WATERING

The key to the healthy watering of your lawn is figuring out
YOUR soil type, and adjusting your watering cycles accordingly.
 

When it comes to living in our arid, desert region, there is probably no single aspect of lawn care more important than the careful and proper use of our limited water. Sadly, at the same time, there is perhaps no aspect less understood. While it is fairly easy to keep a lawn "alive," finding the threshold between "enough" and "too much" can sometimes be a bit more complicated.

As Jerry Goodspeed (a Utah State University Extension Horticulturist) states, "Besides being expensive, over-watering damages the lawn, contributing to poor growth, and causing serious disease problems. Over watering contributes to iron chlorosis or yellowing in lawns, trees and shrubs, and makes more frequent fertilizer applications necessary."

Living in an area that is needfully focused on water-conservation, it is worth our while to do what we can to protect our resources - AND improve the overall health of our lawns.

Here are some things you can do to learn about the watering needs of your lawn.

sprinkers running

LEARN YOUR SOIL TYPE
Core Aeration

Regular aeration helps more water reach the root zone before evaporating.

If you still have a copy of our Lawn Analysis, the information is recorded there.
If you are not sure of your soil type, give us a call and we can help you.

Doctor Goodspeed explains, "A sandy, well-drained soil can be watered more frequently without damaging the roots. A poor-draining, heavy soil holds the water and should be watered less often. For example, in the heat of the summer, plants in a typical sandy soil need watering every three or four days, where the same plants in a clay-type soil can go five or even six days between irrigations. The real trick to watering is simply knowing how deep the water is going into the soil and how long it is staying there. Don't guess or be afraid to go out to probe or dig around until you know more about what is happening in the yard.

"Many people tell me their soil is pure sand and their poor, defenseless grass will wilt and die if not watered on a constant basis. Lawns in a sandy soil can still go three or four days between watering, but the roots need to be trained to adapt."

ADJUST YOUR SPRINKLER SYSTEM

Measure as you water. Lawns require as much as one-third inch of water per day, or 2.5 inches per week in mid-summer. To measure water application and help determine length of watering time:

  1. Place 6" deep (or greater), straight-sided cans in several locations around the lawn.
  2. Run the sprinklers.
  3. Measure the water in each can and average the results.

It is not uncommon for us to find systems delivering 2" in one area and only 1/4" in another. This scenario wastes water and still leaves dry spots. Just because it all looks wet after watering doesn't mean it is all getting watered sufficiently.

Also keep track of how long it takes to fill the can with the right amount of water so you can determine length of watering time. With the exception of new lawns you should never water for less than 20 minutes. The first 10 minutes of watering typically end up in the thatch layer where it is quickly evaporated by the sun.

You should probably be seeing .5" - 1" per watering. We have found that most stationary sprinklers take about 30 minutes to deliver that much, and most impact or gear-driven heads take 45-60 minutes.

Be aware of water penetration."Roots develop wherever they find water and nutrients," Goodspeed explains. "Watering every day doesn't encourage the roots to stretch and grow because the water is always available right at the surface. Then if the water is cut off for a day, the plants begin showing signs of drying."

  • Water should penetrate about 8-10 inches per application.
  • To determine depth of water penetration, push a rod or screwdriver into the turf and measure how far it goes in. It will slide right through soil that is moist. Once it hits dry ground it will stop and become harder to push. Pull the rod out and measure it to see how deep the water is penetrating.
  • WATER DEEPLY AND AS INFREQUENTLY AS POSSIBLE!

SIGNS YOUR LAWN IS TOO DRY

  • Lawn takes on a blue/gray cast.
  • Lawn does not spring back after being walked on.
  • Lawn feels warm to the touch in the afternoon.

Here is a good schedule to start with for established lawns

Adjust as needed.
Rainfall of 1/3" or more may be counted as a watering.

May: Every 4-6 days
June: Every 3-5 days
July - mid Sept: Every 3-4 days
mid Sept - mid Oct: Every 4-6 days

  • Too much water causes iron chlorosis or yellowing in turf, trees and shrubs. It also carries away fertilizer. Grass actually does best with extended periods between watering. Many lawns in our area are still flood irrigated once a week, and they look great.

  • If you see water running onto the curb, street, or sidewalk - you're wasting your own money. The key to deep watering is to set your cycles for a time short enough to avoid runoff - and then repeat cycles every hour until you have applied enough water to wet your soil 8 to 12 inches deep. You may need to repeat your watering cycle as many as 5 times to achieve this. For heavy clay soils, you may need to apply about 1.1 inches of water to wet your soil this deeply. For sandy soils, you may only need to apply 3/4 inch to wet the soil to the same depth.