Serving the green industry in the Rocky Mountain region

JULY/AUGUST 2016 | VOLUME 32, NO. 4JULY/AUGUST 2016 | VOLUME 32, NO. 4

Saving water by How we water What we plant

Saving water by How we water What we plant

Colorado Green • July/August 2016 21

Saving water nnovations not only in how we water but in what we water most – namely lawns – could be

the new cutting edge of water management in Colorado. In one of the articles that follow, we introduce an irrigation revolution adapted from the digital technology of a completely unre-lated industry. We also present two new warm-season bermudagrass hybrids that are now being promoted in Colorado as viable, low-water options for lawn areas.

Irrigation re-inventedBeyond the marvels of smart irrigation technology that use controllers and systems that de-

tect weather conditions, soil moisture and more to control water use, there is a new technology dubbed “genius” by the company that introduced it.

This technology and its components challenge standard irrigation system design principles that we have learned and used for years. Could we be on the brink of letting go of standard head spacing and head-to-head coverage? That’s what this new technology is asking of us. It upsets the current design paradigm and claims to reduce irrigation water use by up to 50 percent. It also claims to water only exactly where needed and with just one head per zone to reach into every corner of the landscape, while avoiding sidewalks, driveways, fences and bed areas. And it does so without overlap.

Though this irrigation innovation currently has only limited distribution in the U.S., could it be a game-changer?

Cultivating warm-season turfThe landscape industry works hard to select plants with low-water requirements for bed areas.

And for the largest expanse of plant material – our lawns – the industry works hard at smart irrigation to cut water use. Perhaps less common, are conversations about what type of turf is being watered with that smart technology.

What would happen if we conducted more plant explorations with turf like we do for peren-nials? Are there alternatives from afar to our more traditional turfgrass varieties that might do well in Colorado?

Recently, a couple new bermudagrass varieties have been introduced to the Colorado market. They claim to offer water savings and other desirable benefits, but designers and specifiers also need to be aware of how they differ from the most common turf varieties. Those differences could be deal makers for some clients, but deal breakers for others.

I Colorado Green presents information about

these two new turf options that are now com-mercially available in Colorado. We provide this information not as an endorsement of either one, but to inform the industry about new options on the industry’s horizon.

Developers and growers of both of these new varieties promote them as low-water, tough, durable and resilient. They can pro-vide a low-water substitute for our favorite cool-season grasses – Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue – but they have different qualities. Critics consider these bermudagrass hybrids to be tenacious and undesirable weeds while their proponents stress their desirable charac-teristics, most notably water savings.

ExploreWhat if we consider the possibilities for

using the new irrigation technology to water these recently introduced warm-season lawns? Could this be a giant step forward in conserv-ing Colorado’s precious water? A definitive answer will likely require time, experimenta-tion and in-the-field trials to answer conclu-sively. For now, we encourage you to learn more about these innovations in the following articles and explore whether they might help you save your clients’ water.

Could we be on the brink of letting go of standard head spacing and head-to-head coverage?

Low-water, tough, durable and resilient turf options

Photo courtesy Timberline Landscape, Inc. and Kelly Grummons

Could we be on the brink of letting go of standard head spacing and head-to-head coverage?

Innovations that could be game-changers

July/August 2016 • Colorado Green22

Irrigation revolution

W

How a printer engineer reinvents sprinklers

hen you see the crispness and pre- cision of a printed page coming off an inkjet printer, have you ever won-dered how those minuscule drops of ink man-age to spray in exactly the right place to create that image – whether it’s printed words or a colorful photo?

If you are Gary Klinefelter, an engineer hold-ing 35 patents in the commercial inkjet indus-try, who wanted to install an irrigation system in his Minnesota yard, you see the lawn as a giant page of paper and envision a sprinkler system like a device that sprays ink. Though not an expert in head-to-head coverage and tra-ditional irrigation technology, after seeing how it worked, Klinefelter thought there could be a better way. He brought his outside-the-industry perspective to watering lawns and invented a technology that irrigates irregular shapes in a way that is similar to how ink is sprayed on a page.

What’s different? Klinefelter’s invention changes a basic irriga-

tion design requiring numerous heads per zone to just one. For example, a property that need-ed 40-plus heads to water fi ve zones, needs only fi ve heads. Those fi ve heads with unique multi-stream nozzles are digitally programmed to spray water around the curvilinear contours of beds and will water square and rectangular areas with pinpoint precision to place water in every corner and along every straight edge of a zone, such as a driveway.

Is this too good to be true?

Does this actually work?Does this mean everything we’ve learned is outdated?

Photos courtesy IrriGreen

By Lyn Dean

23Colorado Green • July/August 2016

According to Klinefelter, his new system is a game-changer. It’s the most fundamental change in irrigation technology in 40 years. Like a printer spraying ink in a precise pattern on a page, his invention ‘prints’ water on lawns.

Using digital technology and multi-stream nozzles adapted from inkjet printers, Klinefelter called his new technology IrriGreen and started up a company with the same name in 2010. For him, the system is even more than the application of technology from a different industry. “Irri-Green has a mission,” he says. “We are committed to conserving water for the future.”

Industry pros in Colorado had the opportunity to see IrriGreen demonstrations at ProGreen EXPO in February and again at the CPS Spring Fling in March. Recently, Colorado Green spoke with Bobby Jensen, IrriGreen’s sales director, to learn more about how the technology works and how landscape and irrigation pros are reacting to it.

