Question: How much should I water my grass exactly?
Innocent enough question. But one with a myriad of answers really. With the best one being “It depends.” Let me explain.
The rule of thumb you see most often shared is to water an inch a week. But what happens is that rules of thumb are all too son taken to be iron clad rules by some. Chiseled in stone as it were and to be adhered to at all costs.
But how often you need to water and how much depends on a variety of factors. So one can’t simply mutter a rule of thumb and feel that covers it. Because it doesn’t.
For starters you need to know how often it rains. Pretty obvious, yes. But I had to point it out.
A related point is it’s best to water only when you have to. Is your grass looking rather limp? Stressed? Are your foot steps clearly seen> All suggest your grass isn’t springing back like it should. If so it’s not a stretch to say you should be watering.
Watering also comes down to the type of grass we’re talking about. Some varieties will need more – other less.
Your mower setting comes into plays as well. The shorter you cut your grass the more water it will likely take to maintain a decent looking lawn. Plus whether you bag the clippings or not matters too.
“How’s your roots?” is another consideration. You want the roots of your lawn to be deep because that means you’ll have less need to water as often. The way to get that is to water deeply and infrequently. Which the one inch a week rule supporters would support wholeheartedly. Just keep in mind water that soaks in beyond the root zone does your grass absolutely no good whatsoever.
Grass Truth: The height of the blade affects how deep the roots are. You will find the longer the blades the farther down into the soil the roots will be found.
It’s also wise to let the top of your root zone to dry out. Doing so helps keep diseases at bay, weed seeds from germinating, and causes shallow rooted weeds to die off.
Another thing to consider is thatch build up. Is it thick and preventing good water penetration or what?
Finally you’re got flow rate. Or putting water down so fast it runs off. That doesn’t help.
You see? There’s more to this than mindlessly muttering the one inch a week rule over and over like some magic chant. These think abouts, when thought about and applied, can produce a greener, thicker stand of grass with less water in your yard too.
Whether it’s more on riding lawn mowers, tips on creating a manicured lawn, or zero turn mower reviews you’ll find the help you need at MowerMania.com to make your yard stand out.
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