One of the biggest problems I see as I evaluate lawns across the Midwest is in-ground sprinkler systems that are set improperly. Now, there are many other issues you can have with in-ground sprinklers, but this one is easily corrected-
In-Ground Sprinkler System Settings
For some reason, pretty much EVERY homeowner I meet has their automatic sprinklers set to come on every morning for 10-15 minutes per zone and that’s it.
Now, I understand that it is logical to think you should be using your system everyday, but it is NOT necessary! – and, you are wasting water too guys and actually damaging your lawn. Here’s why:
1) watering everyday “spoils” your grass into getting acustomed to getting water everyday. This means your lawn does not adapt to harsh conditions naturally.
2) 10 minutes of watering every morning is damaging your lawn! I know that sounds strange, but 10 minutes worth of water is not enough to penetrate deep into the soil and encourage grass roots to grow deep. In fact, that small amount of water just sits near the top in the thatch layer and encourages the roots to turn up to get that water, making the thatch layer thicker and ticker. See the picture below:
The picture above is at a lawn where the homeowner let the sprinklers run everyday for 10 minutes per zone. As you can see, the roots are actually growing in the thatch layer but not in the soil. This lawn is very spongy under foot. In fact, this lawn is at a point where the thatch layer is choking the turf so badly that it is thinning out overall and will eventually die completely!
Here is another picture… see all the brown in there? — that is too much thatch and 100% of this is because the homeowner had his sprinklers set to short bursts every morning. He had been doing this for just 2 years.
At this point, he needs to power rake or de-thatch the lawn in order to help it recover.
How To Set Up Your Automatic Sprinklers
The good news guys, is that in-ground sprinkler systems do offer much better coverage and more even coverage than do manual impact sprinklers. I recommend you set your zones to just 3 times per week, in the morning, and let each zone go for 40-45 minutes. In most cases, this will get you a nice 1/2″ of watering. Now, to really be sure you are getting a good amount of water down (not all systems are created equally) you should put out a rain gauge to test my theory here. If you get 1/2″ of water after a morning run of the zone, then you know you are good.
Doing this will make the water go deep and force the roots to go deep to get it. Deeper roots are healthier roots! In addition, but watering 3x per week, you are letting the lawn dry out in between… that is healthy and natural!