Digital supersedes mechanical When IrriGreen showcased its new irrigation system at ProGreen EXPO earlier this year, they

promoted these top five benefits:• Only one sprinkler head per zone is needed.• No lateral lines are required.• Labor for installation is reduced – as much as 70 percent lower than for traditional systems.• Watering patterns match the exact shape of the area watered.• Water use is reduced by up to 50 percent compared to traditional head to head systems.Is this too good to be true? A question Jensen often gets from landscape professionals is,

“Does this actually work?” IrriGreen’s answer is that it works because the system replaces me-chanical technology with digital technology to direct the water coming out of sprinkler heads.

Jensen has noticed that it’s not easy for people who have been around the industry designing or installing sprinkler systems based on the principles of head-to-head coverage to embrace this technology. “People ask me, ‘Does this mean that everything we’ve learned is outdated?’”

Jensen reminds them that this system is just the next generation of technology. “Remember when you upgraded your TV to a flat-screen? Or when you got your first smartphone? Before the advances in tech-nology, we couldn’t have had these things,” he says. “Even 5-6 years ago, we couldn’t have had the IrriGreen system.” Mechanical technology can’t direct water from sprinkler heads the way digital technology can.

Think out of the circle“IrriGreen technology requires us to forget about arcs and circles,”

says Jensen, “when designing sprinkler configurations to irrigate an area.” Instead, think about custom coverage, no matter the shape of the area. Cus-tom coverage requires a lot of computation. Calculating areas of irregular shapes goes far beyond high school geometry.

Leave it to the software - mostlyFortunately, the designer or installer can leave the calculations to software

accessed via a mobile app. The complex algorithms programmed into IrriGreen’s mobile app do all the calculations, continuously computing stream volumes, directions and dis-tances for each sprinkler head. The app can recalculate hundreds of times per rotation – 487 to be exact Jensen says.

As genius as the software might appear, humans are still needed. Watering distances from the sprinkler head to all edges in each zone must be input into the program by a person on a smart-phone. Sometimes, as few as four or five inputs are needed, but as many 50 can be used. “As you set up each zone, you just punch in and save the distances at various points,” Jensen says. “Then you visually calibrate each zone while the system is running and adjust distances as needed. The system ‘learns’ as it rotates through the zone.”

“Every zone has a different shape and run time. The computer figures it out better than a human could.” It calculates the rotation time for each head, which means each zone, based on the precipitation rate.

The result, he says, is exact coverage. Exact coverage also means there is no overlap between the streams of sprinkler heads. Think water conservation.

Each nozzle has 14 holes and all 14 streams of water are regulated by the software program to achieve 100 percent coverage – which is much less water than the 150 percent coverage provided by typical head-to-head irrigation configurations installed according to industry standards.

Every zone has a different shape and run time. The computer figures it out better than a human could.

July/August 2016 • Colorado Green24

“For customers with an existing sprinkler system, we have to talk ROI,” he says. “Many are making the investment in an IrriGreen system now because water prices continue to go up. They’ll be using less water, which means spending less money. This adds up over time, even if takes 10 years.”

What about drip systems?Some irrigation pros who want to use a drip

system in certain areas of the landscape won-der how drip fits in with the IrriGreen system. Jensen says creating a hybrid system is easy and inexpensive. “Just disconnect the drip from the old mainline, put in a new clock and valve and run through our mainline.” Jensen also notes that the IrriGreen team is current-ly working on a new valve for a hybrid with Irrigreen heads plus drip irrigation.

AvailabilityAs a new technology with recent introduc-

tion into the landscape industry, IrriGreen is not yet available throughout the entire country. Regionally, CPS Distributors, Inc., offers the IrriGreen Genius® Irrigation System through its stores in Colorado and Wyoming.

The system is more than the application of technology from a different industry. “IrriGreen

has a mission,” Klinefelter says. “We are committed to conserving water for the future.”

Each of the 14 streams is regulated by app.

Phot

o co

urtes

y Irr

igreen

Are people buying?“Homeowners are the easiest sell,” says Jensen. “They get it. Less water is better.” In gener-

al, Jensen has found that millennials, whether homeowners or landscape professionals are easy converts, and not just because of the water savings. They grew up with technology and are com-fortable embracing the digital app.

For new IrriGreen installs, the cost of labor for contractors is less than required for typical head-to-head installs. “Instead of rows of four to eight sprinkler heads positioned all around the outside of each irrigation zone and all connected to the mainline with laterals, IrriGreen installs just one head in the middle of each zone with no lateral lines,” explains Jensen.

This means fewer holes to dig, no trenching for laterals and a 70 percent or more reduction in materials – specifically heads and pipe. Not to mention the advantage of time freed up for irrigation installers to move to another project.

Even with less labor, Jensen says the cost to customers to install the IrriGreen system is about the same as a traditional system. “They are paying a premium for new technology that helps them reduce water use,” he says.

What about customers who already have an irrigation system?“We recommend leaving it in the ground,” says Jensen. “It’s too much labor to dig it out. We

cut off service to the old mainline, pull a new mainline and add the wires.” In a retrofit where some components from the existing system can be used, such as the backflow valve, the installa-tion cost may be slightly lower compared to a complete new install.

Is this too good to be true? A question Jensen often gets.