Lawn water problems
This is something I haven’t talked about in some time. After this long hot summer I think it might be a good idea to discuss ways to get better water penetration in your lawn
One way that most of us with automatic sprinklers can use is multiple start times.
What do I mean by this?
Well, if the water starts running off your lawn after about 10 minutes you stop at 10 minutes watering, let the water be absorbed and then water for another 10 minutes. Often what people do is water in the morning and then again in the evening but, the idea is to get the water to penetrate down to the root zone. You need to follow the first watering about an hour later to keep forcing the water into the soil. It sometimes takes 3 waterings at 10 minutes each with about an hour between each start time to get enough water into the soil.
What you do also depends on the type of heads. If you have rotary heads the total watering time can be as much as an hour and half.
Another technique to increase water penetration is aeration. What this is is making holes in the soil that allows the water to soak in. Spikes don’t do it. All they do is push the soil aside for a short time and then the soil goes back and you are no better off than before. We recommend either a mechanical aerator that pulls out plugs or a water aerator that washes holes in the soil.
You can rent a mechanical aerator or come in and we can give you names of people that do it. The water aerator is a device that the home owner can do easily. All it is is a dual spike that is attached to a hose and you push it easily into the soil at about 1 ft apart. This usually goes deeper and having the aerator at home you can go over areas that need it multiple times. I have seen this make a dramatic difference in as little as a week. We have them for sale at ????
In any case about ¾ of the lawn problems I see are water related. Either a sprinkler design problem, clogged heads, or compaction. One of the tests is to put pie pans out over areas you are having problems and compare the amount you get in good areas. A rule of thumb is no more than 1/3 differe
