Flush: Rain Bird 900/1100 Series vs Toro R-Series

Do you have Rain Bird Eagle 900 or 1100 Series heads in a Rain Bird Sprinkler Body? Are you tired of ruining your paper uniforms? Toro has a suggestion for you.

 

Golf Course Sustainability Through Rainwater Harvesting

It’s been joked about in environmental circles that a golf course is nature under totalitarian rule. While many people might agree or disagree with this statement, the fact remains that traditionally golf courses have been viewed by environmentalists as not only being huge consumers of resources, but an environmental burden as well. Maintained turfgrass, by nature, requires quite a bit more water than the native vegetation that golf courses replace, especially in dry, arid climates. It’s no wonder why water consumption is perhaps the most heavily criticized aspect of golf course management. In areas that water demands are projected to exceed existing supplies in the coming years, golf courses are going to be forced to cut back on irrigation. Not to mention the current decline of the amount of people golfing due to the slumping economy. Add to that the rising costs of municipal water and it’s enough to make any golf course superintendent quiver in his khakis.

One answer to this dilemma has been found in the practice of rainwater harvesting.

Crop Coefficient for Turfgrass

The Center for Agriculture at UMass Amherst is studying ways to preserve irrigation water on sites such as golf courses, which would reduce leaching rates and protect water supplies from pesticide and other chemical contamination.

BIGGA Video Series: Irrigation

Another great set of educational videos by BIGGA. Irrigation water and the precise use thereof will continue to be one of, if not the greatest, the most important environmental, economic and social issues facing the golf industry. These three videos cover the basics from source protection, to BMP's and technology (circa 2001).

Greg Evans discusses conditioning at Ealing Golf Club

In this video Greg describes the conditioning of the Ealing Golf Club, how he insists on "championship standard, 7 days a week" and the honor of being awarded a Master Greenskeeper Certificate.

PaceTurf: Heat and Drought Recovery Video

From our friends at PaceTurf:
Heat and drought cause serious turfgrass damage every year. If you are experiencing catastrophic turf loss from heat, drought or other sources of extreme stress, this video will provide you with some guidelines for turf recovery.

To learn more about how PACE Turf gets superintendents the answers they need, take our member benefits tour: http://www.paceturf.org/index.php/tour/

Hear from others about the benefits of PACE Turf membership: http://www.paceturf.org/index.php/public/testimonials/

Or sign up today at: http://www.paceturf.org/membership/signup.php

Checking Moisture = Saving Money at Northland Country Club

This post was originally posted in 2010.


My name is Chris Tritabaugh and I am the Golf Course Superintendent at Northland Country Club in Duluth, MN. A few weeks ago Scott emailed and asked me if I would like to contribute to this fantastic turf management blog; I was honored and was happy to accept the invitation. For the past two and a half years I have maintained the Northland Country Club Turfgrass Management blog to update, inform and educate our membership on the day to day operations of our operation as well as efforts to create a sustainable golf course. Its an honor to contribute to turfhugger.com and wonderful to know Northland's efforts tocreate a sustainable golf course are being noticed by people within the industry. Without further ado; my first contribution to turfhugger.com.

My brother Adam is a little more than two years younger than myself. Growing up he was a classic little brother always wanting to have what I had and do what I did. Earlier this summer Jeff Johnson, good friend and superintendent at The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis let me know he had purchased a TDR 300 soil moisture meter from Spectrum Technologies. Playing the role of little brother and not wanting to be left out, I purchased one for Northland as well. The meter, seen on the left, has two probes that when inserted into the soil give the percent water volume content in of the soil. After purchasing the meter at the beginning of August, its use was pretty much non-existent due to ample rain and at least the thought from myself that taking moisture readings when we were wet was unnecessary. This was until a couple weeks ago when  my "big-brother" in turf management made the post, linked below, on his blog.
  
The Minikahda Club Grounds Department: Collecting Moisture Readings on Greens

Turns out Jeff had started using his meter on a daily basis to record the average moisture readings of his greens. Just like the little brother I ran out and blew a couple months of dust off our meter and started taking our own daily moisture readings on putting surfaces.

Checking Soil Moisture

From our friends at Ohio State University and Buckeye Turf - During hot humid weather checking soil moisture is important in determining if to water or not.

Managing Military Golf Courses by the "Green Book"

"The Green Book: Environmental Guidebook for Military Golf Courses" is a publication of the Center for Resource Management's "Golf & the Environment Initiative" and the Department of Defense's "Legacy Resource Management Program". Developed for military golf course superintendents, The Green Book assists them in improving the environmental stewardship of their courses.

It is designed as a step-by-step workbook leading to the development of an environmental plan for the course and the certification of the course at one of the three levels of achievement. It is not intended to serve as a “Best Management Practices” manual, but rather as a way of organizing a variety of management ideas and practices into a logical, across-the-board approach to overall environmental improvement.

As a supplement to the guidebook, the following video shows some excellent examples of the BMP's and strategies used by Military courses.

Want your copy of The Green Book? Go here.

