SPECIAL WATERING NOTICE!
Water Water Water
This time of year, this seems to be the number one question we get, "How much should I water and when for my flowers, turf and trees?" Although we have some big variations from north to south in Utah, soil types and even choices of plant materials, there are some watering "truths" that apply to every plant situation for non native landscape plants. The following is a good baseline for measuring your watering against and even in extreme conditions, you likely will not fall more than 20% outside these guidelines. The exception is newly planted materials that lack wide reaching root systems and need to be watered daily until they take hold, then they should fall into the watering patterns below.
Watering
When temps start to rise above 60 degrees in our state, we start to think of additional waterings, if Mother Nature is not already providing for us. Automatic sprinkler systems are the staple for most landscapes and the question begs, how should we set it up for proper watering once we need it? The answer is, there isn’t a single answer! Depending on our soil type, plants, elevation, slope, wind, etc., we will need more or less water than maybe even a neighbor in the next city. There ARE, however, some very proven and useful techniques to watering based on how we put the water down and when. The following is an example for sunny areas on a bluegrass turf with mixed trees and shrubs in the turf areas.
When temps climb into the mid 70s to mid 80s, please try to water once a week on clay based soils with good penetration and twice a week on sandy soils. Water 28 minute cycles on popups with 12-15 foot throws and 4 gallon heads. For rotors with 4 gal, run 46 mins and with 2 gal tips, 63 minutes per station. By running deeper, infrequent cycles now, we can encourage roots to grow deeper(up to a foot deep on bluegrass!) seeking available water. This is true for most all plant material including trees and turf. That will give us stands that will be able to survive 100 degree temps when they come in July and August. All waterings should be in the night time hours, when air temps have dropped and winds die down for maximum water penetration. On heavy slopes, water cycles can be broken into 2 or even 3 sections spaced about an hour apart, to slow runoff, but should still run these durations to "stack" the water and push it deeper into the soils in a single night. Frequent, light watering promotes shallow roots, as that is where the water is. The top 2-3 inches of soil will be wicked of it’s moisture in a few hours of low humidity, high temps and wind. Encourage deeper roots by training your plants now and enjoy the fruits of your efforts when the heat sets in. When temps reach above 85, add a day and above 95, one more for a maximum of 4 days a week on sandy soils. This will be true as we both heat up and also as we start to cool back down in the fall. Adjust your water to the season!
Bedding areas on their own zone, would water a little differently as water would not take nearly as long to soak through a mulch or dirt layer and stack the root zone. Deep, infrequent watering is still the rule here too, although it may take only 10-15 minutes to soak the soil profile vs. on the turf, depending on soil type. A long screwdriver, a soil probe or even a shovel opening will give you a good idea on how the water is travelling in the soil profile.
Beyond drought tolerance, why water in the deep infrequent cycles? Low humidity is the short answer. Even after factoring in water loss in our dry air, where a little wind and high temps can wick the top couple inches of soil dry in a matter of hours, we can actually make this work in our favor. How? Fungus diseases. Fungal spores are everywhere, in every soil, on every plant as part of the living ecosystem. What does it need to become a problem? Moisture. Humidity. What is our air not? That’s right, moist nor humid. That means for plant diseases to "bloom" for us, we have to create the situation! Sure, rainy periods can certainly trigger events, but those are few and far between in the overall management of your valuable plant material. When it stops, generally the problem stops with it. This is also true when we are the source of the problem. By eliminating the constantly wet areas, allowing them to dry in between waterings, we can greatly reduce the majority of diseases that crop up in our landscapes. No costly fungicides. No giant losses of material. Simple cultural practices to make sure the water does not "hang" in the area where heat can make it a trigger. This is not the case for gardeners in other parts of the country, so let’s have the dry air work for us for once! We could go on and on about plant and disease specifics, but we have some great links over in the governmental resource area, including a transevaporation link that show how much water needs to be replaced each week based on humidity and air temps here! Please take a look through some of these valuable sources of information and if you can’t find an answer for your question here or there, contact us HERE and we’ll find the answer to your problem!