Filed under: Irrigation, Field Maintenance, Miscellaneous, Uncategorized
The third straight year of drought has mandated restrictions on water use through the summer - what will this mean for the fields we worked so hard to build and maintain?
Here is what the District has asked of us:
As of June 7, irrigation of the fields will be restricted to the time periods on the following three nights:
MWF (78 irrigation heads)
Stadium, 5 stations, 37 heads: 1am - 6am
Discus, 2 stations, 17 heads: 8pm - 10pm
Band Practice, 5 stations, 24 heads: 10pm - 1am
TThS (77 irrigation heads)
Soccer, 8 stations, 45 heads: 8pm - 1:30am
FH/LAX, 4 stations, 32 heads: 1:30am - 6am
For clarity, MWF means Mon eve/Tues morning; Wed eve/Thurs morning; and Fri eve/Sat morning. TThS means Tues eve/Wed morning; Thurs eve/Fri morning; and Sat eve/Sun morning.
The irrigation of the fields has been guided for the last year or more by settings derived from the average evapotranspiration of the area. The original article explaining the rationale for the settings we have been using is posted at:
http://www.bvfieldofdreams.org/2008/06/09/year-long-irrigation-settings/#more-159
These minutes are a theoretical guideline for the total minutes in a week to overcome the drying effects of wind and heat. To some of you they may seem excessive, and in the context of a drought they are doubly inappropriate. By restricting the irrigation to three days and keeping them within the hours limits, we will more than meet the District’s wishes for 20% reduction - it will be more like a 40% - 50% reduction from the guideline we had been following, on a minutes-per-week basis.
The actual minutes for the settings will be as follows, per station, 3 days per week:
Stadium - 30 to 60 minutes per station per night (limited by 5 hour window for 5 stations)
Discus - 30 to 60 minutes per station per night
Band Practice - 30 to 60 minutes per station per night
Soccer - 30 to 40 minutes per station per night (limited by 5.5 hour window for 8 stations)
Field Hockey/LAX - 30 to 60 minutes per station per night
If we can keep the irrigation heads tuned and spraying well (thank you Les Will, for your constant diligence in keeping these adjusted!), we should be able to make it through the summer with a minimum of turf damage. Pray for mild weather, but if we need to hand water some areas, there’s a new faucet fitting in between Soccer and Field Hockey, and one or two 100 ft hoses might reach everywhere a local wetting is needed. There are also quick connects for the hose at the NE corner of Band Practice, and near the Discus Ring; a stinger with faucet head is in the Tuff Shed. To anyone who can come out and walk and tend the fields, help yourself to these tools!
If you notice any local dryness on the fields that a hose dampening can’t fix, please send an email to jhartley07@gmail.com, oceansports11@yahoo.com, and/or marles@surewest.net. We need your eyes to see what we can’t see, and we would be glad to meet you out there to teach you how to make some of these adjustments when we can’t be reached!
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