Summer has arrived early in North Texas this year, as we’re already regularly seeing temperatures in the 90s most days.
Are you watering your lawn correctly?
Between irrigation and natural rainfall, your grass should receive between 1 and 1.5 inches of water each week during the summer months. Watering deeply but infrequently (2-3 days a week) leads to stronger root development and drought resistance.
Overwatering, watering during the wrong times of day and watering too often can cause more damage to your lawn than underwatering! Overwatering indicators include fungi, weeds and exposed roots, which kills the grass. Keep an eye out for puddles of water and run-off, as they are also signs of overwatering your lawn.
How do you know when your lawn needs watering? Patches of dry, yellow grass is a sign that you need to water. Or, if your lawn is grayish or dull green, it’s telling you it’s time to water. You can also check your lawn by walking on it. If you notice that your footprints don’t disappear quickly, it means the grass blades don’t have enough moisture to spring back quickly.
OK, so you’ve determined that your lawn is thirsty. How do you know how long to water your lawn? There’s a couple of ways you can find out!
Tuna can test: Place empty, clean tuna cans around the yard and measure how long it takes to collect 1 to 1.5 inches of water in each can. Use the average time it takes to fill all of the cans.
Screwdriver test: Check the soil every 15 minutes during your first watering by using a screwdriver to determine how deeply the water has moved into the soil. Mark the time once the water has soaked down to a depth of 6 inches. That’s how long you need to water your lawn each time in the future. Rule of thumb: if you can’t stick a screwdriver 6 inches into the soil, you need to water.
Do the math: Your sprinkler system has a designated flow rate of gallons per minute, which you can obtain from the manufacturer. To find out the number of minutes to run your sprinkler, multiply your lawn’s square footage (you get the square footage by multiplying the length of your yard by its width) by .0623 gallons – which is one inch of water per square foot – then divide that total by the sprinkler flow rate.
The ideal time to water your lawn is early in the morning before 10am. It’s cooler then and the winds tend to be calmer so water can soak into the soil and not evaporate. Also, this gives the grass time to dry before the sun is reaches the highest point in the sky. Do not water at night, as there is a greater chance for fungus and other diseases to develop on your lawn.
For established lawns, water until the top 6-8 inches of the soil is wet (not soggy).
Newly seeded or sodded lawns should be consistently moist in the top inch of their soil, but not soggy. You will need to mist the seeded area once or twice a day, possibly more often if it’s hot and dry.
As the seeds germinate, keep the top 2 inches of soil moist. Once the grass grows to a 3-inch mowing height, you can reduce watering to twice a week. Then, you should soak the soil down 6-8 inches, like you would an established lawn.
If your lawn needs some TLC this summer, give Lawn Doctor of Denton at call today at (940) 268-3666 to see what services we provide to make your lawn green and healthy!
