Moved into new house a week ago new sod in yard, I have been running the sprinkler 4 times a day plenty wet.
We live in the midwest, temps in the lower 30's at night, mid 50's to low
60's in the day.Heat tape on the exterior water pipeing.How long should I water this sod till I winterize the sprinkler system?
Thanks
Tom
Four times a day should not be necessary, unless it is summer in Arizona. Did a contractor install it? How often did they recommend? County extension service in your area would have the best advice, but here are good links:
Watering four times a day keeps the grass wet too much of the time, and might make it vulnerable to diseases. I can't remember what winter with ice, snow and hard freezes is like, but it is nigh. Must be about time to winterize the sprinkler system :o)
With the ground temperature dropping germination and early growth is going to be slow. That is the bad part. The good part is it is not as likely to suffer from low moisture since it is not hot and does not have drying winds. This is a little late for seed in most of the Midwest, but I would expect it will do fine
I would water as necessary to keep the ground moist. A week after it starts turning green you can allow the surface to dry out, but you still want to avoid letting it get really dry. For the most part nature will take care of it. Come the middle of next spring it will fill in and look good. Grass in the Midwest likes the cool damp weather of fall and spring.
As it gets colder it will stop growing for the year, since this is so weather dependent it is really hard to say exactly when that will be.
Joseph, I think you missed that he said it's sod, not seed. I agree with Norminn, watering 4 times a day is way too much and more likely to do harm than good. He didn't make it clear how long the sod has been in place. In cooler weather, I would be tapering off the watering to once evey other day a few weeks after installation and by 6 weeks, I'd be down to twice a week.
How could I have missed it, it was only in the title and in the text. Yea, I missed it. I agree with your and Norminn's advice.
The contractor that installed the sod set the times on the sprinkler.
Tom
I wonder if he gets a kickback from the local water company.
I had some repairs done on my sprinklers last spring, and the tech set the watering times so long that I had a swamp in my back yard until I reset them.
You are overwatering it. Water it now twice a week by hand.
I live in Las Vegas, and am cutting back now to twice a week.
You are drowning it. Don't water for about a week, then twice a week.
Steve
Then he's an idiot.
Good Idea Steve, drag out the hose and water 8K sq ft.by hand, after we spent $2k on a sprinkler system, then after a week I can light a match to it and burn it off.
Are you watering new sod or an established yard?
Tom
You don't say how *long* each of the waterings are, but I assume they're short waterings to just keep the sod moist. At this stage anything more is a waste of water (after sod is placed, frequent shallow waterings are the order of the day until the sod starts to bind).
Once the sod starts to bind (i.e., you can't easily pull up a piece of sod anymore), you can cut down the # of waterings, and make them a bit longer. The whole point to make the roots "reach" for the water so you don't end up with turf with shallow roots.
As to how long, given you're in Chicago and it's early November, it's basically go until it looks like you're going to get multiple hard freezes in a row (probably the next big cold front). Once the grass freezes hard (upper couple of inches below freezing), the grass is going to go dormant anyhow, so you might as well blow out the system around that point. Sodding this late in the year, it's basically walking a tightrope -- you want to water as long as the grass continues to root, but you don't want to ruin your sprinkler heads by letting them get caught in a really hard freeze.
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