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| For 3 years I have never had a problem...now this. Fertilized once and water twice in the early morning for 3 min each time. |
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| Have dog, maybe? Bet those dark spots, some with a burnt out center, are pee spots. I don't know what kind of grass you have, so can't comment on the fertilizer schedule. But the watering is lacking. First, minutes of irrigation doesn't mean much. Every hose and sprinkler setup or inground system is different in terms of "time" watered. That said, 6 minutes probably isn't enough. You probably aren't wetting the soil even an 1/8" deep. 1 inch once per week is the guideline. It's a good starting point. Depending on your soil, and it's ability to retain water, that may work, or it may not. I would start there. Get some tuna cans, rain gauges, or any other straight sided container, and place them all over the area to be irrigated. Run your sprinklers until every spot in the lawn has received 1" of water. Note the time it took. Then watch the lawn for drought stress. The leaf blades will start to roll up lengthwise, and the lawn will take on a bluish-gray look. I've heard people say that if you walk across the lawn and it "feels" dry and doesn't spring back from your foot steps, it is dry. Let us know if you you need help spotting drought stress. Others will have better tips I'm sure. It's easy to see once you know what it is. If you can go 7 days on 1" of irrigation, GREAT!!! You win the blue ribbon. But in the real world, this doesn't always happen. If the lawn stresses sooner, you might try a 1/2" of irrigation spread out twice a week instead. You will just have to experiment and see what works for your particular turf and soil. But 6 minutes isn't working. |
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| ok i will try to increase watering. We don't have any pets but the neighbor cat comes into our yard sometimes. Along the side of the yard is much greener and we have our trees on a drip so there is more water in that area. This has never happened before and we have always had the same set up so i found the blotchy areas odd. |
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| Well, I'm not too sure then. I was certain you had a dog. Since you don't, that may make everything I said totally wrong. Wait for some more opinions before we just decide this is a water issue. But I'd still do an audit of how much water, in inches, you are applying to the lawn. |
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| ok thank you. |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Tue, Jul 24, 12 at 23:28
| Where is the lawn? California has a big central coast. I assume you are somewhere between Santa Barbara and San Francisco. How far inland are you? What kind of grass is that? You're following the worst of watering practices. Almost every sprinkler system is set up like this by the installer because it demonstrates his product and it is easy to do. What grass needs is a deluge of water and then nothing until it needs water again. I have a house in San Antonio and a house in George West, TX. George West is nearer the coast but much hotter and drier in the summer. Parts of my GW home get watered every week with about 1/2 inch. The SA home gets watered every week with about 3/8 inch. But I got to these numbers by starting with 1 inch per week and adjusting according to the grass. In the cooler months I water only once a month at the same rates. What fertilizer did you use and how much? Bag rate or less? When did you apply and what are your future app plans? |
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| David, I thought you were running a test to see how long you could go without watering at one of your homes. Did you give up? Did you finally Mow? |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Wed, Jul 25, 12 at 0:24
| I have half an acre with trees so the test is all over the place. One spot has still not been irrigated since October. We have had very lucky rain storms but I have not watered it. Some spots get watered weekly and some get it every 3 weeks or so. There is nothing in between. We had 3 inches of rain in the past 3 weeks so I have not watered since then. I'll probably have to hit a couple spots later this week. |
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| We are an hour north of Santa Barbara in Santa maria and our sod is rescue. We are like 5 miles inland |
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| sorry fescue. |
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| sorry fescue. |
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