Hydroseeding equipment moves erosion control toward modern solutions.
By Tara Beecham
Fast becoming an increasingly eco-friendly, regulatory-pleasing form of erosion control, hydroseeding offers contractors an appealing option to secure and stabilize ground cover quickly. Pairing the right equipment with your job site can mean saving time, labor, and the soil you’re working to protect.
“When evaluating hydroseeding machines, there’s some core functionality to look for in the machine itself, such as the horsepower available to drive the pump and type of agitation, as well as logistical aspects such as size and type of mounting,” says Seth Duke, owner of Hydroseeding Pros based in Terryville, CT. “Having a well-powered machine will allow you more flexibility in longer hose runs, while mechanical agitation will provide faster mixing for greater daily output on larger jobs. The horsepower really depends on the size of the machine: midsize machines will usually need at least 13 horsepower, with 20 horsepower or more being ideal.”
Larger machines, which typically have 80-horsepower engines, offer enough power for practically every situation, he says. “For us, the size of the machine is critical. Having a midsize machine, we can scale up or scale down to virtually any size project. But, more importantly, we can pull our machine off the trailer and mount it on a flatbed truck that falls under CDL [commercial driver’s license] requirements if the need arises,” says Duke. “Ideally, you want to match the capacity of your machine to your average job and then ensure it has enough power to do that job under a variety of conditions.”
Leo Brendis, owner of Hydrosprout based in Escondido, CA, looks for power and durability when choosing equipment. Hydrosprout, which uses custom-built Bowie hydroseeding equipment, often is expected to pump material through hoses 1,200 feet and longer. Brendis explains that it is for this reason the company is required to select special hoses and machines with “lots of horsepower.”
Lease or Buy?
Another important decision hydroseeding companies face: the choice to lease or buy equipment.
“Leasing is a great way for a company with minimal or poor credit or limited cash flow to obtain equipment needed for business. Leasing can conserve a company’s cash flow to be used for other purposes, which is important,” says Arman Kluehe, president of Emerald Equipment & Supply in Portland, OR.
Banks usually require a 20% down payment, where a lease company requires only the first and last payment on the lease. A bank loan for a $40,000 piece of equipment would require $8,000 down payment; however, a lease company would only need $1,952, or two payments of $976.40 based on 48-month lease with a $1 buyout. A small company leasing its equipment would have saved $6,000, which can be utilized in other ways to keep the company running.”
Companies that lease hydroseeding equipment are typically more flexible regarding payment structure of a loan and “realize that many companies purchasing equipment are seasonal in nature and can structure the lease so you pay only during the time of year your business is making money,” he says, adding that companies may also offer the option of purchasing leased equipment when the term ends.
Purchasing equipment also has its advantages. “A company purchasing equipment from a bank can usually pay off a loan at some point without any prepayment penalties, where a leasing company usually requires you to take the lease to the end. Leasing companies make money by leasing equipment,” says Kluehe. “Tax advantages are pretty much the same for leasing or purchasing when you consider the whole term of the lease or purchase. Of course, you should consult with your tax advisor.”
Duke says his company has changed its strategy for equipment acquisition during the past year. “Commercial leasing and equipment financing companies aren’t required to comply with the same state and federal banking laws as consumer lending companies. Needless to say, there’s a lot more protection for individual consumers rather than businesses,” he says. “With leasing, there are definite tax advantages in being able to write off the equipment over a period of time, but we’ve found that owning the equipment outright provides a far greater return on our capital investment. It costs money to borrow money. Now, we’d much rather own a used piece of equipment outright rather than finance a new machine.”
For people who do purchase their equipment, maintenance issues can become a growing responsibility as machinery ages.
“For the past 20 years, we have handled all of our maintenance in house, which includes the basic greasing and lubing of the equipment to complete pump overhauls and complete machine restoration. We pride ourselves on having the ability to respond to our customers’ needs and their time expectations for completion of their project,” says Brendis, explaining what he describes as the company’s proactive approach to maintenance and repair work. “We stock every possible replacement part for our equipment. This helps in the event that we have a mechanical failure due to the severe use and daily operation we put our equipment through.”
Equipment Options
Choosing between jet agitation and paddle agitation to mix seed or a seed/mulch/fertilizer mixture through a machine’s tank is determined by the requirements of each project, as well as the materials a contractor has chosen for use.
“Anytime you use wood fiber, you should use a machine with paddle agitation,” says Brendis. “Usually the smaller 300- to 500-gallon machine will have jet agitation, which will require using paper mulch. The larger 500-gallon machines and up need paddles to help mix the wood fiber and/or paper mulch. The fact that you are mixing so much at one time helps speed up the mixing process and allows for a more uniform slurry in a shorter amount of time.”
