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Ok, so I am having tons of problems with my bermuda lawn... My grass is turning yellow and drying up. I am watering each station in my lawn about 5 minutes (every day now!)
Originally I watered less than that, but it appears this is helping to keep the grass green, however, it is attracting tons of mosquitoes and other bugs (including springtails)
Am I watering too much? Too Little? How long would you recommend I water? I live in Fort Worth, TX.
Ok, so I am having tons of problems with my bermuda lawn... My grass is turning yellow and drying up. I am watering each station in my lawn about 5 minutes (every day now!)
Originally I watered less than that, but it appears this is helping to keep the grass green, however, it is attracting tons of mosquitoes and other bugs (including springtails)
Am I watering too much? Too Little? How long would you recommend I water? I live in Fort Worth, TX.
I'm in Texas but I don't have Bermuda, with that said, we tend to water deeper but less often. Does that make sense? You shouldn't have to water every day, but when you do water you should run it longer so the grass developes deep roots. Right now we're lucky with all this rain today and yesterday and we've turned the system off.
Ok, so I am having tons of problems with my bermuda lawn... My grass is turning yellow and drying up. I am watering each station in my lawn about 5 minutes (every day now!)
Originally I watered less than that, but it appears this is helping to keep the grass green, however, it is attracting tons of mosquitoes and other bugs (including springtails)
Am I watering too much? Too Little? How long would you recommend I water? I live in Fort Worth, TX.
For Bermuda, one inch every other day. Bermuda needs less water than ... say ... St. Augustine. Put a tuna can out that you can measure after watering. If there's a prolonged drought or it's hot as Hades for a while, go to every day.
Watering every day for short periods encourages fungus, short roots and a high water bill. "Train" your lawn by watering once a week deeply 30 minutes on the same day of the week. Don't forget to fertilize lightly every 60 days. You will see good results.
Cyclone,
Get an empty tuna can and put it on the lawn.
Measure an inch in it. It should be about an inch deep.
Walk on the lawn. Is it springing back right away?
If it isn't, water your lawn with a regular rotating lawn sprinkler
til the tuna can is full to an inch.
Buy a regular oscilating sprinkler. About 15.00 for a good one.
You water it EARLY in the morning.
Then after the tuna can is full to an inch, move it to another
zone and water that the same way.
You water your lawn when it needs it.
For bermuda, you walk on the grass. It will spring back and you
won't see your footprints if it DOESN'T need water.
It should be about 2 hours of watering with a regular back and forth
sprinkler to accomplish this. (PER ZONE).
Deep deep watering when it needs it.
Don't fertilize it now, it's too late.
In the spring, when it green up, fertilize it. Every month. The whole summer.
Very high maintance. Mow at 1 inch, all summer.
Good Luck.
I can't comment on the variables of your local climate and how it impacts your irrigation needs, but I've had plenty of experience with Bermuda grass in Fresno, which is hot, has low humidity which leads to high transpiration, and sandy soil.
Here is the deal. Bermuda grass is very drought tolerant. Roots grow where they find moisture. In a very loose soil like sand the roots will grow a foot deep easily. The problem with sand is it doesn't hold water. Any moisture near the surface evaporates easily. You can "train" the roots to grow a little deeper where moisture doesn't evaporate as readily by making sure you thoroughly irrigate to the point where the water works down at least a foot. It may take more than five minutes to do this. Also, a little drought stress between waterings will "train" it to deal with dry soil considerably better than keeping the soil moist.
If you have a loam or clay soil there is a very good chance five minutes of watering isn't sufficient enough to do anything but add some moisture to the first inch or two of soil. The Sacramento area, where I'm living now, has loam, clay, and adobe-like soils. It takes at least ten minutes of watering to get water into the soil. In some areas it takes several rounds of irrigation to get moisture down to a sufficient depth to do anything worthwhile. It seems like a nuisance, but the pro is that loam and clay soils hold more moisture and don't evapo-transpire it as fast as sandy soil, so you may not have to water it til the end of the week, depending on the weather.
Try watering the lawn for five minutes, then wait long enough for the water to move down into the soil. At least several hours. Then do a core sample to see how far down the water is moving. You can do this with a shovel by neatly slicing a block of sod and pulling it up. If you do it right you can put that block of sod back into the lawn without making it noticeable. Especially with Bermuda grass.
I guess you've realized by now that watering bermuda five minutes daily in the hot, dry Texas summer is woefully insufficient. You have clay soil in Fort Worth, which is slower to absorb water, but retains the water longer.
What I've found best during summer is to water 40 minutes every 5 days. On each watering day, I run each station for 10 minutes, and repeat four times. This allows the water to soak into the clay.
Since your water pressure may be different than mine, you may need to adjust the amount of time per station. If you find your grass is dry after five days, then water every four days. If your grass doesn't get dry until seven days, then water every six days. A lot of this is trial and error since there's not one right answer considering all the types of grass, soil, humidity, sprinkler, and temperature variables.
Of course, this has been complicated if your water district restricts the days you can water.
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