Pesticide Herbicide and Fertilizer License

[afpettijohns]

I live in Orange County California and want to know some ins and outs of getting licensed to spray chems. How difficult it is? What books I need? Where do I apply for the license and such.

[cruzgardening]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by afpettijohns I live in Orange County California and want to know some ins and outs of getting licensed to spray chems. How difficult it is? What books I need? Where do I apply for the license and such. hey there i live in Los Angeles area and it would be wise to check with the State of California license and permit sites you will see one under pesticides license you need to take a few classes and renew it often but i think its not worth it. I stoped offering the service to my clients since it takes to much time and the bigger companies in my area charge $25 for a 4,000 sq ft to spray it and another $20 to come back every 2-3 months... like i said not worth it for me but it might be for you.

[Steve]

Check these sites out and keep us posted on what you decide to do.

http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/fflders/fertilizer.html

http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/license/liccert.htm

http://www.pesticideguides.com/

[afpettijohns]

Originally Posted by cruzgardening

hey there i live in Los Angeles area and it would be wise to check with the State of California license and permit sites you will see one under pesticides license you need to take a few classes and renew it often but i think its not worth it. I stoped offering the service to my clients since it takes to much time and the bigger companies in my area charge $25 for a 4,000 sq ft to spray it and another $20 to come back every 2-3 months... like i said not worth it for me but it might be for you.

I plan on doing this for my regular customers a few times a year for the price of materials only. I feel that it not only shows that I'm interested in taking care of there landscape but it will also make there grass a little greener, making the neighbors jealous. Yard signs maybe?

Thanks for the insight.

[cruzgardening]

Originally Posted by afpettijohns

I plan on doing this for my regular customers a few times a year for the price of materials only. I feel that it not only shows that I'm interested in taking care of there landscape but it will also make there grass a little greener, making the neighbors jealous. Yard signs maybe?

Thanks for the insight.

ahh when you said chemicals i was thinking about pesticides and herbicides, I personally have not looked into getting a fertilizing license but only 4 of my costumers want synthetic fertilizers most want the all natural approach and the ones who wanted the synthetic fertilizer i told them i would fertilize with it only once a year.

it makes lots of sense for you to fertilize with synthetic fertilizers but let me tell you a bit about what i do maybe you will think about leaving the chemicals and do what i do.

i have several accounts which i got last year, but as soon as i got them i used a soil mixture with composted leafs i get 1 cubic yard of this stuff for about $18 and if you see their lawns right now they look amazing, first my costumer who have tall-fescue the color got deeper my costumers with St Augustin grass, which are the majority of them, their grass greened up already before all the other neighbors with the same grass and people with Bermuda grass are already looking at huge differences right now just with the compost, so hope this helps you save a couple bucks a year going natural


P.S. the account who get synthetic fertilizer i sell them the all natural approach since i am the one cutting their lawn, i know what the grass needs and i explain it to them and so far they have followed my advice a client of mine asked me not to use the Compost and to use more fertilizer i explain to him how he can do it himself but taht i would only use synthetic fertilizer once a year at most.

[Steve]

i have several accounts which i got last year, but as soon as i got them i used a soil mixture with composted leafs i get 1 cubic yard of this stuff for about $18 and if you see their lawns right now they look amazing

Do you perform any soil tests before you begin adding soil mixtures to it or no? How do you know when to do this and when not to?

[cruzgardening]

Originally Posted by Steve

Do you perform any soil tests before you begin adding soil mixtures to it or no? How do you know when to do this and when not to?

i did soil test to only 2 of my accounts because their grass looked bad a full test is $100 i let the client take care of it since it would be more expensive for them if i took the samples and took it to the lab. The rest of the homes i just asked when the last time they fertilized their lawn and they said they could not remember and i put the mixture in with no test i do check what type of soil they have if their soil is more clay i add more sand to the mix if their soil is sandy i add more compost and so on. checking for what type of soil they have is easy i just test it on a clear jar...