VTC Conference & Trade Show

This week we will be heading to the VTC Conference & Trade Show in Fredericksburg. The trade show will be Tuesday & Wednesday and, as always, Smith Turf & Irrigation will be well represented on the floor. Be sure to come by & see us to check out all the latest in Toro Irrigation, as well as some of our other allied product lines. We will have a computer set up with a Lynx demo that I encourage all of you to come check out. For those of you who have not used it yet, it will be a great opportunity for you to get a chance to work with it on your own & see all the features. We will also have a Turf Guard demo set up for you to see all the different data you can have access to with SiteVision after installing Turf Guard sensors on your golf course. In addition to our demos, we will have all our golf sprinkler models, along with E-OSMAC & Network VP Satellites.

The STI booth will also be your stop to see all of the newest developments & technology for Toro equipment. We will have several machines set up & our guys will be happy to answer any questions you might have. While you're there, make sure to check out all of our landscaping products, especially our landscape lighting, that STI can be your #1 source for.

We're hoping for a great turnout this year, and I hope to see all of you at the trade show! I will also be attending the VGCSA Annual Meeting on Tuesday evening, so I hope to see all of you there as well. As a quick reminder, you can subscribe to this blog & receive the posts in email form by simply filling out your email address in the "Follow by Email" section. I appreciate all of your business & look forward to continuing to work with all of you. Safe travels & see you this week!

STI & Kochek

The STI sales team spent last week in Charlotte going through some of the new product lines that we are taking on. One of those product groups I am excited to tell you about today is the Kochek line of hoses, nozzles, & fittings. I know that hoses are one of the most important tools to have on a golf course, & we feel that we can now offer the best & most reliable products in the market.

I know some of you may already be using Kochek products & know the quality they offer. I personally used several Kochek hoses & nozzles while working on the golf course, which makes me even more comfortable in offering these products to my customers. While best known for their high quality & durable hoses, Kochek also supplies many different nozzles & hose taps to fit your exact needs. CHECK OUT ALL THEIR IRRIGATION PRODUCTS ON THEIR WEBSITE & be sure to contact me when you're getting ready to make your hose order going into the new season.

I also want to invite all of you to take a quick look at our 2015 STI Product & Resource Guide. As we celebrate our 90th year, we hope that you will continue to look to Smith Turf & Irrigation as your resource not only for golf irrigation products, but for all your turf maintenance & landscape products.

2015 STI Product & Resource Guide

Winter Inventory & Organization

I don't want to discuss anything too in depth this week, so I'm just going to quickly remind everyone that during all this nasty winter weather is the perfect time to organize & take inventory of your irrigation parts. I know how an irrigation shelf/corner/room can look after a long summer, so take the time to figure out what you have before we get back to full speed this spring. It is always a good idea to have some spare parts on the shelf so that you're prepared if & when you need them. We all know how hectic things can get during the season, & nobody wants to have to wait to fix a problem. It's a good idea to have a few extra of the following at all times:

• Complete Sprinklers
• Conversion/Drive Assemblies
• Solenoids
• Pilot Valves
• Foot Valves
• Flag Keys (I know how they always seem to disappear)
• Repair Couplers
• DBR/Y Kits
• Swing Joints
• Various Satellite Components (8-Station Cards, etc.)
• I will touch on this more in the spring, but I want to remind all of you that the Board Exchange Program requires that you send your faulty parts in, & then Toro will send us a repaired/refurbished part to replace it. The whole process can take a few weeks, but it allows you to order your satellite components much cheaper than the cost of new ones. If you have some spare parts ready, you can easily use those as immediate replacements & then send off the ones in need of repair. When you get your repaired board back after a few weeks, put it on the shelf as your next replacement. This keeps you from ever having to be without satellite control, but also keeps you from having to continuously buy new satellite parts in order to have them the next day.

I appreciate all of your business & please let me know any way that I can help get you ready for the upcoming season. Warm weather will be here before we know it!

Turf Guard Soil Monitoring System

Well it's time to get back in a routine again now that the holiday season is over. This week I want to talk about Toro's Turf Guard Soil Monitoring Sensors. The Turf Guard sensors instantly & continuously track soil moisture, temperature, & salinity. All of the data is available to you on SiteVision, which you can access anywhere you have internet.

Installation of Turf Guard is a quick, simple process. The sensors can be installed simply by taking a cup cutter & removing a plug before dropping the sensors in & filling in the soil around them. The sensors sit 2" below the surface & have two levels of sensors (2" & 6" depth) to give you data at an upper & lower range. Along with the sensors, we will install a base station either in your shop or clubhouse (anywhere with an internet connection) & a repeater(s) in or on your irrigation control boxes. These sensors & repeaters can be installed on any type of irrigation system, regardless of whether you have Toro controllers or not. With SiteVision, not only will you be able to monitor current conditions, but you will also have the ability to track & study trends daily, weekly, or for any specific range of dates.

The best part of the Turf Guard Soil Monitoring System is that each person will find a different aspect that they find most useful. Some may find the greatest benefit from tracking soil moisture to prevent the turf from becoming too wet or dry. Others may prefer it to track soil temperature, so that they know exactly when they should apply pre-emergents, fungicides, or pesticides. Some of you on the coast may even benefit most from the salinity data to know when a full flush is needed. No matter which feature you find most beneficial, Turf Guard is a great tool to help you maintain your golf course & use resources most effectively.

I have already discussed Turf Guard with many of you & I am seeing a lot of interest of guys wanting to install these in the upcoming months. With the Turf Guard Starter Kit that Toro is offering, this is a great opportunity to install 3 sensors & see how Turf Guard can benefit you. For more details on this deal or to set up an installation, please give me a call!

I hope everyone has a great week & as always, thank you for your business!