Products you can depend on
Ensuring our products perform no matter where they are stored or used.
Wind, temperature, humidity, water, sun and soil–the health of our lawns and gardens is directly tied to the elements. We go to extreme testing lengths because we know that your lawn and garden products must be resilient in everything from the extreme summer heat to the frigid winter months when stored in your garage.
We use four special climate replicators in the Research and Development center at our headquarters in Marysville, Ohio, to test our products and their packaging against extreme weather conditions. In doing so, we can see how products hold up against extreme temperature shifts; Polar vortex? No problem. Height of summer? Check.
We replicate common weather conditions from around the country, from mild climates in the Midwest to humid areas like Florida to dry climates such as a blazing hot August day in Arizona. This allows us to predict how products hold up under various conditions in both the short- and long-term.
During our testing periods, product samples are regularly examined to make sure they continue to work as designed. Product packaging is scrutinized to make certain that things like directions and ingredients remain perfectly legible and that container quality is not compromised. Finally, lawn and garden devices and applicators–such as liquid applicators and fertilizer spreaders–are tested rigorously to make sure they hold up well and perform as intended, no matter their storage conditions.
This process has enabled us to make many positive changes over the years. For example, when we discovered that our liquid plant food concentrates could expand in fluctuating temperatures, causing unsightly salt formations around the bottle and its closure, we inserted a vented cap, leveraging "breathable" Teflon film that releases pressure in the container while maintaining a leak-proof package.
This process has also been instrumental in elevating the performance of our packaging for soils and mulches. Our in-house weathering capabilities enabled rapid development of energy-cured ink and coating technologies that attain weather and fade resistance once unachievable from conventional printing technologies. This ensures the integrity of the packaging even after months of storage in harsh environments.
Another reason we take such precise measures is because lawn and garden products are often stored outside at retail stores. That’s why it’s critical that our packaging is immune to heat, rain and cold for long periods of time.
