So I'm a fairly new lawn owner in Houston, TX and I'm trying to figure out how often / much I should be watering the yard. It's the standard St. Augustine yard, but from what I've read online...it seems that everyone has a different opinion.

For the smart OB folks, what's the best amount to be watering (preferably that won't cost 1000 dollars/month)?

Disclaimer - Bermuda owner and I'm in B/CS. Hard to answer your question specifically as sun exposure, shade, amount of foot traffic, how high you cut your grass, etc. will all affect how much you need to water.

In general you want long deep soaks once a week to at most twice a week during summer. Avoid running the system for shorter periods of time 3-4 times a week. With deep watering, you get deeper root structure and healthier grass. How long you have to run the system to achieve that deep soak depends on your heads, water output, etc. You should pick up a few sprinkler water gauges and put them around the yard in areas that are green vs. dry. You can measure water deposition using these and adjust accordingly.

One good sign that you've achieved a good soak is that you can take a thin 8 inch shaft screw driver and easily insert it to the handle after a deep watering. Now, to get that deep watering don't run one zone for an hour. You'll saturate the top soil and produce a ton of run-off. You can set your system to run 20-30 minutes or so (adjusting to your output on your system), then give that zone a 2-3 hour rest, and hit it again at the same length of time. That gets a deeper soak and you don't have to water 3 times a week.

YMMV, also would help to get a local reputable crew to come out and check coverage, output, etc once a year. Or learn to do it yourself as time goes on. I do a lot of my repairs myself but still have a good crew come and do bigger jobs.

If you are in Harris County, Sign Up for WaterMyYard, Http://WaterMyYard.org

WaterMyYard is a free program provided by the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service with sponsorship from the the Harris Galveston Subsidence District. It uses localized calculated evapotranspiration from the water districts network of weather stations to determine how many days a week and minutes per day to run your system. It is very simple to sign up. All you do is enter your address or zip code so the system can find the closest weather station in the service area to your location, then enter your sprinklers precipitation rate (ie how fast it applies water in inches per hour). If you dont know your precipitation rate you can use the tools to select your sprinkler type, manufacturer and spacing to reference to manufacturers published precipitation rate. Then you can select which day of the week you want to receive an irrigation recommendation email or text message. It works really well and helps prevent you from over irrigating your yard by avoiding unnecessary long runtimes or watering when sufficient rainfall has been received.

15 minutes per stations as needed. when you see the grass begin to lay down, water.

Here is a thread I started recently with some discussion on this exact topic.


https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/2856292/replies/49094105#49094105

Thanks for the help guys. I was doing 3 days a week at 10-15 minutes but that seems to be overkill so I'm backing it off to 2 days and then mowing higher.

I'll also use the tuna can trick that was mentioned on the other thread to make sure I'm getting enough water

I'm also watering twice a week and mow on the highest setting, and this was my yard as of last night after mowing.






I'd say it's doing ok.

my god.

it moved.

gigemJTH12 said:

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my god.

it moved.

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Quote:

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I'm also watering twice a week and mow on the highest setting, and this was my yard as of last night after mowing.

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My mower has a 1-5 height setting. I can't mow it on 5 as it will need another mowing in less than a week. I mow on a 4 which almost makes it look like a golf fairway. That lasts exactly a week. I water every Tuesday and Friday.

Yeah I just changed mine to Mon and Thurs in the morning and bumped my mower up to the #4 setting...we'll see how it looks later on in the summer

Also drummer, well done sir

My lot is over 1/2 acre so mowing more than once per week is not an option. I normally knock out the front yard one weekday after work and the backyard on another weekday after work. That typically frees up the weekend.

Randy Lemmon has all the answers

beefiedoubleoh said:

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Randy Lemmon has all the endorsements

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FIFY. He's monetized his own brand of a one-size-fits-all schedule that makes him money, without having to think about testing your soil or doing your own research on your area. I guess that's one way to make money with a journalism degree.

