By Taylor Tuomie
Some of the irrigation companies around the U.S. and Canada are finishing up their last winterizations for the year and are winding things down. I'm writing this post from St. Paul, Minn. and our forecast is calling for snow this weekend! Regardless of where you're located, learning about the industry can happen year round.
We compiled a few online resources for irrigation professionals, both rookies and veterans alike. Whether you are want to brush up on some techniques for next season or want some help training new employees, here are 5 (free!) web resources that will make your irrigation business better:
IrrigationTutorials.com
Irrigation Tutorials is a good resource for rookies and all the way up to veterans in irrigation. What is nice about this site is that it is not affiliated with any vendors, so the information provided is not biased towards a certain company.
Another nice thing about the website is that most of what they have are tutorials that actually guide you through key processes. Their tutorials range in topics from how to winterize a system to more advanced topics like how to repair a buzzing valve solenoid.
Hunter Irrigation Online Training
These courses might be best for irrigation novices-veterans who are looking to do a deep dive on products they are using. You’ll need to create a profile, but once you do, you’ll have access to an extensive list of courses. There are many trainings on specific products, but they also offer more general trainings that aren’t specific to Hunter, like “Multimeter Basics”. This would be a great resource to use during the offseason and is even more helpful if you are a Hunter customer.
Their training is tiered into three levels: Technicians, Specialists and Experts.
The Expert level is difficult to achieve and covers some tougher topics. They go over advanced installation, troubleshooting and wire locating and grounding.
University of Florida Online- Irrigation Components
This training would be perfect to show a new employee that has limited knowledge of the irrigation industry. The training module covers the basic “anatomy” of an irrigation system and covers many important terms such as backflow, backpressure and backsiphonage. The training also covers the differences in controllers that are used in irrigation systems and how a residential controller differs from those used in commercial systems. The site is a little old, but the content is evergreen (see what I did there?).
Bonus: They also offer a few other paid classes online covering irrigation topics like Irrigation Scheduling and also Soil Moisture Sensor Controllers.
RainBird YouTube Channel
While most of their videos showcase their own products (hey, what would you expect?) a lot of their videos involve processes that work with any vendor’s products.
For the visual learners, it is nice having a video tutorial to learn from instead of having to read step by step guides. They have a wide array of topics and every skill level could find something useful from their YouTube Channel.
LawnSite.com
LawnSite is most likely a forum that you’ve spent some time on if you’ve been in the green industry for a while. This site can be a great learning resource! There is a whole lot of information in one place, so it can be a little difficult to dig up the good stuff, but here are a few threads that I found that can get you started:
Getting Started in Irrigation - Forum Members Advice - For starters
Regulating pressure on a pump system- For the novice irrigation professional
Tips for installing new valve manifold- For the expert
Anyone ever irrigate a vineyard?- For the Wine Lover?
Continually learning is important for the success of your business. Take the time to study up! These were the websites that we found to be most helpful, but if you have a few more that you think should be added to the list, let us know. We'd love add another resource to the list!
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