t’s summer in Dallas and that means temperatures at 100 degrees, give or take. So what what does under watering look like? In bermuda lawns most of the blades will turn slightly gray. You will see splotches of brown, sprinkled with grayish green grass and the lawn will look thin. Fortunately bermuda is an amazingly tough so once it gets enough water it usually springs right back. This photo is a good example of under watering.
How much should you water in the summer? In full sun your lawn will lose on average roughly one inch of water per week. Most spray heads (nozzles that spray in a fan pattern) put out roughly 1″ of water per hour. That means if you don’t water an hour per week your lawn gradually drys out. Imagine a slow leak in your car tire. If you don’t keep putting air into it at the same rate it’s leaking, eventually you’re going to have a flat tire. Rotory heads need to run even longer. Rotors are heads that spray in a stream and slowly turn. They typically cover twice the area with the same gallons of water the spray heads do which means they have to run twice as long. How many days per week should you water? The number of days per week doesn’t matter nearly as much as the total minutes per week.
These numbers are a good starting point but every landscape and every sprinkler system is different. In very shady areas you can probably cut back by 75% or more. Start with these minutes and then work up or down depending on how your lawn looks after a week or two.