Watering

[BIG TONE SOPRANO]

Yep definitely need some adjustments. So Sarpy letter said watering schedule should TU-THURS-SAT for my home address. Do we think, just ball parking here, an average of 20 minutes a zone doing that schedule, plus a Sunday, would be more beneficial than what I'm doing now? Maybe see how that does for 4-6 weeks then re-assess from there?


So it would look like TU-THURS-SAT-SUN about 20 minutes each zone?

Sarpy pretty liberal

 

[Skerz4Life50]

Yep definitely need some adjustments. So Sarpy letter said watering schedule should TU-THURS-SAT for my home address. Do we think, just ball parking here, an average of 20 minutes a zone doing that schedule, plus a Sunday, would be more beneficial than what I'm doing now? Maybe see how that does for 4-6 weeks then re-assess from there?


So it would look like TU-THURS-SAT-SUN about 20 minutes each zone?

Asking for how much time you should run each run really isn't going to be helpful. Types of sprinkler heads, the pressure/volumetric flow of the heads, overlapping zone coverage, type of soil, and then temperature and rainfall all affect how long you should be running your sprinklers. Really the only accurate way to know how long you should run your sprinklers is to test them and see how much water different areas of your lawn/different zones are getting. Look up tuna can watering test.

Based on that test, you can determine how much time you would need to run them to get to a weekly total (say in 10 minutes, you get 0.25" of water, then 20 minutes would give you 0.5", and running it 3 times a week - at 20 minutes each day - would give you 1.5" for the week). You can then also adjust the time based on how hot, how much sun, etc you are getting and you can increase certain zones if they seem to dry out faster. Spring and Fall you typically want 1-1.5" per week. In the summer, that is going to increase.

For my backyard, I am running my sprinklers for about 45 minutes, and I do that 3 times a week, alternating days. For my front yard, I am running them about 30 minutes, 3 times a week, alternating days.

 

[Boondock_St_Sker]

Great thread Pipeline!! Lots of good advice

My issue is dags...I like our dags, but they destroy grass around the trees. So there are bare spots around the three trees in my backyard which creates mud puddles that the dags then run through. Just birching b/c I'm the one that usually has to wipe the feet before they come back in the house. Our lawn looks great following all the rain we got but mud puddles too.

Thanks for listening...

 

[The Bearded One]

mine is set to 7 days a week- 35 minutes a zone. i think i am about caught back up from how dry we were and i may go down to every other day. im on my own water tho

I know we live relatively close to each other and I can confirm that I've had to run mine 4-5 days a week at 30-35 minutes per zone to stay caught up as well. Little to no fucking rain and heat! The lawn will show you if you aren't keeping up very quickly.

Obviously, OP, there is a lot of good info in this thread for you. You might want to slow down on your watering until you can see a slight visual change in your yard getting a tad dry. That will help give you a range that you need to stay within instead of overwatering which can create fungi and root problems if gone too far! Good luck, and keep wife's lawn watered and trimmed as well!

 

[Cash68847]

mine is set to 7 days a week- 35 minutes a zone. i think i am about caught back up from how dry we were and i may go down to every other day. im on my own water tho

Are you in town or going off a well water? My bill in town would probably be 200-250 going that often.

 

[Pipe Line]

Asking for how much time you should run each run really isn't going to be helpful. Types of sprinkler heads, the pressure/volumetric flow of the heads, overlapping zone coverage, type of soil, and then temperature and rainfall all affect how long you should be running your sprinklers. Really the only accurate way to know how long you should run your sprinklers is to test them and see how much water different areas of your lawn/different zones are getting. Look up tuna can watering test.

Based on that test, you can determine how much time you would need to run them to get to a weekly total (say in 10 minutes, you get 0.25" of water, then 20 minutes would give you 0.5", and running it 3 times a week - at 20 minutes each day - would give you 1.5" for the week). You can then also adjust the time based on how hot, how much sun, etc you are getting and you can increase certain zones if they seem to dry out faster. Spring and Fall you typically want 1-1.5" per week. In the summer, that is going to increase.

For my backyard, I am running my sprinklers for about 45 minutes, and I do that 3 times a week, alternating days. For my front yard, I am running them about 30 minutes, 3 times a week, alternating days.

The tuna can test seems to be an overwhelmingly positive thing to do first to get a pretty exact measurement on what I need to do, so I think that's what I'll end up doing in the very near future. I would say on a very basic level, watering every other day seems to be a positive common denominator as well.

