Irrigation 101 for Katy Summers

Watering you lawn in this extreme heat and long daylight is important to keep your turf alive. Remember you want to water the soil. Little water is absorbed by the leaf. You should water seldom but heavily. This will cause the grass roots to go deep to search for more water. Daily sprinklings create shallow root system making the turf vulnerable to drought and traffic. The first 5 minutes will probably evaporate by the time it reaches the soil.

Just because you have an irrigation system does not mean it is working efficiently. When you have brown spots in the lawn it can easily be the lack of water at that particular spot.

I am recommending 2 inches of water on the entire lawn twice a week. Below are steps to insure successful irrigation plan.

Step 1: Place shallow containers, like cat food cans, throughout you lawn. Run the irrigation system or sprinkler apparatus until you have filled a container to 1 inch. Typically in Katy that will take 20 minutes. So 40 minutes will put out 2 inches of water. Check the remaining containers and determine the deficiency. Sometimes it can be as simple as a shrub limb has moved into the path of the water stream or the grass runners have covered the pop up head of the sprinkler. If not easily determined contact a qualified irrigation repair company. We have numerous names to refer you.

Step 2: Watch your system and determine how much water your soil can absorb until it begins to run down the drive. Typically that will take 15- 20 minutes. This becomes the maximum run time per zone for this session.

Step 3: Now you know how long to run your system to reach 2 inches and how many start times you will need to accomplish your goal. Give at least 90 minutes between start times to allow the water to percolate into the soil strata. Irrigate from 4am-10am. If you have many zones break the run times for different days. Example of 12 zones: On Thursday run zones 1-4 for 20 minutes with a start time 4 am. This will take an hour and 20 minutes. Set a second start time at 5:30 am and repeat 1-4 zones for another 20 minutes. Set to repeat zones 1-4 on Sunday. On Friday and Monday run 5-8 zones like suggested and then Saturday and Tuesday 9-12 zones. Make the day off the day you mow. You will probably maintain this schedule through August.

Not using correct watering practices can be responsible for insect invasion from the stress of the grass. Stressed turf can cause a fungus indigenous in our soils called Take All Patch to become active. If you feel these pest have selected your lawn it is time to call us for our expert identification and curative practices.

Chinch Bugs Kill Katy Lawns

When temperatures begin reaching 90 degrees the chinch bugs come marching out of the thatch layer to feed on St. Augustinegrass. Chinch bugs quickly run up the leaf shaft and inject their sucking mouthpart into tissue to inject an enzyme which breaks down the cells so they can suck the juices. This is toxic to the cells and subsequently kills the grass. The damage typically begins near concrete where the plant is more stressed by effects on the soil, particularly pH, attributable to the concrete.

We recommend preventive insecticide applications against this devastating insect. Once the damage appears, immediate curative action to arrest the spread should be taken.

There are a number of tricks to identify the chinch bug in action, or go to agrilifebookstore.org to learn more about this prolific summer insect. However, birds pecking at the lawn are probably foraging on the chinch bugs: conclude research; do something!

That could include a call to our office to schedule service to verify the diagnosis and make appropriate product applications to cure the problem.

Let say it is too late and the lawn is dead we can paint it like nothing happened.