Irrigation&Drainage |
Troy Leezy CID, CLIA, CWCM Effective Editor's note: The author is the marketing manager for Hunter Industries.
AVING AN EFFECTIVE IR- RIGATION SCHEDULE es- tablished for the upcoming
season is not only useful to help manage water and pumping costs, but also to help reduce disease, fertilizer use, runoff, and
irrigation scheduling H
There are many knowledge bases in the irrigation industry that can assist with the education and consulting of an irrigation system. The following websites offer different educational resources and networking opportunities:
http://www.water.ca.gov/wateruseefficiency/landscape/ www.irrigation.org (Irrigation Association) http://www.atinet.org/cati/cit/ (Center for Irrigation Technology, Fresno) http://www.asic.org (American Society of Irrigation Consultants) http://www.stma.org/ (Sports Turf Managers Association)
erosion. An effective schedule contributes to healthier turf, greater playability, and more importantly, increased safety. The creation of irrigation schedules have ma- tured in many ways from the old meth- ods of arbitrary runtimes for spray and
Educational resources and networking opportunities:
rotor zones, to using full water audits, soil analysis, and daily, automatic sprinkler run time adjustment for evapotranspiration rates (evapotranspiration is the measured com- bined loss of water from soils by evaporation and plant transpiration) calculated by on- site weather stations. While these newer scheduling methods are more efficient, many turf managers may lack the resources and experience to develop highly efficient ir- rigation schedules. Among the variety of solutions for irriga- tion scheduling are "smart controllers" of- fered by many manufacturers that can help assist with daily irrigation scheduling adjust- ments. Smart controllers are irrigation con- trollers that have the ability to adjust the daily irrigation run times based on the weather conditions. These smart product of- ferings vary greatly in cost and complexity. Some manufactures offer simple add-on weather sensors that provide true onsite weather data that may be compatible with existing field controllers. Other more com- plex solutions may require existing field con- trollers to be replaced and add monthly subscription costs to supply the daily weather information from distant weather stations to the site. While smart controllers can be use- ful tools to achieve greater efficiency in irri- gation scheduling, they first require an accurate assessment of the site. Another con- sideration is that weather-based controllers often times need significant initial observa- tion and adjustment before optimal perform- ance is achieved.
>> Below: ROTARY SPRINKLERS can be high effi- ciency sprinklers, designed for safety and reliability for sports fields of all types.
38 SportsTurf | February 2012
www.sportsturfonline.com
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