When is the right time for irrigation?
In order to be sure that grass grows healthily and its surface keeps on looking good, it is really important to water garden’s lawn. Lot of people wonder how much water a lawn needs, at what time watering it and how to do such an easy but delicate activity. Here is what you should do.
Why do people water their lawn? Lawn must be watered if rainfalls can’t satisfy plants’ water requirements.
Even if there isn’t a complete lack of rainfalls in Italy, their distribution is not homogeneous and this doesn’t allow the lawn to maintain an acceptable aesthetical appearance.
When is it necessary to water? Lawn’s surface must be watered whenever plants need it.
The only way to understand when this need could emerge is to perceive plants’ needs and their reaction to water stress. For example, some species tend to close their foliar laminas, while others show darker colours.
Lawn must be watered whenever it shows signs of distress and unless you have the chance to use specific professional instruments, only a keen eye and the right experience will suggest you when the right moment is.
At what time of day is it better to water? The lawn should be watered early in the morning.
It is the time of day when water manages to enter the soil, without dispersing around for the evaporation caused by high temperatures. It is also the moment when grass leaves get dry faster and the temperature gets gradually warmer.
It is highly recommended to avoid watering at night or in the evening, particularly in summer, since the grass surface retains its humidity longer, becoming an easy prey for fungal diseases.
It is also better to avoid irrigating during the hottest hours of the day, since the loss of water for evaporation is really high and important quantities of water would be wasted for no reason.
How much a lawn should be watered? Generally, at normal conditions, every squared meter of grass surface needs around 30 liters water per week, on the average. Nevertheless, it is difficult to determine the correct water quantity needed, since there are a lot of variable conditions, for example plant species, cutting height, seasonal climate, rainfall quantity and distribution within the period involved or grass health.
With regard to the quantity, lawn should be irrigated irregularly, giving a large volume of water every time, trying to make the plants suffering a bit, between one irrigation and the other. It can be useful to avoid water entering the soil or stagnating on the surface, for example in those clay-rich lands or in not so much worked lands, creating a wetland area conducive to fungal diseases.
With regard to sandy soils, we face the opposite problem, since water leaches really faster to the deep soil layers. In this case, in order to avoid wastes, it is better to wet a bit or sufficiently, but often.
