Sprinkler System Or Not- Are you over watering your lawn?
A sprinkler system with rain sensors are calibrated to your lawn’s slopes and hills to prevent over watering a lawn. It can save you thousands of dollars in water bills and money spent to fix the problems of over watering grass. Essentially, buying a irrigation system will pay for itself and save you time in the process. Over watering your lawn can cost you lots of money and time. The problem with over watering a lawn is simply that too much water interferes with the growth of healthy grass, more weed growth, susceptibility to pests and disease, and a need for repeated applications of fertilizer.
So how do you know you are over doing it? If you see puddles on the lawn, the ground feels spongy when you walk, or there is a runoff in the driveway or street, these are signs that your water sprinkler needs adjustment. The detriment to flooding your lawn is that the excess water is moving the nutrients away from the grass roots to the street causing the grass to turn light green or yellow.
Waterlogged lawns can also prevent the beneficial organisms from breaking down thatch, a build up layer of partially decomposed plant material. This is a problem because if the thatch is not broken down, it will lead to shallow root development, which leads to more thatch build up. Thatch is not a problem if it is less than ¾ inch thick on the soil’s surface. Once it becomes thicker, it can stop oxygen from reaching the grass roots and provides a environment for fungal and insect pests.
Over watering lawns allows for thatch build up and creates a habitat for insects to thrive. The amount of thatch built up will actually protect the pests from insecticides like Bacillus thuringiensis. It will also allow the insect pests to attack a weakened lawn. Army worms, cutworms, and white grubs are just a few of the insect pests that will kill your grass as it feeds. So if you have a sprinkler system, then you will need to call Kingwood Sprinkler to come buy to see if we need to fix a sprinkler head or fine tune your system. You may not need a sprinkler system repair. Perhaps all that is needed is fine tuning your system to your landscaping. There are lots of reasons why your irrigation system may be putting out too much water in one zone. If you don’t own a sprinkler system, over watering your lawn will still be a constant problem. More often in attempts to try to care for your lawn by hand, we end up hurting our lawn. More is not always better.
Just like leaving damp clothes on the floor would lead to fungus growth, the same occurs with damp lawns. The frequent or excessive watering of a lawn keeps grass wet and encourage fungus growth. For example, mushrooms and anthracnose infects lawns that are over watered. Anthracnose is a fungus that causes irregular brown patches in the grass when the temperatures are between 80 and 95 degrees in an over watered lawn. Chemical fungicides are not necessary with appropriately watered lawn.
Weeds grow more heavily in over watered grass. Crabgrass and yellow nutsedge grow in conditions too wet for healthy grass growth. Crabgrass forms light green clumps that grow to six inches tall and is incredibly hard to get rid of. This weed got its name because it sprawls from a central root low across the lawn. Yellow nutsedge is also light green but with pointed leaves and can be three feet tall. Watering appropriately and pulling up weeds as they appear can prevent weeds. Since weeds are better adapted to adverse growing conditions, they will thrive where healthy grass won’t. Water lawns deeply and less frequently to wet the soil 4-6 inches deep or ½ to 1 inch of rainfall. To ensure you never over water your lawn, you can always invest in a sprinkler system installation. This will ensure you don’t have to daily fine tune how you are watering your lawn.
