How much and how often should I water my lawn?

Proper Irrigation management has been debated often in relationship to ornamental turf grasses. One common theme you can find in most debates stems from the amount of water and what time of day is best, both topics seem to be the most contested argument put forth by all parties.
Most arguments can be put to rest by following simple instructions about irrigation management.

1. Know your irrigation system output.

Knowing how much your system puts out per minute can be beneficial to establishing guidelines. Once you have established your systems output, one can make an educated guess as to how much water is being applied in any given setting. (contacting your irrigation specialist for a system audit, can give you accurate output amounts)

2. Water in the early morning hours after the sun comes up.

Watering in the morning prevents moisture evaporation and can help decrease disease. Watering later in the day can cause evaporation from the sun and watering at night or before the sun comes up promotes disease by leaving water on the leaf blade to breed fungus.

3. Long slow watering is considered ideal rather than short frequent watering's.

Long slow watering helps promote a deeper root system and gives your topsoil a healthier environment for growth, consequently, run-off becomes a major issue when trying to water longer, knowing how long you can water before run-off begins is a basic concept to water management. Water as long as you can before run-off begins, allow the yard to soak up the water and then repeat until run-off begins again, all in the same watering setting or watering day.

4. Soil type and Run-off are often evaluated when setting your system.

Understanding your soil type can help a homeowner gauge how long to allow a system to run, sandy soils leach more water and can cause run-off more rapidly, while soils with less sandy loam and clay can absorb more and prevent run-off. Know your soil and set your system to manage run-off.

In the region we live in, (North Texas) a watering prescription for ornamental turf-grasses has been proposed as follows: 1 to 2 inches per week or a depth of 4 to 6 inches. (how you obtain this amount is with the longest watering cycle possible, in the mid morning with the least amount of run-off, every irrigation system is different)

Look to the left of this blog entry for Texas State Watering Guidelines or
The links below can help you further on the subject of turf-grass watering questions:
(cut and paste this link or click on the link to access website)

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/county/smith/tips/land/waterLawn09.html

http://texaswater.tamu.edu/conference/feb05/havlak.pdf

Why do I have so many seedheads?

Seedheads in bermudagrass

The "seedhead" issue is much more a factor of management than anything else such as variety choice. If a Bermuda is throwing blooms out every 5 days, then it is stressed. Under stress conditions, even the vegetative sod Bermudas will throw up a lot of blooms. Stresses include-poor drainage, poor watering (too much and too little), drought, low nitrogen availiablity, soil compaction, temperature, etc. Low imputs of Nitrogen is the most common cause of a Bermuda turf throwing a lot of blooms. By improving these management and cultural practice traits a huge reduction in the amount of bloom will be seen. To find out more about Seedhead Formation Concerns, visit: http://www.bermudagrass.com/maintenance/seedheads.html