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| I have a new house with a new lawn - this is a dwarf enduro fescue lawn in the Central Coast area of California - cool foggy climate most of the time - no rain from May-Oct.
The lawn was installed as sod - soil is clay, slightly sloping (less than 3%) The lawn was doing fine when over watered (surprise) I have since tried to lower the water use down to a reasonable amount - we have drought restrictions here. I am now getting some bad browning zones. I am watering 26 minutes, split into 2x13 minutes 1 hr apart, every 4 days based on measuring the output at the center area. The center of the grass is growing really fast and the bottom area where the centered sprinkler head is is also very robust...since it gets hit by both the right and left sprinkler. I would like to figure out which arc to adjust. It also seems like the sprinkler heads are mostly watering where the end of the arc hits (not in between), so I end up with really good coverage at the ends of the sprinkler arc and little between. There is some shade that also covers the bottom area that is more lush - this shade is only in the morning - plus it is usually foggy in the mornings here. I have enclosed a quick drawing to show the very rough layout of our lawn with the dry zones and sprinkler layout. Our heads are a Hunter PGJ model...The lawn is aprox 45ft x 20ft. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Thu, Aug 30, 12 at 1:07
| Something is wrong with your drawing that is throwing off any analysis. Here is what a 45x20 foot lawn looks like with a head-to-head throw
This shows a big gap in the middle. Fix the inconsistencies and I can give you a better picture of what is going on with the bulk of the water at the edges. At this point it looks like your dry spot should be where your wet spot is. Good for you for noticing that most of the water goes to the ends of the sprinkler throw. That's why I opted to go with an oscillator type sprinkler. The back and forth sweep of the jets gives just about perfect coverage. |
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| Thanks - I was just guessing at the size based on my lot - I haven't measured it at the moment. Enclosed is are 2 photos taken while I was mowing it yesterday. I am mowing it with a push reel mower at 3" high, it is pretty plush. The center as can be seen is pretty green and tall.
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| Can anyone see anything I should do? Thanks! |
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- Posted by nearandwest 7 (My Page) on Fri, Aug 31, 12 at 12:57
| Perhaps you need to change the nozzles in your sprinkler heads to provide more thorough coverage between the heads, since you are saying that most of the water seems to be thrown to the ends of the arc. What type of irrigation system is this.....Rain Bird, Toro, or Hunter? It certainly appears that the greenest grass is where the most overlap occurs. If it were me, I would want to have more heads installed with smaller nozzles, which would provide more even coverage. |
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| Our heads are a Hunter PGJ |
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| So my thinking is to reduce the radius of the two bottom corner units quite a bit - it seems you can see those units radius pattern in the center green lush are of the grass. I fill also reduce the top corners a tiny bit... If that doesn't work I will look into getting some different nozzles and try again. I think if I can reduce the overlap in the center then it will allow me to increase the watering time a bit and give me better color on the fringes???? |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Tue, Sep 4, 12 at 19:34
| Great pictures. You need to do something ASAP or your fescue at the edges will be more gone than it is. I would suggest a stopgap measure of using a hose and good oscillator sprinkler. The good ones do not have that mechanical linkage you see on the cheap ones. Those linkages will bind up and freeze the sprinkler in about 1 season. I've had one of the turbo models for 5 years and it's still going strong. The good oscillators cost upwards of $16 (on sale) and upwards of $20 during the season. Oscillators put out a very even spread of water and do it very slowly so it will sink in. Mine take 8 hours to get an inch of water out. Who installed your sprinkler system? It does seem like they mis calculated the coverage. Where are you on the central coast? To me that means from Santa Barbara to San Francisco. |
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- Posted by nearandwest 7 (My Page) on Wed, Sep 5, 12 at 1:55
| I would agree that doing some type of manual watering as suggested above is immediately necessary. Those edges don't look good. If you reduce the radius of the bottom heads, then you will not be getting the head to head coverage needed with the top row of heads. Again, more sprinkler heads with smaller coverage areas will provide more even coverage of the entire area. But for now, the oscillating sprinkler seems to be needed. |
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