How to maintain your irrigation system

By Alistair March 31, 2022 08:23

We are about to start a new season for irrigation, and that means all those niggles and issues you ignored last season will be back to bite you … unless action is taken.

One of these issues, for many golf courses, relates to poor coverage of the water by your sprinklers. This affects you directly, since it exacerbates problems like dry patch, it promotes weed growth, and seriously stresses the turf. It also means the surface isn’t uniform across the whole green, which will affect play. One remedy is to have your staff standing for hours behind a hose trying to keep your greens alive during any dry periods.

Another option, apart from investing in the huge cost of having a new irrigation system installed, is to ask the question. Is there anything I can do to help alleviate this problem? Well … yes.

Do your existing pop-up sprinklers provide a nice ‘rain curtain’ when they’re operating, or does most of the water ‘dump’ onto the ground near the end of the throw? If it’s the latter then that’s a telltale sign that your available water pressure is less than what the nozzle in your sprinkler needs. Nozzles are colour coded in most sprinkler brands, so you can look on any online chart to see what the required flow rate is. Now here’s the paradox that most people don’t understand: smaller nozzles have lower flow rates, and this will give better throw and coverage if your irrigation system is struggling to cope. If you have dry patch it often suggests that your sprinkler nozzle is too big for your irrigation system’s capabilities.

Rain Bird 752 showing a typical rain curtain

Reduce the nozzle size by at least two sizes and you will get better coverage, which might very well increase the uniformity and reduce the agronomic problems you’re having. Go online and you should be able to find a nozzle chart for your sprinkler model.

Changing your old golf pop-up sprinklers out for new ones will also help. Newer models are more efficient with water. If you have pop-up rotors that are near the end of their lifespan then now is a great time to change them for new ones.

As an example, the new improved Rain Bird 752 model is designed for golf greens. The 752B is a block model and is controlled by a solenoid valve at the back of the green.

The 752E has an inbuilt solenoid; this is known as ‘electric’ or ‘valve-in-head’.

This new golf rotor replaces the Rain Bird 751, which is very popular and most of the improvements are based around nozzle performance.

The nozzle is easier to replace than its predecessor the 751, and it is the first in the industry to have a variable stator; this is a component at the base of the riser assembly and controls the speed of rotation of the sprinkler. If you have swapped out nozzles on any of your golf rotors in the past, chances are you should have changed the stator configuration too. If the stator doesn’t match the nozzle then the sprinkler will rotate at the wrong speed; this will in turn affect how much water lands on the ground and thus affects the precipitation rate. This is especially important if you have different nozzles in sprinklers on the same green because again you’ll be left with a variable surface. The Rain Bird 752 prevents this issue because you no longer need to remember to change the stator configuration if you change out a nozzle.

Rain Bird 752 with a yellow nozzle installed

Also the new Rain Bird 752 has a bigger range of nozzles to choose from. This means that if you have the pressure and flow available from your pump system, and you have some large greens, you can use the one sprinkler model to irrigate all your greens. Be wary though, any bigger rotor will require more flow rate (the volume of water provided per second) and a higher operating pressure (the energy to push the water out the nozzle). If either of these issues are limited factors, then you’ll be back to having coverage issues. This however relates to all golf sprinklers on the market as bigger sprinklers need more flow rate and more pressure and, if you don’t have it available, your sprinklers will cause you major headaches.

The big news however is that you can now purchase a selected range of golf course rotors at a 50 percent discount. Yes, you did read that correctly … 50 percent off!

You can find details about all the Rain Bird irrigation products from logging onto the website below, selecting Rigby Taylor and downloading our latest brochure and 2022 price list.

The new 2022 irrigation brochure is now available and features full product details and retail prices guide

So the moral of the story is simple; if you are having problems with your water coverage from your existing sprinklers, take a look at the nozzles you currently have, changing to a smaller nozzle could make a world of difference

However, if you would like to try the brand new Rain Bird 752 golf rotor, it is included in the list that attracts a 50 percent discount. Purchases can be from your preferred irrigation contractor or your Origin Amenity Solutions representative or, by calling the number below.