The heat of the summer is officially upon us these last few weeks! As you are enjoying time with your family out in the yard, be sure to check your irrigation sprinkler systems to make sure they are running at optimal capacity! Take time to look at all sprinkler heads to make sure they are “popping up” and rotating properly as well as looking for any puddling and heads continuously staying up after watering cycle is completed. Any issues could mean a leak in the pipes, broken valves or just a simple head needing to be replaced or adjusted.
We always get asked this time of year: “How much to water?” If your landscape is well established and not newly planted, 10 minutes per zone once a day in the morning is sufficient. Watering at the start of the day allows moisture to be stored in soil and mulch for plants to continue to draw from throughout the heat of the day. If temperatures are extremely hot and landscapes are newly planted, you can water toward the late afternoon/evenings, but be sure to water for half the time. Water sitting on plant leaves overnight can cause black spots and fungus as well as create what is known as “root rot” on plant root balls, leading to plant death. In addition to overwatering, our Middle Tennessee soil is known to contain large amounts of clay and often can be a culprit of plant death by holding too much moisture. I can’t begin to tell you how many landscapes we have seen that are killed by overwatering!
Once the heat starts to dissipate toward the fall, we recommend knocking back watering to every other day (same watering pattern as recommended in spring). As always, give us a call or shoot us an email and we are more than happy to advise or troubleshoot any system and add you to our irrigation customer plans.