Prince_Ahmed said:

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beefiedoubleoh said:

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Randy Lemmon has all the endorsements

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FIFY. He's monetized his own brand of a one-size-fits-all schedule that makes him money, without having to think about testing your soil or doing your own research on your area. I guess that's one way to make money with a journalism degree.

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He promotes Medina products, and it always makes me chuckle.

He is basically regurgitating old Neil Sperry recommendations (who is highly qualified) without the science to adapt to unique situations.

Geographic Information Systems are outdoors!

Your lawn is great, but you need to check that ghetto assed driveway.

Skeet, thank you for that website, that is great.

dr_boogs said:

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Disclaimer - Bermuda owner and I'm in B/CS. Hard to answer your question specifically as sun exposure, shade, amount of foot traffic, how high you cut your grass, etc. will all affect how much you need to water.

In general you want long deep soaks once a week to at most twice a week during summer. Avoid running the system for shorter periods of time 3-4 times a week. With deep watering, you get deeper root structure and healthier grass. How long you have to run the system to achieve that deep soak depends on your heads, water output, etc. You should pick up a few sprinkler water gauges and put them around the yard in areas that are green vs. dry. You can measure water deposition using these and adjust accordingly.

One good sign that you've achieved a good soak is that you can take a thin 8 inch shaft screw driver and easily insert it to the handle after a deep watering. Now, to get that deep watering don't run one zone for an hour. You'll saturate the top soil and produce a ton of run-off. You can set your system to run 20-30 minutes or so (adjusting to your output on your system), then give that zone a 2-3 hour rest, and hit it again at the same length of time. That gets a deeper soak and you don't have to water 3 times a week.

YMMV, also would help to get a local reputable crew to come out and check coverage, output, etc once a year. Or learn to do it yourself as time goes on. I do a lot of my repairs myself but still have a good crew come and do bigger jobs.

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With a due respect, completely disagree. I used to do that and my grass was stressed to the max during July and August. And I had coverage issues.

Instead, once summer starts, water everyday for 10 minutes in the early morning on all grass zones. In the absolute hottest part of the summer, add a few minutes each day.

Been doing that for years and I have had great success. No stress, no disease and no die off.

We shall agree to disagree. Different strokes for different folks. My lawn is equally content with my schedule and our turf expert lives across the street and started me on this program years ago. Again, I run Bermuda and am in BCS.

Carry on. This is like the ford chevy beans no beans debate.

queso1 said:

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Your lawn is great, but you need to check that ghetto assed driveway.

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I know.

My driveway is concrete except for the portion that goes over the culvert/ditch, which is asphalt. It was already this way when we bought the house. We have plans to demo that section out and pour concrete instead, but it just hasn't made its way up to the top of the priority list yet.

garc,

I've been a licensed irrigator and landscape contractor for 20 years. Watering everyday promotes shallow root growth which is detrimental for grass surviving drought. This isn't a matter of opinion, it's a fact.

Apache said:

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garc,

I've been a licensed irrigator and landscape contractor for 20 years. Watering everyday promotes shallow root growth which is detrimental for grass surviving drought. This isn't a matter of opinion, it's a fact.

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Been doing it that way for about 15 years. It works.

I actually changed when I read a USA Today article on a flight by one of the top turf scientists in the country many years ago. What I do now was his recommendation in that article and it's the best method imo.

I've never had an issue since then in Texas doing it his way.

What happens when severe drought causes stage three water restrictions and you can't water everyday? My neighbor in Prosper watered everyday too, had a real green yard, until he could only water once a week and his yard died, not went dormant but died.

AggieGunslinger said:

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What happens when severe drought causes stage three water restrictions and you can't water everyday? My neighbor in Prosper watered everyday too, had a real green yard, until he could only water once a week and his yard died, not went dormant but died.

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So other yards survived? At once per week, I doubt it regardless of method.

I've only gone through every other day watering restrictions a couple of times and had no issues.

I'll continue to use the professor's recommendation. To each his own.

Mine did not die, neither did anyone else that watered once or twice a week real deep, sure it went dormant but didn't die.

But I agree, to each their own, keep using what works for you.

So if your yard did fine watering every other day, why did you go back to every day?