Selecting the right equipment for your job will ultimately determine its success.
As Mountain View Trails, a nine-home, 13-acre subdivision in Bristol, CT, was being constructed in 2005, workers encountered erosion control problems at the site, which was cut into a mountainside.
“The site itself threw us a lot of complexities—severe slopes, scattered wetland areas, limited accessibility across the site—not to mention controlling stormwater runoff into environmentally sensitive areas like wetlands,” says Duke, whose company was called in to perform the erosion control. “The entire site was sloped, with limited accessibility to vehicles and equipment. On one side of the road, we had to work around 75-foot- to 100-foot-high 1:1 slopes that limited our access to the areas to be seeded. In the end, we had to run 300 feet of hose up a 1:1 slope. That tested the ability of our equipment to handle a thick slurry over the hose run, not to mention pushing it up steep elevations.”
Only the home pads and an approximately 20-foot perimeter around each one were flat ground. The site’s slopes ranged from 1:1 to 3:1, according to Duke. The company used a Kincaid Equipment Manufacturing AgiGator 700 for the project.
“We’ve found the size of the machine to be extremely versatile from project to project, as well as having enough power to pump heavier slurries of bonded fiber matrix on our more critical erosion control projects,” says Duke. “We support a variety of residential, commercial, and industrial projects across the entire state of Connecticut and into neighboring states, so this machine was a perfect fit for our logistics. Plus, we can reconfigure the machine from a tow-behind to a truck-mounted unit if the need arises.”
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Photo: Hydroseeding Pros |
| Hydroseeding along the length of a residential driveway |
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Photo: Hydroseeding Pros |
| Hydroseeding on an incline shows how well the material sticks to the soil. |
The Mountain View Trails site was hydroseeded and hydromulched. “Using a combination of bonded fiber matrix and fiber mulch blends, we could control the erosion and reduce the risks associated with the project more efficiently and effectively than with alternative methods,” says Duke.
As in the real estate industry, location is everything. Railroad companies realize that an area like Memphis, TN, can be a central location for their operations, connecting the North with the South, the East with the West. Working to meet the needs of the expanding Burns and Northern Railroad in Memphis, Reel Neet Erosion Control, based in Olive Branch, MS, was contracted to protect the slopes beside the rails from erosion. The slopes posed problems where expansion was taking place.
Bobby Thomas, president of Reel Neet, says the company used T-330 and T-400 HydroSeeders from Finn Corp., based in Fairfield, OH, to blow seed and a fiber matrix system over the 100-acre site. Reel Neet used Profile’s Flexterra fiber matrix system.
“When it dries, you pull it up,” says Thomas. “It’s like putting a temporary cover down. We’re trying to protect the slopes from the weather. We spray the stockpiles. They are very environmentally concerned, the railroad.”
The company’s approximately one-year contract means it will seed with Bermuda grass in the spring, as it did when the project began during summer 2007, and then seed with fescue and clover during the fall months. The Bermuda is used, explains Thomas, for its drought-resistant qualities, while the clover is added to the fescue for its quick growth and additional ground cover.
“It will probably come up a lot quicker than the fescue will,” he says. “You’re starting to get grass pretty quick.”
On this site, Thomas tends to avoid adding much rye in a mix because it tends to be aggressive and grows tall, requiring additional maintenance.
Driving along the roads beside the tracks, workers sprayed mixture on the approximately 40-foot-wide 3:1 slopes. In some sections, the slopes were 2:1. Thomas says the large machines were used on the 5 miles of site because of the size of the project.
“It’s a good machine,” says Thomas, who entered the business about 14 years ago. “I haven’t had a lot of problems with it. The T-330 is about seven years old.” He also uses a smaller, 1,000-gallon-tank-capacity Finn T-120 that he’s had for about 10 years. “Take care of them, do your maintenance, and you won’t have any problem with them.”
Thomas uses his machines for projects other than hydroseeding, as well. “We use ours for watering sod, washing streets,” he says. “We put dust control down with them.”
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Photo: Hydroseeding Pros |
| Hydroseeding along Highway 18 in the San Bernardino Mountains in California |
Many Projects, Multiple Uses
Hydroseeding equipment can be vital for hydration in the arid South.
Ladd’s Farm Supply in Cartersville, GA, recently used an Easy Lawn hydroseeding unit for watering and fertilizing a large swath of grass at the Atlanta airport.
“We have two machines that we use just for watering,” says Ladd Floyd, owner of Ladd’s Farm Supply. “We guaranteed keeping it watered for one month. We had 0.6 inch for one full month.
