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When Nathan Nordstedt, Ph.D., tells landscape and lawn care pros that he understands their problems and challenges, he’s not just telling them what they want to hear. He’s literally walked in their shoes before.
During his relatively short time in the green industry, Nordstedt — technical services manager for Quali-Pro, a division of Control Solutions Inc. — has worked in about as many facets of the business as you can imagine.
“I’ve had a lot of really cool, hands-on experiences in the green industry, everything you’d run into at a landscaping company,” Nordstedt explains. “I’ve done production, hardscaping, scheduling, ordering… all of that. I even owned and operated a greenhouse nursery and landscaping company for about five years.”
Even with those broad-based experiences on the operations side of the industry, Nordstedt felt a calling to do more with his love of plants and flowers that first bloomed as a child helping his grandmother tend to her large home garden. And the degree in horticulture he earned from Kansas State University gave him his first taste of what would help him eventually answer that calling.
“I really liked working with plants, but I wasn’t sure that working directly in production was where my passion was. So, I sort of developed this love of research,” Nordstedt says. “But if you want to stay in research, usually you have to get another degree for that.”
Back to school
So that’s what he did. Nordstedt earned his Ph.D. in horticulture from Ohio State University, focusing his studies on plant pathology, plant physiology and plant stress responses. Following graduation, he worked for a few years in a research and development role for a hydroponic vegetable farm but still felt a little something was missing.
“One of the best parts about grad school was interacting with landscapers and greenhouse operators and really having that connection between my research and the end-user, just making a meaningful impact,” Nordstedt says. “I missed that.”
He soon found that best-of-both-worlds balance on the manufacturing side of the industry in technical manager roles. And Nordstedt calls his current post with Quali-Pro “one of the best jobs in the industry” because it allows him to flex a variety of muscles in a rewarding way.
“I’m paid to help people and come up with cool stuff,” he says. “It’s my job to support end-users in the field, provide training materials and answer any sort of questions they might have about products or anything on the turf and ornamental side. I’m sort of the go-to person for any of that.
“But it’s also up to me to look at what trends are going on, what sort of problems people are facing and take that directly to our product development team and see what we can make a reality. I’m challenged with being the champion for those projects and making sure we can take it from an idea all the way to a product launch.”
Making the connection
The ways in which Nordstedt interacts with professionals in the field take many different forms, he says.
Some end-users will reach out to him directly, either by email or through an online submission form on Quali-Pro’s website. The company’s sales team will sometimes connect customers with him or just share questions they’ve been asked during their travels. And Nordstedt is a frequent speaker at industry association events, which always opens the door to more conversations.
“Those are always a lot of fun, because I get the opportunity to sort of have a group of folks in front of me, whether it’s the LCOs, the landscape crowd or the golf crowd,” he says. “And I always end my talks with my contact information, just so they know I’m always a text, phone call or email away.”
In addition to being helpful on an individual level, Nordstedt says his interactions with green industry pros also have a broader benefit of fueling the creativity and problem-solving of the Quali-Pro team as they consider new product development.
“We could all sit in a box and sort of come up with products that we think are good ideas, but the best products are ones that are coming from end-users who are sharing with us the things they’re really struggling with, the new issues they’re facing,” Nordstedt says. “When I get that feedback, I can go back to our team and say, ‘OK, everyone, we need to come up with a solution for this or that.
“You can’t solve a problem unless you know it exists, and those relationships with the end-users are how we do that.”
Current events
So, what pain points have landscape and lawn care pros been sharing with Nordstedt and the Quali-Pro team — taking into consideration all the usual variances because of weather, regional differences, etc. — most recently? Annual bluegrass weevil (ABW) tops the list, Nordstedt says.
“One of the biggest things we’re seeing… is that ABW is quickly spreading. It’s in a lot more states than we realize,” he says. “We always thought of it as a Northeast or Mid-Atlantic pest, but we’re seeing quite a bit of it spread into the Midwest. So, if you manage turfgrass systems where ABW can cause damage … it would be wise to do a quick refresher and make sure you know what the adults look like, the timing that they appear and things like that.
“I don’t think everyone needs to be out there making applications for ABW if you haven’t confirmed that you have them, but just staying up to date and knowing the timing guidelines and what to look for is smart.”
When it comes to weeds, the questions and concerns that come Nordstedt’s way aren’t necessarily about particular kinds of weeds (see previous note about weather and regional differences) but more about the products used to treat those weeds and the best practices that can make them most effective.
“We’re really advising people to go a little back to basics, to educating yourself on things like application timing,” Nordstedt says. “We’re finding that people are a lot more interested in correct timing, correct application methods, making sure that preemergents are watered in after application. Just making some gentle reminders about things that we sometimes brush off because, ‘Oh, everyone knows this in the industry.’
“Refreshers like that every now and then, whether you’re an industry veteran or just getting started in the business, are sometimes the best way to get the most out of an application.”
