Blow out

So far this years blow out has gone smoothly. Today we see the finish line after two long days of running around and making sure all the water is out of the lines. This year we had Jim Vosepka  feild service manager 

of the Rocky Mountain region from Toro and Travis Abitz golf irrigation sales Rocky Mountain region for Toro. To assist us in our blow our procedures. 

The main reason  the representative from Toro are on property  are to  help with  our blow out and see why we are blowing are 780 series heads tops,  especially  during blow out and  spring charge up. When the representative arrived on Monday we walked them through our entire blow our procedure. Both reps were pleased with our plan and the way we execute it. On the end of the second day we were finished with the entire course and Jim and Travis were both impressed with how we handle blow out, we are  the poster child for golf course blow out. So we will see them in the spring for charge up and hopefully we can figure out the problem with the 780 heads.

Blowing out the lower end of the course 

Blowing out entire 27 hole system with 750 CFM compressor at 35-40 PSI

Videos

Check out Pinery's Golf Course Maintenance YouTube channel on the right side of
this blog. We have had the channel for some time but  thought it would be nice to have them all

in one place. We will post more videos as they are taken. Enjoy! 

Soak it down

Over the next few days the golf course will be a little wet!  With blow out of the irrigation system occurring on the 12th of November,  we will not have access to large amounts of water for the course until March 2013 so let it fly. We want to load up the soil profile and southern exposures as best as we can this week.  Only time will tell as the winter months set in if we will have to charge up our frost free system for  winter watering. Not many folks know that watering in winter is just as important as in the summer. Desiccation over the winter especially on southern exposures is extremely hard on turf. We have to do our best to hydrate the crown of the turf plant throughout the winter by irrigation water or snow.  Some of the driest places on earth are the north and south poles where they receive only a trace of precipitation a year!  Most the snow and ice is millions of years old and since it  is all frozen  its not available to plants or animals.

Look at all that water! 

If the polar caps were to melt, which hold over 70% of earths fresh water, 

our oceans would rise global  over 200 Feet!

Good thing we live in the Mile High city.

The Home stretch

Only one week until irrigation blowout.  These last few watering's we do during the day because of the cold nights so we will take advantage and check the pumps and pressures at the station and in the field. We do these testings 2-3 times per year to make sure the entire irrigation system is performing the way it was designed. 

Here is a short video of the pump station in action.