“We do that a lot with our hydroseeding equipment. It takes a few thousand gallons to keep it watered. You can add fertilizer and fertilize while you water.”
Floyd likes using the Easy Lawn machines with their stainless steel tanks because they don’t rust. The fertilizer used can cause other tanks to rust, he says.
Georgia’s climate wasn’t the only challenge Floyd faced in Cartersville. Slopes proved a challenge at a Toyo racing tire plant there. The project, which began in 2003, involved Ladd’s Farm Supply workers coordinating projects with grading and clearing companies.
“Everybody had a different job. It was 100 acres of grass. Only about 20 acres was sloped,” says Ladd, explaining there was no way to drive on the site’s slopes. “Some of them were 80 or 90 feet tall. If a slope is really steep, it’s easy to spray it on there and make it stay. It’s just an easier way of putting it up there.”
Ladd used a 950-gallon Easy Lawn C95 machine with paddle agitation for the project.
“Jet agitation works fine for smaller areas where you’re not going to put hydromulch down,” says Ladd. “Mulch will clog up the machine if you’re not careful.”
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Photo: Reel Neet |
| Preparing to complete a hydroseeding project along railroad tracks |
Workers first seeded with mulch and added lime. A Curlex wood fiber mat from American Excelsior Co. was then rolled over the top of the seeded site to prevent erosion.
Sometimes, a construction site’s slopes turn out to be even steeper than anticipated. In Meriden, CT, blasting that took place in around 2002 to establish a Target store on a mountainside went too far, and the mountaintop needed to be protected from erosion. Four Seasons Landscaping, based in Windsor, CT, was hired for the job.
“We had to put out about 400 feet of hose and had to lift that approximately 100 feet straight up, with ropes,” says Glenn French, hydroseed division manager at Four Seasons, adding that workers used two-way headsets to communicate with a man running the machine below. “We used crown vetch with birdsfoot trefoil and a little rye for quick germination. That basically stabilized the top.”
The company used a 2,500-gallon Reinco HG-20; as with the decision to hydroseed, the machine was an economical choice. “We like the Reinco because there are not a lot of moving parts, not a lot of things to break,” says French. “It’s kind of a maintenance-free machine for me.”
Workers applied a bonded fiber matrix mulch to the 3:1 to 4:1 slopes. “I had a full harness on,” says French. “The weight of hose is trying to pull you back down to the ground.”
While hydroseeding the rocky, sandy soil in that area took only about three hours, the project at the site lasted about one month.
Stabilizing roadways was essential to a January 2006 project for Hydrosprout. After a fire had blazed through a swath of land along Highway 18 on Big Bear Mountain in San Bernardino, CA, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) hired Hydrosprout for an emergency seeding job at the site. The roadways leading up the mountain in the popular snow skiing destination had been jeopardized.
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Photo: Reel Neet |
| Bermuda grass seed is applied in the spring and fescue in the fall. |
“There was no protection for the roadways,” says Brendis. “We used a seed mix that was designed by S&S Seeds, because we wanted to provide a seed mix that would enhance the plants that were already indicative of the area. The native seed mix included grasses and shrubs.”
The grasses were added to provide immediate erosion protection, and the shrubs were chosen for long-term security. “We also used an erosion control product to protect from erosion while waiting for the grasses and the shrubs to germinate, EarthGuard Fiber Matrix. It is a sprayed-on, stabilized fiber matrix. It held up really well.”
S&S Seeds of Carpinteria, CA, supplied the seed mixes. Hydrosprout and Caltrans are familiar with the company and knew it was knowledgeable, specializing in California natives, and could provide a good-quality product for the project, according to Brendis. “When you have to move that quickly,” he says, “you want people involved who can handle it.”
The company used about 40 pounds per acre and protected about 100 acres. Hydrosprout used a 3,000-gallon machine from Bowie Industries. Workers raced against time to protect the land from rainstorms, and, ironically, the availability of water was the most challenging aspect of the process. “There aren’t hydrants along the mountain roadways. We had to have water shuttled to us, and we had to deal with live traffic at the same time,” says Brendis.
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Photo: Kongsgaard Wine |
| Grasses that go dormant in the summer were used at a Napa Valley vineyard. |
A water truck was filled at the base of a mountain and drove through traffic to allow workers to fill their tanks. “We had to do it right away,” says Brendis. “I think we were up there two weeks.”
It’s important to ensure any seeds you’re planting are added to the soil during the right time of year, he points out. “It’s not good for seeds to bake out in the sun. We’re in southern California.
“Some of the strategies are trying to determine what our customers needs are. Is it erosion control? Is it long-term objectives, such as seeding native plants?” says Brendis, adding that often a client will have a biologist identify the seeds the company should use. If not, Brendis says, customers will share their needs, and the company will tailor the seed choice to those needs.
