Lake Water for Clay Tennis Ct. Irrigation Cancel The title field is required!

1. Richard McDanel

   

   0 posts
   
   11/13/2014 7:11 AM

   My club wants to start irrigating our tennis courts with the course irrigation system to save $. I was told by the court builder this will not work due to water quality. Any experience with this issue?
   
   Richard McDanel, CGCS
   Charlotte NC

   
   
   
   
2. Steven Huffstutler

   

   11 posts
   
   11/13/2014 8:11 AM

   As a matter of fact, I do. When they built our clay courts, I was made to hook them up to the irrigation system. It has given us no end of grief mostly because of algae. The toilet bowl valves and filters have to be removed and cleaned weekly and quite a bit of bleach or algeacide has to be introduced into the system. Its doable, but unless you have to, I wouldn't.
   
   Regards,
   
   Steve

   
   
   
   
3. Heath Puckett

   

   0 posts
   
   11/13/2014 8:11 AM

   Ditto what Steve said...It also caused our pump station to cycle on/off excessively.

   
   
   
   
4. Steven Huffstutler

   

   11 posts
   
   11/13/2014 12:11 PM

   You wont save any money, either. Put your courts on an irrigation clock and only let them them run 3 or 4 times a week to save some money. Any money you save by using irrigation water will be more than eaten up in maintenance and repairs.
   
   
   Steve

   
   
   
   
5. Andy Jorgensen

   

   1 posts
   
   11/14/2014 9:11 AM

   We ran clay courts off of a well for years at my previous facility. The water was very clean. We also had a filter before the toilet bowl valves to protect them from clogging. We saw no issues except the well would run more often during hot and dry periods. In my case, we also had overhead irrigation in conjunction with the sub-surface. The tennis pro would get in the habit of running the overheads first thing each morning to allow the sub-surface a chance to take a break. I would also have the overhead run a cycle each night around 9:00. This kept the sub-surface valves from constantly opening and closing and limited the amount of cycles the well would run.

   
   
   
   
6. Curtis Nickerson

   

   0 posts
   
   11/18/2014 8:11 AM

   We use lake water tied into our main irrigation system (with City back up in case the course system goes down). Our courts only have overhead sprinklers and are manually controlled by the tennis staff when needed. We don't have any issues and our main pump never kicks on only the pm pump. If you run fertigation just be sure to not have it on when they run the courts.

   
   
   
   
7. James Smith

   

   112 posts
   
   11/18/2014 11:11 AM

   I would test your lake water. see how much silt or fines is in it as well as its chemical properties. it may be great and it may not be. while it may be cheaper to keep them wet with lake water it will not be if it causes some issue and you have to change out the surface. Maybe a really good filtration system hooked up right before the main tennis court line will solve any issues.

   
   
   
   
8. Kenneth Ingram

   

   18 posts
   
   11/21/2014 8:11 AM

   You know how in the summer after not irrigating for a couple of days the pond water coming out of the heads stinks? My tennis folks used to hate that. Only problem I ever had. Clay tennis is a pain. I got fined once during drought restrictions. Tennis Pro had water flying mid-day. Kenneth Ingram, UMD

   
   
   
   
9. Joe Wachter

   

   5 posts
   
   11/21/2014 9:11 AM

   We only have above surface and it is no issue. Only have 2 courts. During heavy usage time we are dumping city water into our lake but even during little use times, the smell is putrid but does not seem to be a problem when they are out there playing.