Irrigation System Management and Maintenance

I’ve been involved in the golf industry for over 14 years and since starting my own consulting business in 2008, I’ve noticed an unusual trend towards the management and maintenance of golf course irrigation systems. Superintendents are more often investing their resources towards different wetting agents, fertilizers or pesticides as opposed to investing in their irrigation systems and the maintenance and management of them.

In The Field Review of Toro Turfguard

Here at Turfhugger we like to learn of products from an independent perspective, from those who use new technologies out in the field because sometimes it's nice to hear from those in your shoes vs those selling the product or a competitor. That's why we asked Chris Greene, the IPM Manager at Toftrees Golf Resort in State College, PA for his opinion of the Toro Turfguard System. 

Last year was a tough year all around for golf courses and everyone was looking for a way to manage their turf better and more efficient. We have a green that was rebuilt and our water supply was primarily effluent water. We had shallow root issues all summer due to heat, like many others, and poor, algae-laden and high salt content water. We had crusty greens due to salts and plugged the green seemingly all summer to keep it playable. Soil samples revealed a high pH and salt content that we had to control better. We ended up installing a separate well water line for irrigation and decided to change the watering strategy to more of the deep and infrequent route to force the roots deeper.

After consulting with the Toro rep, we decided to upgrade our irrigation central from one of two  remaining “TouchNet” units in PA and add a “Turfguard” sensor to monitor the salts and moisture.

The Turfgaurd Sensor - Toro

On the topic of integrated sensors, here is Toro's new integrated sensor that has wireless control!

Rain Bird ISS: Integrated Sensor

With water use being the next major issue facing Golf Course Superintendent's, RainBird has joined Toro by introducing a soil sensor that has the ability to measure moisture, salinity and temperature.



I'm interested in any feedback from Turf manager's that haved used or are using the Toro or RainBird sensor. What are the pros/cons for either sensor?

System Check Vol. 4

The fourth and final stage of checking out your irrigation system. 

Now that you have spent all the time going through the computer, weather station and pump station there is one large piece of the puzzle that can make all your work pay off or be worth nothing.  The equipment in the field.  Yes, the 2000 or so heads that you are hoping to run perfectly as when they were tested in a gymnasium with no wind and optimum pressure.

No matter the brand of head you have on the course, you could have a flawless computer program, a weather station that is used by NASA for it's accuracy and a pump station that can handle anything you throw at it and still fall short on your desired results.  Your water event planning can all be for nothing if the equipment in the field has been neglected or assumed that it is in good operating condition.

Video: RainBird Rotors Side Impact Testing

This is not a product promotion or part of the Product Sustainability Index, just an interesting video from RainBird. I like the design feature emphasized here because it could in theory produce less waste, save time and labor in changing damaged rotors (durability/longevity/permanence contribute to a products "sustainability"). I can't help but to wonder if the fittings and pipe are flexible enough underground to withstand the impact and movement of such impact. The video does not describe if rotation/performance is effected by such damage, but I guess if your sprinkler is in pieces it won't be very accurate either! - From RainBird:

How much force can your rotor withstand? See how we put Rain Bird rotors (as well as those of our competitors) to the test to demonstrate resistance to side impact - a critical performance metric for rotors in commercial irrigation applications.

System Check Vol. 3

We have touched on the basics of irrigation management from the central control.  Now lets take a trip to the pump station.  When is the last time you have had the pump station serviced?  How do you know that the set pressure of the pump station is the right pressure to keep all your heads running at the proper pressure in the field?  Have you cleaned the filtration system lately?  Have you had the Cla-Valve cleaned and re-set this season?

System Check Vol. 2

Now that you have had a chance to go through your central control computer you have gone a quarter of the way.  The next step to preparing for the season is taking a closer look at your weather station.  Are you using your $7k tool to your advantage, or is it a perch for the local fowl?

System Check Vol. 1

Have you checked your irrigation computer lately?  How do you know that your irrigation computer is doing what it is supposed to do?  Or, better yet, how can you tell if your computer knows what to do?

Unfortunately, irrigation computers are only as good as the information you give them.  I recently moved from a course in Arizona that was extremely reliant on efficient irrigation management.  It was imparitive that the $10k irrigation program and computer was operating to it's fullest.  Indian Summer Golf and Country Club is now my new home.  A private facility located in the South Puget Sound of Washington State.  Our water is basically unlimited compared to Arizona.  There is also twice the rain and about 20 degrees cooler during the summer.  You might say, "nice" at first.

Using your Central Control to Conserve Water

Your central control computer can be a powerful tool in your arsenal for conserving water. Most people don’t use their central control to it’s fullest potential. Specific things that you can check to make sure you are taking advantage of you central control capabilities. Evapotranspiration usage, head and nozzle assignment, head adjustments and hydraulic tree assignment are the major things you should look at next time your at your central control.

Nozzle Tips

Following my last post on Turfhugger.com on irrigation system and maintenance, I was asked to discuss sprinkler nozzles in more detail. Being a Certified Golf Irrigation Auditor for 3 years and conducting over 50 individual irrigation audits, I have been able to work with a number of nozzle/spacing combinations. This articles purpose is to address how a nozzle profile in combination with proper spacing is required in order to achieve optimal sprinkler uniformity.