I'd love to see the article as it contradicts every piece of scientific literature I've read on residential turfgrass in Texas as well as my professional experience. I'm sure it keeps lawns green, but like others have said it does not develop grass that can survive any meaningful drought restrictions. If it was the best method, it would be more widely used. It isn't.

However it is your lawn and do with it what you will.

I have yet to water this year, and I can't seem to get my lawn to quit growing.

I only irrigate for foundation protection. I have an irrigation system, but rarely use it. If the soil pulls back, I'll water enough to re expand. It helps that I could really care less what my lawn looks like as long as I'm within code and don't have an erosion issue.

10 years, in August, and have never watered more than 5 times in a year.

In Houston (with quite a bit a shade) and I only water when my grass starts looking like it needs water. Basically when it starts wilting. I run 17 minutes per station and the grass usually looks great again the next day. I've watered less than 10 times so far in 2017 and the lawn looks great. I know this will vary greatly on soils and sun exposure

As another Licensed Irrigator on the OB and an Irrigation Instructor & TCEQ training provider the science and recommendation for residential turfscapes is to water deep and infrequent. There is some data out there related to the benefits of daily irrigation but those studies have focused on high value/ highly maintained turfgrass like golf course greens not residential lawns.

The simple way I explain it to my students is water your grass like you manage the gas in your trucks gas tank:
-Your grass can only access the water within the soil to the limits of the plants root zone. This is your available water or "storage tank"
-Therefore dont apply more water (generally) than your roots can access just like you cant fit 30 gallons in a 25 gallon gas tank.
-Dont use up all the water in your "tank" or soil. If you do your trucks dead on the side of the road or your plant goes past wilting point which can be very stressful for the plant and difficult or timely for the plant to recover.
-Generally we have a point where we we decide its time to irrigate, just like you may follow the low fuel light on your gas tank or some other threshold. Different plants have varying thresholds for maintaining a particular quality. Typically to avoid any stress and without site specific data we recommend 50%.
-In many landscapes we can train the plants to have deeper roots, thereby expanding our storage tank. It doesnt happen quickly but over seasons and years we can slowly water a little deeper and less often putting the plant into mild amounts of stress forcing it grow deeper roots looking for more moisture. In a well managed landscape with good agronomic practices its not unheard of to grow at least 1 inch of roots over an active growing season.

Statistically for most parts of the state (Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio) if you have 6 inch deep roots you need no more than 1 irrigation day per week with the exception of on average 2 weeks at late July/Early August when evapotranspiration rates peak. The problem we have is that many people rely on the controller to follow a fixed irrigation schedule throughout the year that often puts out too much water too often for the majority of the year. This results in "lazy" plants with shallow roots that as previously mentioned cant survive or have a difficult time surviving when severe water restrictions hit.

I have some contracts with the cities/utilities in the North Texas-Dallas area where we were able to maintain some acceptable quality landscapes when they went to a 1 day every 14 day water restriction during the drought. Some of the landscapes that were not being actively managed throughout the year were unable to survive . The days of everyday watering allowed are coming a close fast. Based on discussions with my contacts within 5 years most urban areas will be at no more than 2-3 days per week max allowed. Cities like San Antonio and Austin have/are moving to year round water restrictions and others are following suit.

Thanks for all of the feedback guys...I measured how much water I was getting during a cycle this morning and it looks like I was going too heavy and too often. Backing down to twice a week and a bit less time (10 min/zone) looks to get me right about 1 inch/week.

gougler08 said:

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Thanks for all of the feedback guys...I measured how much water I was getting during a cycle this morning and it looks like I was going too heavy and too often. Backing down to twice a week and a bit less time (10 min/zone) looks to get me right about 1 inch/week.

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Now you're getting it

Get a dog, they will take care of it for you

I know people say a wirehaired water schnauzer will work but not as well as my Portuguese Water Dog who was bred for it.

drummer0415 said:

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I'm also watering twice a week and mow on the highest setting, and this was my yard as of last night after mowing.






I'd say it's doing ok.

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Do you fertilize?