and had to physically drive back to our facility, reload the material, and come back to the site and do it again. It was tough. We were doing about 2 acres a day over five days.”
The hydroseeding machine used for the job has paddle agitation. “When you put the material in the tank, it’s breaking it up and adding it slowly to the water mixture. You’re getting enough water into there to know when you are adding your tackifier and your bales of mulch that there’s going to be enough water and your hoses won’t get plugged up,” he explains.
Anderson says he’s used 1,000-gallon machines in the past to work on roadsides and other areas that cannot accommodate a large truck or 2,000-gallon machine.
The Woodlands Resort hydroseeding job was put to the test when halfway through the second day, the area got a heavy dose of rain. “We were told as long as it’s dry, it would work, and it did dry,” Anderson says. “The water from the thunderstorm ran across the top and never moved any of the seed off the project.”
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Photo: Kincaid Equipment |
| Varied slopes can be challenging for hydroseeding projects. |
The project was a combined effort among the construction company, the hydroseeding subcontractor, and Anderson as a general contractor. “We came up with the amount of material to put in a 10,000-square-foot shot or a 20,000-square-foot shot, depending on elevation, and we worked hand in hand to make it happen,” says Anderson.
He says workers shot from the platform as well as hosed a lot of the product.
“We had germination of the annual rye in about five days and we were mowing our slopes and everything in a month after seeding,” he adds.
The biggest challenges of the project proved to be the slopes, the time frame, and ensuring the material would stick where it needed to, he says. Another challenge was getting the hydroseeding machine in and out of the area.
“I would flag out 10,000 or 20,000 square feet, depending on the slopes, and they would have to put the tank out on that property. Everything worked great,” he says. “The combination of a good applicator and good product really helped us to get further along.”
Tackling Steep Terrain From Land and Air
Access and water are the two most challenging factors in any hydroseeding job, points out Barry Cook, owner of Northwest Hydro-Mulchers in Boring, OR. The company’s business focus is primarily in hydroseeding. “Those two components drive time and productivity,” Cook says.
To that end, Northwest Hydro-Mulchers uses hydroseeding machines that will deliver. The company’s equipment includes two Bowie Victor 1100 Hydromulchers—a trailer-mounted and gooseneck unit—and a skid-mounted Finn T170 HydroSeeder. The gooseneck rigs are pulled with a four-wheel-drive C5500 GMC and the skid mount is on a tandem-axle semi truck. Cook uses guar-based Super Tack tackifier from Rantec Corp.
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Photo: Easy Lawn |
| The two most critical aspects of hydroseeding are access and water. |
Northwest Hydro-Mulchers faced some “extremely difficult” site conditions in a recent project of 7.5 miles of new highway construction over the coastal range in Oregon along US 20. The slopes covered a wide range and were steep and long, and the project was done late in the season.
“The combination of steep terrain and scarce water sources made that one difficult,” Cook notes.
The company employed aerial seeding, staging the Finn unit at the high point of the site next to a manmade reservoir. Employees filled the slurry into the hydroseeding unit at the water source.
The general contractor excavated a landing pad, which Northwest Hydro-Mulchers treated with dust suppressant. Crews then pumped about a hundred feet away from the stationary hydroseeding machine to a helicopter to fill it for the aerial application.
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Photo: Reinco |
| Hydroseeding machines provide multiple angles depending on project requirements. |
After 25 years in the business, Cook has focused on the features of hydroseeding equipment that are most important for his company’s work. He favors mounted flush tanks and insists on them when ordering new machines. He likes the Finn’s tower gun placement, giving it high marks for allowing “excellent” directional application.
“It’s mounted on the corner of the machine, so we can shoot forward as we are traveling forward to do highway roadside or slope work. It’s easier to get better, more consistent coverage without shadowing,” he says.
An inspector typically is situated behind the machine on the shoulder of the highway, far enough back to avoid being hit by the spray from the hydroseeding machine, Cook notes. “With one of our machines, we shoot at a 90-degree angle to the direction we are traveling up the slope and behind us, and, depending on what the surface conditions are like on the slope, he’s got a view that’s going to create shadowing for him.
“With the Finn, we can shoot forward because of the tower placement. It allows us to remove that shadow effect for anyone trailing us for inspection purposes. We’re talking 2 or 3 feet, but it allows us a great degree of flexibility in the application.”
Cook says he favors hydraulic-driven paddle agitation because there is less maintenance involved. He also prefers centrifugal pumps.
“There will be people who will argue with me and say you can pump more material with a gear-driven pump through a hose than with a centrifugal pump,” Cook says. “I haven’t found that to be the case.
“The reason is that life on a gear-driven pump historically has been very short. Gears wear out. The old rubber gears are notorious for being able to knock you over day one and two; by day three you are gaining on them; and three weeks down the road, you’re wondering where all the pressure has gone.”
Like the agitation, it comes down to maintenance and reliability, Cook says. “Our centrifugal pumps run a long time without any issues or significant maintenance,” he says.
Larger Tanks, Less Refilling
Tank size is key to a successful hydroseeding job, says Kip Jordan.
He is a supervisor for R.J. Grondin & Sons in Gorham, ME. His company does mostly hydroseeding work year-round and employs about 170 people. The company’s focus is on commercial site work and roadwork.
For those types of projects, R.J. Grondin & Sons uses a truck-mounted Reinco HG-20GX Hydrograsser with jet agitation. The unit has 2,000 working gallons.
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Photo: Reinco |
| Tank size varies depending on the hydroseeding job at hand. |
“You’ve got to leave room for materials to put in there,” Jordan notes. “That’s one thing I like. I had a smaller one before this one—a 1,500-gallon—and you keep filling up the smaller tanks.
