Summer Watering Times/Frequency Survey (Phoenix: living, garden, best)

[jamiedan]

Just interested in how often & for what length everyone waters their grass/trees/shrubs. I've seen all the documentation but it looks way too much work to calculate it all.

This is what I have it set up for currently. Everything is 2 years old, doing fine and irrigation is programmed for around sunrise:

Grass - Once every other day for 10 mins
Trees - Once every four days for 45 mins
Shrubs - Once every other day for 20 mins

Be interested to see what everyone else is doing.

[DetroitN8V]

Grass - once every other day for 18 mins
Shrubs - once every three days for an hour

All watering is done at 4am. My trees are mature and just get overspray from the sprinklers.

It's tough to compare since everyone has different volume emitters and sprinklers though.

[sells500]

I have trees and shrubs all 4 years old and fairly established. I use 1 GPH Heads on shrubs and 2GPH heads on trees, trees set for 1 hour 3 days weekly from 5/15 to 10/15 and shrubs get 45 mins for the same time frame. I am cutting back 1 day as last 3 years I set for 4 days. Rest of the year I ramp down 1 day monthly till jan. Then start ramping back up to the above numbers. I have no idea if this is correct but my plantings seem to be living a happy life without disease, yellowing or browning and I do not have to trim excessively. Anyone know if this sounds like a correct formula? There are many opinions about watering. Ps...I do a little bit of spot watering when things look really dry, mostly for the trees and shrubs, but I also get a funny benefit of fantastic daydreams while manually watering..there is something mesmerizing about spraying water with a hose.

[MalteseJane]

Trees an Cactus : every 6 days for 1 hour
Shrubs : 1 hour every 2 days
No grass.

But I am wondering if it is enough. Some of the trees are ok with this but I think some would need more. Same for the shrubs.

[HX_Guy]

Grass: 15 minutes once per day
Shrubs: 60 minutes once every 2 days (2 gal/hr per shrub)
Trees: 120 minutes once every 3 days (12 gal/hr per tree)

Everything is only about 3 months old, I'll reduce the tree watering as they get established.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by HX_Guy

Grass: 15 minutes once per day
Shrubs: 60 minutes once every 2 days (2 gal/hr per shrub)
Trees: 120 minutes once every 3 days (12 gal/hr per tree)

Everything is only about 3 months old, I'll reduce the tree watering as they get established.

Pretty much what I use too. I killed the grass this year though. I am done with that.

[valthenya]

muahahaha~!!! Grass needs to be watered every single day here. We have a garden and in the summer we irrigation water it three times a day for 20 min

[Burning Madolf]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

Grass - once every other day for 18 mins
Shrubs - once every three days for an hour

All watering is done at 4am. My trees are mature and just get overspray from the sprinklers.

It's tough to compare since everyone has different volume emitters and sprinklers though.

And different soil
And different degrees of shade
And different types of plants

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by valthenya

muahahaha~!!! Grass needs to be watered every single day here. We have a garden and in the summer we irrigation water it three times a day for 20 min

Experts say that bermuda grass and its variants in Phoenix does best in the summer when watering deeply every three or four days. An hour a day daily is way too much. We actually end up watering 4 times a week for 10-12 minutes. We should probably do it less frequently for longer.

Watering the Lawn - Schedule for Watering Grass in Phoenix
How Often To Water Phoenix Grass - Watering Schedule for Phoenix Summer Lawns

[wit-nit]

Grass every 3 days long enough to soak 6-10 inches.
Shrubs every 5 days long enough to soak 10 inches.
Trees every 10-14 days long enough to soak 10+inches out to canopy.
Water early am (4-6), after 9 am 50% or more goes into evaporation. Afternoon watering 80-90% goes to evaporation.
Too little watering, especially those daily watering prevents proper aeration and encourages shallow rooting, fertilizer burn, plant stress and early dying out.
Improper watering is the #1 cause of plant failure.