Understanding Your Lawn and Its Water Needs
Relying on manual watering methods, and common mistakes such as overwatering and underwatering based on your lawn and landscape’s changing needs, waste water and do not promote a healthy lawn and landscape.
Read on to learn more about the best watering methods and how to identify and avoid overwatering and underwatering.
Six Wrong Ways to Water
1. Relying on a Handheld Hose or Portable Sprinkler
Hose watering wastes water and does not promote healthy plant growth because it usually results in some areas being overwatered while others are underwatered. Automatic landscape irrigation systems use water efficiently, distributing it effectively. And because, unlike humans, they don’t have other responsibilities, computer-controlled irrigation systems can provide the right amount of water in the right places, at the right time, every time, all the time.
2. Overwatering
Watering your grass to keep it alive and green seems like a simple task. But if your lawn gets too much moisture, the soil may erode, and the roots may rot. To help ensure your landscape stays healthy, here are a few ways to tell if it’s overwatered and why.
Most lawns should not be watered every day. This practice drowns grass roots, helps some weeds thrive, fosters insect activity, and promotes fungus and mold growth that lead to root rot. If you’re having issues with weed overgrowth and a brown lawn, you may need to cut back on the water.
When a landscape is overwatered, plant roots remain shallow, preventing them from penetrating deeper into the soil where moisture is stored. As a result, because they do not have a good root structure, they need to be watered frequently and are susceptible to shock when the weather is warmer or drier than usual. Too much water can also cause problems such as fungal growth or soil erosion.
What are the signs of overwatering?
If you’re watering every day, there’s a good chance that your lawn is overwatered. And, if your lawn develops depressions or feels squishy underfoot or if the soil is eroding, you’re likely watering too much at one time or too often.
You might also notice thatch build-up—a thick, patchy layer of decaying organic matter that develops over the soil (between the blades of grass) that prevents roots from getting nutrients from the soil. The decaying organic matter also attracts and supports higher level of insect activity that can be detrimental to the health of the lawn. Some amount of thatch happens is natural, but it when a lawn is overwatered, the excess moisture is counterproductive to organisms tasked with thatch decomposition, allowing an unhealthy thatch to build-up that suffocates the lawn.
Most lawns should not be watered every day. This practice drowns grass roots, helps some weeds thrive (e.g., dandelions, crabgrass, nutsedge), fosters insect activity, and promotes fungus (e.g., ring spot fungus which can overtake an entire lawn area) and mold growth that lead to root rot. If you’re having issues with weed overgrowth and a brown lawn, you may need to cut back on the water.
3. Underwatering
Underwatering deprives lawns of essential nutrients, causing them to dry out, become susceptible to drought, go dormant or die. To help ensure your landscape stays healthy, here are a few ways to tell if your lawn is underwatered and why.
What are the signs of underwatering?
If your lawn is well-hydrated, you should be able to push a screwdriver through the soil with little effort. If it’s hard to push, the soil is too dry. Other signs are a bluish-gray tinted grass, limp grass blades and/or the blades of grass not popping back up after you step on them a brown lawn in the summer, and patches of dead grass (e.g., in areas where the soil, grade, and/or sun exposure is different from other grassed areas). Grass will also be slow to grow without enough water. It could be a temporary problem, but the longer the plants go without moisture, the more likely the stunted growth will be permanent.
You’ll also notice that the lack of moisture affects the health of the grass itself, by causing it to wilt, grow at a slower rate, or become discolored; typically, yellower than normal. To catch underwatering early on, look at the way the grass blades respond to pressure. For example, if you can see footprints in the lawn, it’s because the grass doesn’t have enough moisture to spring back up.
4. Watering when it’s Raining or Ignoring the Weather
If you use an automatic watering system, don’t let it run when it’s already raining outside. To avoid overwatering, install a smart WiFi controller linked to a local weather service. A controller with a rain sensor or WiFi controller linked to a weather service will automatically turn off when it rains, will know when it is appropriate to run again, and will automatically adjust watering programs to increase watering times if the weather is hot and dry or decrease or suspend them if the weather is cool or wet.
5. Watering at The Wrong Time of Day
When you water your plantings will impact how much moisture actually gets to the root zone to support development of a healthy root structure. If you water in the middle of the day, heat and winds may cause the moisture to evaporate too fast without penetrating the soil and nourishing the roots. By contrast, watering at night can cause moisture-related problems like fungus. The best time to water is in the morning close to dawn when it’s cool enough to minimize evaporation risks and the winds are usually low.
6. Watering Every Time Plants and Grass Wilt
Wilting can be a sign that your plants or grass are thirsty—but not always. Wilting during hot days is fairly normal and not a sign that extra moisture is needed because all plants can wilt if they are overwatered. To help determine why wilting is happening, use your finger as a moisture probe by sticking it into the soil. If the soil is dry, add water. If the soil is wet, do nothing because watering plants that are waterlogged ensures a speedy death.
If you are located in Rochester, Monroe County or the Finger Lakes Region and are looking for lawn sprinkler system installation or an upgrade to an existing system, annual maintenance, or repair, reach out to Irrigation Tech in Pittsford, NY. Our team of irrigation experts has been serving Rochester, Monroe County, and other communities in the Finger Lakes Region for nearly 40 years. With 10 service trucks, you can trust our fully certified team for fast and efficient service – including backflow device installation and testing. Call 877-8-IRRIGATE to speak with a team member or visit irrigationtech.com to learn more.