Technical
In this article, Robert Jackson, Irrigation Manager at Lely Turfcare, who has been working in the irrigation industry for over twenty years, discusses why it’s time to start applying the same principles to irrigation maintenance that are applied to machinery maintenance
Irrigation System
Check list W
hatever your surface - football stadium, golf course, cricket ground or rugby pitch - effective irrigation is vital to have the healthiest grass and to
affect the playability, whether that’s a slick, fast-paced game or heavier, slower game. Yet, when it comes to good housekeeping, quite often irrigation does not attract the same attention as the specialist machinery cutting the grass.
Attention to the upkeep and efficiency of machinery is an accepted, essential part of general best practice management; it ensures best quality of cut at all times and helps extend the life of the machine. Just as careful monitoring of a machine’s performance will help to identify individual problems due to faults or poor maintenance, effective irrigation is a maintenance must, but many persevere with problems.
Routine irrigation inspections are as important as any other aspect of professional turf maintenance and allow you to take control of any issues, providing the opportunity to correct them before they turn into bigger, more costly problems. The consequences can vary from a component frustratingly having to be replaced before it needs to or, worst-case scenario, lots of downtime and large costs renovating or refitting the entire system prematurely.
In my experience, having a checklist breaks down what could otherwise be a pretty big job into more manageable tasks. Having note of all the aspects requiring careful and consistent monitoring, and ticking them off as you go along, incorporates irrigation maintenance into a routine.
Visual checks
It’s best to look at the overall performance of your irrigation system throughout the season on a weekly basis minimum, but this can be a big job and one often shared with the grounds/greens team contributing, checking the turf whilst they mow, taking pictures, and reporting back any issues.
The first signs that an irrigation system is experiencing problems are mainly visual - dry patches, soggy turf, run-off and areas of pooling, for example. A few years ago, I visited
Robert Jackson
a golf club that thought it had sprinkler performance issues; when I arrived, I saw a green stripe of turf running along where the course’s mainline would be, in contrast to some surrounding brown areas, which immediately suggested the problem wasn’t the sprinklers, but a leak in the pipework.
Flushing the system
Flushing the system prevents clogging and reduces the accumulation of pollutants such as stagnant water, sand or soil. Flushing involves opening the valves in the mainline, sub-main line or laterals whilst under pressure. With the increase in water flow velocity, pollutants are pushed out of the system. The system should be flushed at regular intervals and frequency depends on the water quality and the age of the system, but I’d certainly aim to do this at the start of spring, after the cold weather, ready for the new season.
Pipes
The best way to establish if you’ve got a leaking pipe is to perform a pressure test on the mains. Switch everything off and pressurise the mains network to see how long the pressure lasts in the system. If there’s a leak, or serious fracture,
PC APRIL/MAY 2016 I 107
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