Sometimes restrictions on the land itself in sensitive areas can affect the hydroseeding practices and equipment chosen. Because of strict vineyard industry regulations in Napa County, CA, hydroseeding the 6-acre Kongsgaard Wine LLC vineyard took a great deal of “refined effort,” according to Justin Smith, owner of Justin Smith Construction in Oakville, CA.
Hydroseeding must be completed by the erosion control deadline of October 15; inspections are performed, and companies can be fined on a daily basis if their work is not complete, he explains. Pine bluegrass, three-weeks fescue, and Festuca idahoensis were the grasses chosen for the site.
“These were small, less aggressive plants that ultimately will not interfere with the vines, require less care, and will go dormant in the summertime. They restrict the development of undesirable plant populations,” says Smith. “We used a native mixture for a permanent grass cover. This is for the beneficial insects and for lack of competition with the grapevines.” The company used Rowlett, TX–based TurfMaker Corp.’s TurfMaker 550. “We used wood mulch, 2,200 pounds per acre; extensive tackifiers; and organic, time-release fertilizers.
“Traditionally, they used straw. Straw has gotten expensive. It clumps in the field. Hydroseeding is what we are looking to do in the future.”
The hydroseeding machine was selected because it could carefully navigate the space; it was hooked up to an irrigation line as a water supply.
Another sensitive environment Justin Smith Construction recently revegetated with hydroseeding is a mine reclamation site in Napa, CA, also using the TurfMaker 550. Oat Hill Mine is peppered with various types of mine waste, hard gravel, and some sandy soil.
“It’s difficult terrain: steep, remote, very little water,” says Smith of the ongoing project that is being hydroseeded with native species. “They’re the only things that will survive there.”
Coffee berries and toyon are two examples of seeds used in the company’s small, versatile hydroseeding unit.
“We do small batches repeatedly. We take the machine out there with a TrailBlazer,” says Smith of the TurfMaker 550. “It’s a small, portable, heavy-duty unit.”
It may seem like child’s play, but a 20-acre site used for athletics in Waterboro, ME, presented a variety of hydroseeding challenges. The fall 2006 project—hydroseeding four fields for a middle school, including one baseball field, one softball field, one soccer field, and one field hockey field—was contracted to RJ Grondin & Sons of Gorham, ME. The fields needed to be able to withstand children hard at play on the surfaces, according to Kip Jordan, foreman of hydroseeding operations at RJ Grondin & Sons.
“They wanted lush green athletic fields when we were done,” he says, noting the company used a blend of Kentucky bluegrass and perennial rye. “They’re probably the heartiest and last the longest.” Workers used a 70% wood/30% paper hydromulch and a 25:7:18 fertilizer. While the fields were being worked on, the student athletes were not able to use them for about one year.
“We never really watered it,” says Jordan. “We maintained it and fertilized it for one year.”
Jordan chose the machine, a Reinco HG-20, for its easy application. “You can do a large area in a minimal amount of time,” he says.
Future Trends
Trends for the future of hydroseeding appear to focus on materials used within the equipment and the manufacturing of that equipment. For example, Four Seasons Landscaping is considering a move away from bonded fiber matrix materials and is testing out different materials using cotton fibers, according to French.
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Photo: Kongsgaard Wine |
| A small, versatile machine applied wood mulch and organic fertilizer. |
Brendis has noticed an increasing number of manufacturers building hydroseeding tanks. “They are trying to make them affordable for the entry-level person or the landscape company that might use them only a few times a year,” he says. “The problem they might run into is the lack of experience and proper training, which relates directly to the end result of the project.”
Kluehe has also noticed the increase. “There seem to be more manufacturing companies trying to enter into the hydroseeding equipment industry, many of which focus on the smaller, entry-level units of 1,200 gallons or less. With the cost of steel, materials, and labor I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see hydroseeding equipment being manufactured in a foreign country and imported sometime in the future,” he says. “For the well-established, successful hydroseeding companies, the trend seems to be bigger, better, and faster, with 4,000-gallon machines now being offered by manufacturers. Machines with hydraulically driven pumps and accessories are now being offered on units as small as 500 gallons.”
Finally, the increase may ultimately be due to industry regulatory requirements.
“There’s more regulatory pressure to use hydroseeding,” says Smith. “As part of finishing specs on housing sites in Napa, they require hydroseeding. The straw and wood chips and a lot of these other options are out.
“Hydroseeding’s just more effective, and you get an end result quicker by specifying that as the erosion control standard.”
Based in Morgantown, PA, Tara Beecham writes frequently for Erosion Control.
EC - March/April 2008
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