Save Water While Maintaining a Healthy Landscape
How do you maintain a healthy turf?
This post was revised and updated June 2021.
Florida is one of the wettest places in the USA. But it’s important to realize that the weather can go from storm to drought conditions at the turf level very rapidly making it difficult to maintain a green and healthy turf. Today, smart irrigation tools are helping people manage their irrigation more effectively and put best practice in place for water use. Here's how.
Even with our typical annual rainfall, South Florida’s weather can quickly change from deluge to drought. That’s why conserving water year round is an integral part of managing and protecting South Florida’s water supplies today and for our future generations. Keeping a beautiful landscape that's also in peak health is getting harder but it can be done.
Every type of field will have different needs but the same principles will apply to all. Water is essential to plant growth but also for conditioning the turf to handle and recover from stress caused by heavy use and harsh environmental conditions.
How much water is enough water?
Turf should receive about 1” to as much as 2” of water per week during the growing season. A rain gauge is a very inexpensive management tool that can be used to monitor rainfall. If rainfall provides ½” you will have to provide the additional amount of water depending on your soil and grass and evapotranspiration amount or ET. When watering an established lawn, it’s typically recommended to water until the top 6-8 inches of soil (where most turfgrass roots grow) is wet. Be sure not to overwater your lawn. Most lawns need 1 inch of water per week, either from rain or watering, to soak the soil 6-8 inches deep. The inch of water can either be applied during a single watering or divided into two 1⁄2-inch waterings during the week. Source: Cornell University and Scotts.com
Florida rainfall - why we still need to save water
We know that Florida's climate is characterized by its wet and dry seasons, with most precipitation occurring in summer and early autum. The Sunshine State also has incredibly high temperatures even in the winter and spring which are for the most part, considered dry seasons.
Annual average rainfall in Florida
If you look at Florida's annual average rainfall figures over the past few years, it's very clear that even from year to year the picture varies:
Data from Florida Climate Centre
Monthly rainfall averages paint a more varied picture across Florida
If you look beneath the surface of the annual overall figures however, you'll find a multitude of differences in rainfall from month to month. In the chart below, for example, although we do expect to see a spike in rainfall across the state in June, look at the 12" recorded in June 2017 - no other June has experienced a level like it between 2015 and 2020. We can also clearly see the months where average rainfall is under 4” for the month - which is a lead indicator to the need for supplemental water.
Data from Florida Climate Center
When to water?
Deep and infrequent watering, once or twice a week, is preferred unless you are in sandy soil that needs more frequent irrigation. Another time when more frequent watering will be necessary is when plants are establishing themselves. At this time it will be critical to keep the seedbed moist to ensure germination and may require daily watering, even several times a day. While it may seem like you can head out to water your lawn any time during the day, your lawn actually needs more specific care. Watering in the morning (before 10 a.m.) is the best time; it’s cooler and winds tend to be calmer so water can soak into the soil and be absorbed by the grassroots before it can evaporate. Source: Cornell University and Scotts.com
You'll also be wise to check with your regional water management district and/or local governing authority - they may have more restrictive rules on when irrigation is permitted.
Are you living in the Hydro-Illogical Cycle?
While areas that show signs of stress may cry for help, it may be noticed too late and result in costly sod replacement in addition to the needed repairs; treating false assumptions or symptoms (not the root cause) of what caused the problem may prolong the issue; or, it may have recently rained thus hiding the ineffective irrigation taking place.
Hydro-illogical Cycle is a term coined by Donald Wilhite, founder member of the National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska, Lincoln in the 1990s.
What are the factors at play?
What is enough and what is too much and what are the factors at play? Rainfall, turf type, soil type (for example sandy, loamy or clay), shading, wind, water quality, former land usage (ex. agriculture), and many more all have an impact on your irrigation needs. The only one of these you have full control of is your irrigation. Simply by making sure you are getting the water you need, where you need it and when you need it, you can overcome the challenges created by these other variables. A good irrigation company has the ability to make all this happen from the water source to the valve to the sprinkler heads!
How does smart irrigation technology work?
If you've never heard of smart irrigation technology, it's worth finding out more - and it truly does make a difference to saving water. In short, smart irrigation controllers improve the efficiency of irrigation and water use. The use of controllers allows the set up of water windows and daily usage alerts, tailoring watering schedules and run times automatically so you are in complete control. Why does smart irrigation matter? Because no human being has the time to work with such unpredictable climate changes and get irrigation right every time, every month, year on year.
- Does it make sense or is it even realistic to expect your irrigation provider to manage your watering needs to provide optimal turf appearance and health throughout the community without having confirmation of how the irrigation system is doing its job?
- Is doing a “wet check” every 30 days enough to find those field problems that are preventing the turf from getting the water it needs to develop a healthy root system and thrive? (Which then helps drive out weeds and pests lowering those associated costs of services to control those problems.)
The water windows set up in the system enable you to only have your pump station working when you need it. Without water windows, your pump station is constantly open to the field and works hard to keep it pressurized. This forces the motor to start and stop (called cycling). Cycling dramatically reduces the useful life of a pump station - and also wastes a lot of water. Daily usage alerts let you know when too much or too little water was used to water your landscaping. The system's Water Usage Report provides the data you need to report back to the regional management district and offers a quick glimpse of your activity and the amount of water used during the month. In the report snapshot below you can see the data recorded before using water windows (on the left) - and after (on the right). Using water windows enabled this community to cut more than 50% of their wasteful water usage. (from 172,850 to 82,940 Gallons).
See when your irrigation system is experiencing issues
If we use Hoover Flowguard® as an example, its 24/7/365 monitoring gives communities and service providers simple, user-friendly tools at their fingertips to verify that every zone is running at the required flow/pressure needed for proper coverage, watering duration/amount. Additionally, you can integrate all weather activity into the scheduling so your field gets what it needs when it needs it. Without seeing what the entire system is asking for and validating what it is receiving, it all remains a guessing game. Flowguard® does the job for you as your irrigation system works throughout the night – when no one can see what is happening.
In the image below, we can identify that the pump is starting and stopping rapidly (this is called Cycling). In this example, it could indicate a leak in the field and the need to set-up water windows to prevent this phenomenon:
In the following image, we can see evidence of a constant 9 gallons per minute flow that usually indicates a stuck valve:
Both of the issues illustrated above will cause increased costs if left alone. Flowguard® can easily identify inconsistencies and help to correct a problem before something suffers and costs you more money in sod replacement and additional repairs.
Invest in a total irrigation solution to save water and achieve landscape excellence
Put simply, with the ever-increasing need to make every drop of water count, every irrigation system now needs to consistently deliver the right amount of water to the right place at the right time and reduce or eliminate the possibility of wasting water. It's in everyone's interest to have a responsible attitude to water use - and to act accordingly. Your irrigation system needs to deliver without it costing you money, time and throwing away precious water.
Hoover irrigation expertise takes irrigation management to the next level
Hoover Flowguard is now fully integrated with HIRIMS - Hoover's Intelligent Remote Irrigation Management Solution. It's a solution that provides 100% visibility and control of your irrigation system 24/7, 365 days a year. Flowguard's irrigation data is backed up and supported by the Hoover Cloud to continually balance the irrigation in real-time.
HIRIMS combines smart technology with engineering excellence, irrigation management, Hoover's warranty and all-round support and training. In short, every installation ensures consistent, reliable irrigation.
If you would like to speak to one of our experts, call us on 800.548.1548 or email us for more This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.!
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