Building upon the recent announcement from Spiio, Inc of an additional $1.6M round of investor funding used to strengthen the product development team and to move forward with innovation projects, Spiio announces today their partnership with Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply as an authorized distributor of Spiio’s wireless soil sensors into the US golf market.  

“We’re excited to offer Spiio to our customers as a solution to help save them time and resources, while still creating optimal conditions.  It’s a great example of how technology continues to drive and innovate the turf industry,”

Brian Hurley, Ewing’s National Golf Sales Manager.

About Ewing

Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply is the largest family-owned national supplier of landscape, irrigation, agronomic, aggregate, hardscape and water management products.  As your business partner, we offer products and education for irrigation and landscape, turf and land management, outdoor living, sports fields, golf and sustainable solutions.  Our nationwide network of friendly, knowledgeable staff helps green industry professionals discover products and services for business success.

“Bringing on Ewing as a distributor greatly increases our ability to introduce our Spiio technology to golf customers in the Northeastern, Southeastern, and Southwestern US. Our Spiio team will continue to drive our sales and marketing efforts worldwide, and through our partnership with Ewing we gain the expertise of twenty-four more sales professionals with a combined 100+ years of experience in the golf industry.”

Chris Thorup, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Spiio

About Spiio

Spiio helps turfgrass and green industry professionals save money and labor by managing their golf courses and sports facilities more efficiently through the use of actionable data. The Spiio product is a data service based on a wireless sensor that tracks soil moisture, temperature and salinity from the turfgrass rootzone. Data is uploaded to the Spiio cloud where it can be viewed by customers on our web-app or mobile app- anywhere, anytime. The data provides valuable insight into the hyper-local growing conditions of turf, and allows golf superintendents and sports turf managers to make more efficient irrigation and agronomic decisions.

Contact your Ewing rep directly or Spiio for your nearest Ewing rep.

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GLK Turf Solutions combines industry expertise and entrepreneurship to serve other turf professionals in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Their partnership with Spiio has presented another opportunity for them to bring sound agronomy to their customers by solving the constant problems of water quantity and water quality.

GLK Turf Solutions are bringing on sound agronomy to their customers. Jeff Kadlec was working as director of agronomy at La Cantera Resort in San Antonio when he began using the Airg2g aeration unit—the first person in Texas to do so. He recognized its value, and in 2014, that recognition pushed him to move into contract work and sales. That’s how GLK Turf Solutions began. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial side,” he says, “so I gave it a go with one piece of equipment and it’s grown from there.” They now partner with many affiliates, including Imants, Trimax, SGM Industries, and Turf Tec International.

“We’re a small company with big dreams,” says Kadlec. There are four company members covering Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Those four include Jeff, his brother Rick Kadlec, Riley Maxey—all golf former course superintendents—and Jaxon Bailey, a sports turf manager. Between them, they have decades of turfgrass expertise and experience. They take that credibility seriously, and they are choosy in partnering with new products. “We don’t bring it on unless we really believe it, because we’re putting our names behind it.”

“We’re a small company with big dreams. We don’t bring Spiio on unless we really believe it, because we’re putting our names behind it.”

Jeff Kadlec about Spiio

Sound Agronomy: Water—Quantity and Quality—and the Need for Real-Time Data

One product that recently made the cut was the Spiio sensor. Kadlec has always been interested in understanding data about water management, understanding that it is the single biggest contributor to turfgrass success. After he heard some customers talking about Spiio, he did his own research and found it to be the best on the market. He and GLK are now excited to bring the Spiio sensor and sound agronomy to their customers. He foresees customers making good use of the moisture and soil temperature readings, with some benefitting particularly from salinity data.

“Water quality from some aquifers is not as good as we’d like, but it’s manageable. That’s where salinity comes in; bicarbonates can be high so monitoring that can be impactful.”

Jeff Kadlec on monitoring salinity

Naturally, each geographical area has its own agronomic challenges. “It’s a broken record and it’s obvious,” states Kadlec, “but here, it’s water. There are also labor challenges. Texas is either in flood or drought, so you have to manage those highs and lows with limited resources.” Spiio’s soil moisture sensors make a big difference in navigating that uncertainty. In addition to water quantity, though, is the question of water quality. “Water quality from some aquifers is not as good as we’d like, but it’s manageable. That’s where salinity comes in; bicarbonates can be high so monitoring that can be impactful.”

By Turf Professionals, For Turf Professionals: Finding Solutions for Customers

GLK has two primary mottos. The first is to balance innovation with sound agronomy. Spiio technology’s real-time data delivery is innovative, while centered in the basic agronomic metrics professionals need to care for their turf. GLK is owned by and serves turf professionals—their second motto—and those professionals can take Spiio data to address the unique needs of their turf. For example, Kadlec points out that sports turf managers often have a lot of fields to look at with not much staff or funding to cover it all. To them, Spiio sensors can act as another employee, helping them keep eyes on the 50 acres or so of turf they may need to manage. Meanwhile, golf course superintendents are frequently laser-focused on about three acres of greens, and Spiio data can help them increase that precision.

“The great thing about this product for us,” Kadlec concludes, “is that we are in the business of turf solutions. This is a solution to a problem for our customers, and it’s a good solution.”

Jeff Kadlec

“The great thing about this product for us,” Kadlec concludes, “is that we are in the business of turf solutions. This is a solution to a problem for our customers, and it’s a good solution.” He also explains that the price point is not as high as people often expect it to be, which can make it more accessible to customers and a great way to demonstrate credibility for a company like GLK. “We can sell easier to their budgets, and it helps us in the long run by proving we provide quality products.”

Learn more about the Spiio sensor here.

