Winter watering schedule?
 

I have a home in Lake Denham, St. Augustine grass. I am part time so I try to keep an eye with my cameras and I have a Rachio.

Last winter my lawn was turning yellow while my neighbor's was fine. I was not watering enough. I upped it to 3X per week. I think this was probably closer to February when I realized I had a problem.

Anyhow I saw someone post on FB that we should only water 1X per week this time of year. I'm confused. Since it's very cold should I water less? Will it turn yellow anyhow?

My Rachio wants to do rain skips all the time and I don't let it. I've tried a weather station 1.8 miles from me, as well as the Rachio weather. Both want to skip watering all the time even though I see no rain for the entire week before or after.

Believe Rachio. 1X is fine.

I had the same question. I have read once per week but how much water in that one watering? FYI, it has not rained here for a while.

Yup it’s hard to believe Rachio when it wants a “rain skip” when it hasn’t rained in weeks.

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

Best way to judge is to get out there and stick your finger in the soil. Check each zone. If dry, put down an inch, but do it slowly (break up irrigation run) so the water has a chance to get absorbed in the soil (vs run off). Water early (4 AM or so). Never water in the daytime or when it’s windy. More water is lost to evaporation when hot and sunny. Never water early evening so grass is wet all night. That causes fungal issues.

So far I trust my Hunter system to manage the amount it waters. I have seen it increase watering times in the summer, skip days for actual rain or rain in the forecast, and skip days like this past week when it has been very cold. The last time my irrigation ran was 12 days ago.

There are a couple of spots in my yard that became dry during the summer but those were likely due to heads needing to be cleaned or adjusted.

My grass is not as green lately as it normally is but I'm attributing that to the below-average temperatures.

It’s hard to stick my finger in it from Massachusetts.

But you did.

:1rotfl:

Not sure why you’d wanna be up there, this time of year. It’s beautiful down here now. You’ve got it all wrong. You should be here in the winter. I’m from the Merrimack Valley (Lawrence/Haverhill) so I know.

Anyway, I’d recommend relying on your Ranchio. Worse case scenario, water once every other week, at least one inch per watering.

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

Still working. But I just got laid off and this moves my retirement up. We were going to be there late 2026 but looks like now it will be end of September 2025. I’m excited.

Regarding the lawn care we have Fertigator doing out fertilizer, weed and insect control. They seem to be on it pretty good. I will be taking in the lawn care when I get there full time.

Linking to a weather station 2 miles away will do you no good. I put up my own pws that my b-hyve links too. My close neighbors get access to my weather station data thru weather underground.
As for frequency of watering, put your sprinkler system in ‘smart’ mode and let it do its thing on when and how much to water year round

One reason your grass may be browning up is whoever is cutting your grass, might be cutting it too short. The shorter grass, under 3.5" will not be as green as 4.5" or taller, everything else being the same like water frequency, amount of water, and chemicals applied. Most lawn services cut lower than the recommended height of the people that create the different breeds of grass, as well as The University of Florida.
When you first raise your grass to the recommended height, it may look uneven after cutting. Be patient, as the shorter grass areas will fill in and in a few weeks the grass will get to the new height, be level and considerably greener. If you walk around your neighborhood. Look at the greener yards and you should see most of them are taller. Just my opinion based on recommendations and years of experience. Good luck.

You need one of these.....

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Mars_Rover.jpg

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.

grass
 

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.