Talk of The Villages Florida - Winter watering schedule?

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- - Winter watering schedule? (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/landscape-talk-129/winter-watering-schedule-355022/)

Quote:

Originally Posted by kkingston57 (Post 2391938)

Run ours 2x a week 15 minutes on those days. Yard is green. Need to make sure that you are up on your fertilization. A good freeze, all bets are off. Have had several days lately wit lows just above freezing

FYI- we had frost a few mornings. According to roof tops, grass and frost delays golfing.
Remember, the ‘official’ temperature is taken some 5’ above the ground. The temp at ground level is usually several degrees below the temp at 5’.
Which is why we can get a freeze even tho the official temp is mid-high 30’s.

So Mother Nature shouldn’t rain at night?

Watering at night is fine.

This thread is not as interesting as the women's lost black stretch pants or whatever it was.

I have a b-hyve and had to adjust the rain forecast percentage from like 30 to 60% and now it doesn't put on a rain delay unless there's a strong possibility of rain. I'm up in NY for the holidays (family) but I have outdoor cameras that I check to see if it actually rained. If not, I'll supplement with a manual cycle. I have it scheduled for every 3 days with different times for different zones after doing the tuna can test and I break up run times into 2 cycles with an hour delay in between to help prevent runoff. The only time I would suggest really cutting back on water might be January - mid February but is 6 weeks of a slight water savings worth it.

The Rachio controller will do wind skips and freeze skips as well. You may want to look at your controller settings and adjust those settings.

I’m watering my St Augustine now 2x a week 30 minutes. However, it’s sometimes skipping watering because it’s below 58 degrees at night. It’s still green. I fertilized in November to feed the roots during the winter. They grow all winter, even though the blades do not. In January I usually drop the watering to 1x a week for 15 minutes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pondboy (Post 2391834)

The agricultural extension at University of Florida recommends (once the grass is dormant) that you not change the amount of water to apply, just the frequency. i.e just water once per week vs. two or three.

They also only recommend (year round) that the grass is watered on an as needed basis, not the twice per week as recommended by the villages.

What I’ve ended up doing is twice a week I check soil moisture in each zone. If it feels wet, I don’t water. If it’s dry, I run irrigation. Last winter I watered maybe once a month, if that. My side yards, are always moist (probably from neighbors irrigation and mostly shaded) but my front and back yard need the water (full sun). So, Ive not watered my side yards for 3 weeks now, but watered my front and back in that same time period.

Remember, what happens in your yard with rain/moisture can be totally different from what’s going on across the street.

Also, yellowing of lawn (or even browning) can be any one of a few issues besides moisture (too much or too little). Might be mineral deficiency, insects or a good cold snap. Hard to say.

ENH5/LH010: St. Augustinegrass for Florida Lawns

zoysia turns brown in winter......

When your GRASS LEAVES FOLD, THEY NEED WATER!!!

1 set of directions for every lawn on every type of soil... and every type of week during every winter is CRAZY talk.

2nd --- your soil is ALKALINE, and your roots are TOO SHALLOW, you will need light waterings often. Unless you get the soil below your sod to around 6.2-6.5 pH. Then you will have deeper roots and be able to water less.

3rd---Your grass is NOT PICKING UP IRON because of the alkalinity. Not only will this cause yellowing, but causes your lawn to more susceptible to insects and disease... AND causes your lawn care company to green you up with extra NITROGEN, eventually leading to fungus. (also causing yellowing)

again---When your GRASS LEAVES FOLD, THEY NEED WATER!!!
You could easily check in person or set up remote testing of soil moisture, but LOCATION needs to be representative of the whole lawn AND the depth representative of your ROOT DEPTH.

YELLOW this time of year is often, not your primary lawn grass but something else growing that looked fine during the summer when it was green.