 

[Pipe Line]

Sarpy pretty liberal

Minus the liberal part lol

 

[Pipe Line]

Great thread Pipeline!! Lots of good advice

My issue is dags...I like our dags, but they destroy grass around the trees. So there are bare spots around the three trees in my backyard which creates mud puddles that the dags then run through. Just birching b/c I'm the one that usually has to wipe the feet before they come back in the house. Our lawn looks great following all the rain we got but mud puddles too.

Thanks for listening...

Dude, my dogs were a nightmare the first few days after sprinkler install. They company set them to 3x a day for the first week while everything bonded back together. I have a few thin on grass spots in the backyard and there was definitely a ton of mud. Wife was livid by about day 3 because of the foot prints on the hardwood floors. Spent so much time cleaning their feet coming in and out of the house. I dropped it back to once a day just shy of a week post install and that problem went away, but I really need to get some of those spots seeded and growing out back to take care of that issue. She gets a little agitated anytime there's a lot of rain fall because she knows what's coming lol

 

[huskin1]

You could try growtrax for the bare areas @Pipe Line . I recenty did that in a couple spots because of the dogs and it came up really well. Just make sure you put up some chicken wire or a barrier of some sort around it to keep them out of it until it sprouts.

 

[Pipe Line]

You could try growtrax for the bare areas @Pipe Line . I recenty did that in a couple spots because of the dogs and it came up really well. Just make sure you put up some chicken wire or a barrier of some sort around it to keep them out of it until it sprouts.

Thank you! I have a setup like that on the corner of my shed right now, got some heat wave sprouting from the grass pad right now. Definitely think I should have added more seed though.

 

[Adolph Coors]

Are you in town or going off a well water? My bill in town would probably be 200-250 going that often.

well water. or i wouldnt be doing that.

 

[HuskerGarrett]

Slightly off topic but I just got the B-Hyve smart sprinkler system and it’s pretty awesome. You can control everything from an app and it’ll automatically check weather forecasts and not run if it’s going to rain

 

[Jim14510]

Slightly off topic but I just got the B-Hyve smart sprinkler system and it’s pretty awesome. You can control everything from an app and it’ll automatically check weather forecasts and not run if it’s going to rain

Does it change watering times based off of how much rain you've had?

 

[HuskerGarrett]

Does it change watering times based off of how much rain you've had?

Good question, I’m not sure.

 

[jaihawk]

Slightly off topic but I just got the B-Hyve smart sprinkler system and it’s pretty awesome. You can control everything from an app and it’ll automatically check weather forecasts and not run if it’s going to rain

I love my RainMachine controller and app. It does the same thing and will automatically change the watering based on all of that. Mine hasn't run in over a week now thanks to the rain we got. You program each zone with what direction it faces and what type of sprinkler head you have and it'll automatically change the watering times for you based on the weather and forecasts.

 

[Kaladin]

Slightly off topic but I just got the B-Hyve smart sprinkler system and it’s pretty awesome. You can control everything from an app and it’ll automatically check weather forecasts and not run if it’s going to rain

Reading about this makes me want to get my own yard so I can get the B-Hyve smart sprinkler system and use the app

 

[Kaladin]

I love my RainMachine controller and app. It does the same thing and will automatically change the watering based on all of that. Mine hasn't run in over a week now thanks to the rain we got. You program each zone with what direction it faces and what type of sprinkler head you have and it'll automatically change the watering times for you based on the weather and forecasts.

 

[Faux Sean Callahan]

Stellar video. Preciate you. Yep definitely need to make some adjustments this evening

Allyn Hane is great for questions line this

 

[Boondock_St_Sker]

Thank you! I have a setup like that on the corner of my shed right now, got some heat wave sprouting from the grass pad right now. Definitely think I should have added more seed though.

we use Macho Mix from grass pad...great stuff. The Grass Pad is awesome. We've blocked off parts of the yard but the areas around the trees are just fooked. Squirrels climb trees...dags like yelling at squirrels from the base of the tree. Grass doesn't like being stepped on constantly by paws = no grass

 

[Pipe Line]

we use Macho Mix from grass pad...great stuff. The Grass Pad is awesome. We've blocked off parts of the yard but the areas around the trees are just fooked. Squirrels climb trees...dags like yelling at squirrels from the base of the tree. Grass doesn't like being stepped on constantly by paws = no grass

Yep, that explains the somewhat shitty looking grass around our trees. My father in law used macho mix whenever he put a bunch down, looks great now.