2011 Irrigation Show Coverage

GCI's irrigation columnist Brian Vinchesi provides some notable notes from this year's show.


Published November 14, 2011
The Irrigation Association held its annual Irrigation Show last week in San Diego. 

Here are some observations:
  • The New Product Contest drew some 27 entries ranging from waterproof valve boxes to a flexible/adaptable drainage tee.  In the golf category the runner up winner was Rain  Bird’s ISS Integrated Sensor System.  This interface sensor combination provides immediate feedback after installation of real time soil moisture, salinity and temperature measurements.  The sensor interface can be stand alone or integrate with various Rain Bird Golf Central control systems.   
     
  • The Irrigation Association unveiled its 6th edition of “Irrigation.”  This comprehensive irrigation book is completely updated and rewritten for the previous edition published in 1983.  The 1105 page book includes chapters specific to golf course irrigation systems and irrigation auditing for the first time.  Some 15 years in development the 6th edition included input from over 45 different authors.   
     
  • Toro unveiled a valve-in-head sprinkler internal for the Rain Bird 900 and 100 series sprinklers.  Including all of the features of a Toro 855S or DT internal, this new internal fits easily into an existing Rain Bird case.  There is also an optional adapter to retrofit the Toro Strike Guard solenoid on to the Rain Bird sprinkler. 
     
  • Toro’s PrecisionSense Mobile sensing service won the Irrigation Shows new product contest in the golf category. The Toro PrecisionSense is a mobile data collection unit that captures key agronomic information including soil moisture levels and links them to GIS coordinates. As a result the unit can produce maps and charts that show how well an irrigation system is performing.
     
  • Ever open a valve box to shut off a valve or to service your system and find the valve box full of dirt or inhabited by spiders, snakes or ants.  Unveiled at last week’s Irrigation Show, the “Mole Guard” is a valve box sealing system that includes a soil bottom and side holes barriers for 10 inch, standard and jumbo valve boxes.

 

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