Posted: 5/11/2015 7:56:53 AM EDT
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My house had an irrigation system installed when it was built, and my wife hasn't been to happy about running it because it sends the water bill up, so it's sat unused for a bunch of years without use except for the occasional run-up to make sure nothing has broken.
I live in the Marietta area, and I'm wondering how I should be programming it for our climate. I've noticed my soil is pretty dry and lifeless, and as a result, my Bermuda is kind of thin, so it's time to spend some money on water. I programmed the controller box yesterday so that the sprinklers would kick on at 0430 this morning and run each station for 30 minutes. It sucked, because each time a station began watering, my dogs would bark their heads off, and we have four or five stations! At what time in the morning should I be starting the system to water the lawn? How long should I be running each station? How many days a week should I be running the program? (Right now it's set for Monday, Wednesday, Friday.) Thanks for any pointers you guys might have!!! |
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Too many variables to give a reasonable answer. Look carefully at your zones. Lawn sprinklers need more time than spray heads for landscaping.
I water my lawn for 20-25 minutes per lawn zone and 10-14 minutes per landscaping zone, 3 times a week, at 5am. I adjust as necessary for current weather conditions. I found that watering earlier promoted more fungus growth since the grass stayed wet longer. Make sure you cut back your watering if you get a lot of rain too. Too much water is probably worse than not enough. |
| I didn't consider the wet grass promoting the growth of fungus. I was considering watering it at 2200, but when one considers the possibility of fungus growing, that probably wouldn't be smart because then it would stay wet at night. None of my zones are landscaping; it's all lawn. The areas that stay the wettest right now (from the neighbors yard naturally draining down to it) seems to be the healthiest and greenest. There are some areas that seem to be drier and growing moss. :( |
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0430 is a good time to be watering. For established lawns, you don't need to be watering daily. I'd go to every 3 days.
You want to put down 1" of water on the lawn per week - put out cups to measure it. Georgia Irrigation Advice If you want to save on water you should add two things to your system: 1) A moisture meter - you don't need to be watering when it's raining, or has recently rained. 2) A Wind gauge - you don't want to be watering when it's super windy. If your controller doesn't support them (most do) you can fairly easily upgrade. The modern systems are also web-enabled that allow lots of cool options.... ETA: if you're concerned about lawn health, get the soil tested. You may just need a better fertilizer regime. ETA2: With fairly recent construction I'm betting your soil is crap. I'd look at coring the lawn and top-dressing with good compost. Do this 1x per year for the foreseeable future. If you have good soil and decent sun your lawn would be fine right now - we've been getting good rain. ETA3: I'm also guessing that with a builder-grade system the balancing of your zones is crap - you're probably putting down water unevenly. Some areas are getting too much water, some not enough. Put out *lots* of cups to check, and switch out heads or nozzles to put more or less water out of individual heads and get the system into a better balance. It may also be worth adding/moving a head or two. |