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Despite the uncertainty of 2020, the golf industry has made a positive turn. Some companies, like Hodges Rash Company, are seeing a prime opportunity to invest in the future. Partnering with Spiio has been one way to translate their positivity into real results for their customers.

Along with much of the world, when COVID-19 cases and lockdowns hit hard in the spring, the golf industry was shaken by hectic uncertainty. Especially in the northeastern United States, where a few unusually rainy years were placing many golf courses on the verge of going out of business or being forced to scale back, the outlook in March and April seemed grim. However, as lockdowns eased up, it turned out that golf—already outdoors and socially distanced—was a perfect candidate to accommodate safe sport and entertainment. Many previously tightly-scheduled families also found themselves with more time after other activities had been canceled or moved online, and they returned to playing golf together.

Spiio’s temperature data from below the ground allows for better application timing. This is especially true in the spring when the soil warms up.

Joe Barton, Hodges Rash Company

These conditions, combined with a year that didn’t rain out as many potential golf days, caused an unexpected but welcome upturn in the golf industry in 2020. People in the industry are feeling more positive than they have in recent years, and companies like Hodges Rash are hoping to make the most of the optimism. The Hodges Rash Company is a Pennsylvania-based distributor that works to provide products and services for turfgrass management. They work primarily with golf courses, but also service several athletic fields. As their customers feel more confident coming out to play and investing in new equipment, Hodges Rashes’ clients are looking to grow.

Investing in New Technologies: Hodges Rash and Spiio

One way companies are taking advantage of the financial freedom offered by an upturn in business is investing in new technologies. Hodges Rash is in this position, and one of the new products they’ve begun offering to their clients is the Spiio wireless sensor. Joe Barton, a sales representative for Hodges Rash, is excited for this partnership because he says the Spiio data offers more scientifically-based information with which they can consult their customers. “We do a lot of our work based on phenological indicators—such as when rodadanger and forsythia are in bloom—which is usually fairly accurate. But Spiio data and temperature data from below the ground allows for better application timing. This is especially true in the spring, when the soil warms up.”

The Spiio allows us to monitor soil conditions helping our customers time those applications with data delivered remotely as we can not always see our customers during the spring of the year with the quickly changing weather.

Joe Barton

Spiio also adds the convenience of remote work. “Spring is also a time where you need to make specific  applications for weeds and early onset of disease and insects” Barton points out while continuing; “The Spiio allows us to monitor soil conditions helping our customers time those applications with data delivered remotely as we can not always see our customers during the spring of the year with the quickly changing weather.” This is a big deal, because Joe Barton is one of only four representatives who work all over Pennsylvania and Delaware—and some of his customers are three hours away.

How has Spiio benefitted Hodges Rash customers so far?

Right now, says Barton, they are looking to set a baseline during the first year of collecting data throughout the state. They hope that these first couple of years with the Spiio will help them build a foundational model by closely following the trends they see in the sensor’s data. For example, they have noticed that with decreased rainfall this year the Spiio’s moisture sensors didn’t change much from day to day as we followed irrigation cycles which typically did not produce enough water volume to get the capillary pull. However, as they anticipate increased rain through winter and spring, they plan to track the movements and see how they can use this information next year.

Hodges Rash Company can better consult our customers to make strategic and cost-conscientious decisions in their turf applications.

Joe Barton

Of course, they don’t have to wait until next year to see benefits—in the short term, they are finding they can better consult their customers to make strategic and cost-conscientious decisions in their turf applications. One benefit of the Spiio when it comes to measuring moisture is the ability to place multiple sensors in different parts of a property. “You can tell that way if it rained on one part of the property but not the other,” Barton notes, which helps inform better watering decisions.

One benefit of the Spiio when it comes to measuring moisture is the ability to place multiple sensors in different parts of a property; “You can tell that way if it rained on one part of the property but not the other.”

Joe Barton

Another benefit is that the Spiio adds numerical confirmation to the instincts of experts, like Joe Barton and his colleagues, that allow them to communicate with board members and others who are making decisions about turf. This year, for instance, Barton says that warmer temperature readings from the Spiio have confirmed the sense that turf is under environmental stress, which translates to a message to customers of “maybe we should wait; maybe we should back down” on mechanical stresses.

A Personal Note: How Golf Industry, Family, Sales, and Spiio Come Together

During this unique time, good news for the golf industry is good news for many individuals and families. Joe Barton, whose father worked for the city of Hagerstown in Maryland, worked on a public golf course when he was 15, and later moved to a country club there. He enjoyed working outdoors—so much so that he switched career tracks from computer programming in order to keep working outdoors. But it was because he played baseball growing up and thought about working athletic fields, that he then realized that there are a lot more golf courses than baseball teams. He started out, after graduating from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Agriculture and Natural Resources, with an internship at Oakmont Country Club. As he gained experience, he moved up in the field and worked as an assistant at both the Woodholme Country Club in Baltimore and Westmoreland Country Club in Export, PA. He then became the superintendent of The Club at Blackthorne in Murrysville, PA. 

The start of a sales career

After the birth of his daughter, Barton became acutely aware that he was in a business that didn’t really have summer vacations. He began exploring the world of sales and discovered that, in addition to more time with his family, that route offered him the opportunity to see 50 or 60 courses on a pretty regular basis, rather than just one. He’s been with The Hodges Rash company for 13 years now and seen it grow from a company selling one or two products to one that has expanded dramatically in both products and services. 

Looking forward, even with COVID-19 spikes and new lockdowns, Joe Barton continues to be optimistic. This time of year, he acknowledges, is a quieter one for the golf industry anyway, and many are hopeful for a better outlook in the spring. As for their partnership with Spiio, he says:

If you want to become a reseller reach out to Spiio here.

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