“Because we do mostly bigger road jobs and site jobs with a bigger land area to cover, the tank size is important. Most smaller landscape companies have smaller tanks for the smaller lawns or house lots, but we’re set for bigger sites than that.”
Time is money, Jordan points out. “You don’t want to be running back and forth to a pond or a place to fill up every 10 minutes, because it usually takes about an hour to spray on a load of material, so if you can get that time to a minimum, you’re saving money,” he says.
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Photo: Finn |
| Truck preference depends on the job. Smaller trucks are more maneuverable, but big tanks need less refilling. |
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Photo: Finn |
Jordan has encountered many difficult jobs, such as landfills. Athletic fields are a particular challenge. “Everybody wants to have nice grass to play on, and you’ve got to do a nice job,” he says. “You’re talking probably 20 acres of seeding and you can handle that in a couple days’ work.”
R.J. Grondin & Sons does not replace its hydroseeding equipment often, Jordan notes. “It lasts pretty well,” he says. “We get the largest Reinco makes, so we wouldn’t need anything larger, but we do like the features they have on the Reinco.”
Jordan says the system enables workers to get into hard-to-reach places. While smaller units, such as 700- or 1,000-gallon machines, can provide even greater access, Jordan says he’s done enough hydroseeding to know what’s needed for a particular job and this particular unit is “pretty versatile.
“We can put on 400 feet of hose if it’s that long a distance from where you can get your truck, but there have been very few times we had to do that,” Jordan says. “With a long slope, you either have to build a road into it, find someplace where you can get access to it, or do it in stages. If you know you are going to be that far away from it, you might be able to do it in stages and get to it a little easier before access is closed off.”
Working Faster
Challenging jobs are an everyday occurrence for Shane Ross, owner of First Impression Landscaping in Westminster, MD, a company of five employees. Hydroseeding comprises about 60% of his company’s business, which is done seasonally.
To that end, he needs a hydroseeding machine that can handle the challenge. His company owns Kincaid Equipment Manufacturing’s AgiGator Contractor Series 900 hydroseeding machine. Ross likes trailer-mounted units because it means his employees do not have to have a commercial driver’s license to operate them.
The Kincaid has paddle agitation, which Ross prefers. “There’s nothing wrong with jet agitation; it’s just that it takes forever for it to blend the mulch up,” he says. “The paddle operation seems to bust it up better than the hydraulic ones. It pulverizes it. It’s pretty impressive.” And for people like Ross, that saves time and money.
“As fast as I can load the machine and blend it up, I can be spraying at the same time—it’s that fast,” he says.
First Impression Landscaping does a lot of sediment pond work. Ross finds he often encounters 1:1 slopes on the job. To address that challenge, he uses a tackifier and wood mulch in the Kincaid machine.
“We usually use a paper mulch, but with some of this sediment pond work, we use wood and spray it down on that hill. It held. The main thing with the slurry is it can pump down. With the jet machine, you can only mix a certain amount of bales in the machine. With the way the pump is designed on this machine, you can continually add to it.
“The steeper the hill is, the more mulch you want to get on it,” Ross adds. “You need that machine to be able to handle a number of bales. For running a heavy slurry through it, this machine does the job.”
In the event there is downtime because of an equipment failure, Ross likes the fact he has a good relationship with Kincaid so that problems are rectified immediately. “It’s always been minor difficulties, but with them being as far away from us as they are, they’ve always come through,” he notes. He also likes that he can get most of the parts locally and does not need to buy them directly from Kincaid.
Choosing Equipment to Match the Job
Keith Milligan’s hydroseeding company assesses a situation when determining what size hydroseeding units to use. “If we can run a lot of hose, we’ll use the larger trucks,” he says. “The smaller trucks are more universal. We have used old military trucks with six-wheel drive. Our smaller truck—the 1,100-gallon—has super singles, which means they don’t have dual wheels like you see on tractor-trailers, so you don’t have the mud that loads up between the tires. If we are going to go off the road, we’ll take that truck.”
Milligan is a manager for the Ken Chwal Hydroseeding Co. in Pipersville, PA. The majority of the company’s work is in residential hydroseeding.
The company’s work is seasonal. There are up to 30 employees working during the height of the season.
Among its equipment, the company has two large truck-mounted Bowie hydroseeding units, the Victor 1100 and the Imperial 1500. The company uses inch-and-a-half soft hose for application.
Milligan says the biggest challenge his company faces in hydroseeding is off-road work or a steep hillside. To successfully address those, the company has to combine erosion control matting with bonded fiber matrix. “We’ve had a good success rate with that,” Milligan notes.
The company uses Applegate’s Hydro-Lok, a cellulose hydroseeding mulch. “It comes as a dyed material, so as you spray that onto lawn areas, it will be green to simulate existing grass,” Milligan says. “We’ve had great success with it and have a great working relationship with the company.”
Another hydroseeding challenge Milligan’s company faces is the difficulties encountered during the rainy season, especially with residential work. “A lot of times, you are trying to suit the builder’s needs as far as making sure the settlement dates happen on time so the homeowner gets in, so in a rainy season you are working longer hours and possibly weekends in order to meet deadlines,” Milligan says.
The company replaces the hydroseeding trucks every seven or eight years to keep pace with changing technology and reduce maintenance costs.
Milligan predicts hydroseeding will continue to “blossom” in the future. “Everybody is concerned about water runoff practices, so any type of soil stabilization that can be done is obviously going to be the way of the future,” he says.
Carol Brzozowski is a journalist in Coral Springs, FL. EC - May 2007
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