Had a new sprinkler system installed last week. Loving it. Currently going through what I'd call a recovery phase with my lawn. Getting it back in shape. Currently it's programmed as follows:

Runs 4 days a week: M, W, F, Su
Run Time: 5 yard zones at 7 min each
Run Time: 1 flowerbed zone at 4 min
Clock: Start at 4am, cycle takes 39 mins

Do you run yours more than 4 days? How about during the recovery phase. Should I go daily?

7 mins good for each zone?

Any big "dos and don'ts"?

I run my larger grass areas longer - 16 minute per station. My back yard is smaller, so I use 8 minutes per station. Three times a week on the lawn. Drip irrigation in the flower beds get 20-30 minutes per station, twice a week. I watch to see how much runs off the lawn and into the gutter. I've set out cans before to measure how much water is hitting the target areas. Also depends on what you're growing and how much you want to mow. We just built this house less than two years ago - one of my requests, was to have the irrigation put on a well, along with three of the outside hose bibs. I'm one of those " yard guy' neighbors. I like to cut grass three times a week during growing season. Have fun.

We run ours twice a week for twenty minutes a zone for the lawn and five minutes for the flowers and trees. Lawn looks great and we don't have any run off. We didn't do anything different for a recovery period for the lawn though, just the same twice a week.

I vote for one long run when needed, after midnight, over multiple small runs. 4 days a week in houston is overwatering and a recipe for late season fungus. If we go 2 weeks without rain then i will run it once a week til it rains again.

Where are you and what is your soil thickness? Makes a big difference.

Also a fan of longer soaks more spaced out.

In Houston.

Typical suburban neighborhood. Soil isn't great. Lawn crew didn't seem worried about it. Several of my neighbors have great yards with similar setups. My yard looked amazing 3 years ago.

Unfortunately, my lawn got fert burn 2 years ago, coupled with Harvey flood waters bringing in tons of weeds I didn't have before. Also, while I was repairing my house from Harvey, I simply didn't take good care of my yard due to time prioritization. That combo of factors had me behind the 8 ball going into this summer. In comes:
Sprinkler system
Lawn Care company
Aeration
8 step fertilizer (no burn) program
Yard pesticides (granular)

I was a bit worried about fungus. Will ask if their pesticide program addresses fungi.

OP - I'm with the rest of the posters, run fewer days (2 days a week if possible) and longer runs for each zone. Time per zone depends on what you're watering and what type of heads you have. Also shade, partial sun, full sun.

You can pick up some cheap gauges to put out in the yard in each zone to get a feel for how much water you are actually providing. Adjust accordingly.

Edited to mention I have no idea where that emoji came from. Not intentional.

Only run 1 day a week as needed. I have yet to water my grass this year and am still mowing every 7-10 days.

If you have a healthy soil, 1 day a week works statistically 50 weeks a year. Based on my logs irrigation is only needed between 15-20 weeks a year.

If you follow ET rates, 0.5" per week most of the year (0.75" per week July-August ) is all that's needed for most residential landscapes

I have a Rachio and it's a game changer. Especially if you are in an area where water is expensive. You enter all the data about your yard, connect it to a weather station and let it do it's thing. It constantly changes the cycles depending on conditions.

Agree with the rest on trying to dial back to once or twice per week with longer runs. As mentioned above, put out some gauges to see how much water you are putting out and adjust your times from there. And to minimize runoff, I like to split my run time in half and run the whole system immediately back-to-back.

The longer, less frequent soak will help develop a deeper root system and more hardy lawn.

I run one day a week with a St Augustine lawn NW of San Antonio. No issues this year.

You might consider breaking your watering sessions into two shorter ones, one after another. The water soaks in better that way.

For my place near College Station, twice a week. When I experimented with 3 times weekly, that was a 50% increase and it showed in my water bill. Water rates per gallon increase the more you use, so it gets expensive quick. I learned that for the zones with the most southern/western exposure during the months of Jul-Sep, I could selectively increase run times on those zones to keep the grass in good shape without resorting to a third day of watering the entire yard.

I turn the system off in Nov and don't turn on again until late spring, depending on the rainfall pattern. This year I didn't turn it on until June.

MHA if you are working on your irrigation I will second an earlier poster ... seriously consider adding a Rachio to the system. Without a doubt the best $ I've ever spent on anything related to the yard. It's simple to install and will change your life regarding stations, times, zones etc. etc. You are still going to have to figure out the exact times and durations you want to water (fyi I support the longer times less frequency agenda) but adjusting all of that will be a breeze-- from your phone on the couch or at the office. Once you get that dialed in it will track the local weather forecast and adjust for you and also adjust for seasons. I've got this right up there with velcro, zip locks and a few other all time great inventions.

Rachio is a money saver and well worth it

I have been following this schedule since it was posted here.

Watering Instructions

It has reduced my water usage, my weeds are losing ground and my grass is growing nicely.

Our MUD even gave us a $100 credit on or water bill for getting the Rachio.

Rather than run a long 20 minute cycle, I would spit that into 2 10 minute cycles to keep water from puddling. Actually, I would split all my cycles in half and run through them twice.

Not sure it matters, just a suggestion to minimize waste and maximize coverage.

For the op- cut it to 2 days a week and run thru 2-3 cycles to water deep. More than 10 minutes on a single cycle on Houston's heavy clay soils is generally just runoff.

I bought a Rachio and just let it do its thing. It has been great.

Just throwing out there that all of these recommendations really have to be taken with a grain of salt. Water times depends heavily on your application method (standard spray head, rotor, mp rotor etc) these all water at different rates.

I also would not recommend watering evening or middle of the night. This time of year you might get away with it because it stays warm but this can cause fungus issues if the water stays on the ground too long because it doesn't soak in or evaporate. I always set my run times around 5am.

I do agree with splitting your run times over two separate start times to allow water to sink in between instead of running off.

I also wouldn't recommend completely cutting off your system when it cools off especially around the house foundation. But also plants trees and grass don't just magically stop living and needing water.

The biggest factor though is how much do you want to mow....and really if you aren't needing to mow every week....your grass is stressed and needs more water

I run twice a week, Thursday/Sunday. I turn it off if we get significant ran throughout the week.
Goal is to water 1 inch per week.

I Cycle/Soak mine. So I run a zone for 36 minutes total, but it runs for 12 minutes, then stops for 6, then runs for 12, then stops for 6, etc. Ensures I don't get runoff and the water can soak in.

I start the run at 4am.

Overwatering, an shallow watering doesn't build drought resistance.

If you live near Houston, College Station, Greater Austin or North Dallas Area you can always just sign up for WaterMyYard...
WaterMyYard.org

AgySkeet06 said:

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Only run 1 day a week as needed. I have yet to water my grass this year and am still mowing every 7-10 days.

If you have a healthy soil, 1 day a week works statistically 50 weeks a year. Based on my logs irrigation is only needed between 15-20 weeks a year.

If you follow ET rates, 0.5" per week most of the year (0.75" per week July-August ) is all that's needed for most residential landscapes

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The reason for watering less often but more at one time is to get a deeper soaking, thus the grass grows deeper roots where there's more moisture year round and able to survive better. And cut 3" to 3-1/2" high on Augustine. Any grass, the taller it is the more shade the ground and less evaporation/drying out of the soil between watering. I've been watering once a week for a couple years from around March to October and skip any week where I've had quarter inch or more rain. In New Braunfels and we are typically at once a week watering anyways but my St. Augustine is healthy and almost needing cut more than once a week.

Take into account the rate of your heads. I have one zone that MP rotators. They have a slower rate, but that allows it to absorb better. But I run that zone longer than others. As other have mentioned get a few cheap gauges and calibrate each zone's run time. Water less often. I wish I could get away with one day a week, but my soil just can't absorb enough in one watering to get to my goal of 1 inch a week so I've got it going Mon and Thurs.

I calibrated my each station to 1" of watering since rotary heads put out a different flow than the misters and 360 heads. Then I changed my percentage to 50%, scheduled A at 4am and B at 6am, Thursdays and Sundays per Dallas City Ordinance from April through October.

As others have mentioned, I have less runoff when I run the cycle twice. I will alter the stations when needed as the summer progresses and the flowerbeds need more or it becomes exceptionally dry. Also be leery of watering in the evening due to fungus. We prefer the pre dawn hours so our bushes, roses, ect have time to absorb before the sun shines too bright. Water drops on leaves can act like a magnifying glass on tender plants.

Depends on the lawn and how much shade you get. At my old house, I had 6 zones and ran them 3x a week during the summer for about 6 minutes each with the exception of the zone that covered the main front yard, which I ran for 10. Grass looked great. The yard also didn't have a lot of shade so it needed the water.

Current yard has a lot more mature trees and only a part of the main front yard gets a lot of sun, so I water the front 3x a week for like 5 minutes and it looks good. There's enough shade for the other areas that I don't need to water.

I guess that's my way of saying play with it for a few weeks until you see what works best for you. Also, run them early in the morning (4-5 am) when the ground is cooler and you wont' have as much evaporation.

Fairview said:

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I have a Rachio and it's a game changer. Especially if you are in an area where water is expensive. You enter all the data about your yard, connect it to a weather station and let it do it's thing. It constantly changes the cycles depending on conditions.

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Also, if you take the time to figure out how long it takes to put down an 1" of water it is worth the work and makes Rachio even better in its calculations.