Forgot to mention that I also used to water each zone for 5 minutes once in the evenings, and once in the morning. But, after reading some on here, have changed it to where each zone will get 5 min spurts over the course of an hour totaling 30 minutes every three days in the morning only. So each zone will get 30 minutes every three days. (8 zones total 3 of them on first, 3 on second, 2 on third)

Does this sound like a good watering schedule? Any tips, suggestions, changes to make?

Thank you again

Since you made reference to the bermuda bible, should we assume that you have bermuda grass?

Your watering schedule needs to be adjusted, but the type of grass you have is going to determine the type of adjustment to be made.

As for pre and post herbicides, worry about that later. Get your grass and watering issues under control first. Tell us the type of grass you have, then we move foward from there. If you could post some pictures, that would be very helpful.

Yes I do have bermuda, that was put in from sod, so I'm assuming its the hybrid? I am out of town but will add pics when I get home on Friday. From what I've read elsewhere regarding my error, I have two options, either wait, or re sod. I appreciate any advice that you might be able to give. Once i get the burnt grass fixed, I'd also like some suggestions for pre and post emergent brands to use and when to apply them if you have the time.

Thank you.

I don't see a problem with 30mins every three days for warm season grass. The general rule of thumb is to water 10 minutes for every day you skip. With this in mind if you water every third day, you need approximately 30 minutes of water. For warm season grass this seems to work well.

If it is straw colored it's dormant. It should then come back. You need to give it enought water to reach the root zone. So depending on your soil, this may change. You will also want to give it some nitrogen. Maybe some 36-0-0 slow release. Also, get a soil test. If pH is below 6.0 you'll need to add lime. For pre-M, I like Amaze, twice a year.

My rule of thumb is that the grass tells me when it needs water, and until it tells me it needs water, it doesn't get any water. Then when it tells me it needs water, it gets a deep and thorough soaking. That could be three days, thirty days, or any number of days in between. An individual's environment, agronomic practices, and cultural practices will determine what the watering schedule is going to be.

I could easily be wrong, but the way I read the original post, it didn't sound like the OP was applying 30 minutes of water all at once every three days.

Since it has been 3-4 weeks, the results of the over-application should be apparent. Look down into the brown affected areas at the soil level. Is there any green shoot growth at all, or is it all completely brown? Let us know when you get back on Friday.

"5 min spurts over the course of an hour totaling 30 minutes every three days" This is in the second post. I do agree with the water when needed. But most want to set a timer and walk away. In Phoenix this works as we get very little rain.

Yes, I saw that the OP was watering in 5 minute spurts over the course of an hour totaling 30 minutes every three days. I also saw where there are 8 zones to water. As long as the watering is a 5 minute spurt per zone every 40 minutes, for 4 consecutive hours, every third day, then that might meet someone's criteria for applying 30 minutes of water every third day. But is that giving the grass what it needs? I would think that is less than ideal, especially when you have an automated system. For me, I would have to schedule a longer run time than 5 minutes, provided there was no runoff in that time. And soil condition has everything to do with the equation.

Folks who set their timers and walk away just need to be better educated on watering turfgrass correctly. It's not that they don't want to, they just don't know any different.

I assume Phoenix is a different animal when it comes to watering needs. I'll just keep suffering in the hot, humid South.

OP here,

Will post pictures when I get home. I guess there may have been confusion, I had a lot of questions, one of which was about my watering schedule. Originally I was just hitting all zones sequentially, 5 minutes a pop (which is where I started experiencing runoff with the clay soil) once, in the morning, and again at dusk. I read on here that you are supposed to soak the grass infrequently all at once. So I thought that I'd do bursts of 5 minutes, and let it soak in for 25 minutes, then repeat 3 more times. That would give me 30 minutes of watering without the runoff over the course of 2 hours. I'd do this to each zone every third day.

That was the watering question. The bigger problem is that I've pretty much nuked my yard and it looks like a zebra now. I haven't gotten down and looked at the root area of the dead grass to see if there are any new shoots sprouting out, but it sure looks like it got burned bad. I don't know if I need to resod or just try to coax this back to life again. Wouldn't the application of more nitrogen only worsen my problem?

If it was me, I would be vigilant against weeds the rest of the summer (while being careful not to spray too close to planting), then seed in the fall.

Ok OP, you and neilaz have clarified the watering for me. I understand the reasoning for shorter 5 minute intervals to reduce runoff. I don't agree with it, but I understand why you are doing it that way. Improving your soil structure will resolve a lot of that problem. When you get back, look down in there to see if there are any green shoots starting to pop up. Hopefully you won't have to re-sod.

I still would like to know exactly what product you used; you said it was Scotts Miracle Gro with turf guard. I really don't know that particular Scotts product. Could you be more specific, and include an analysis (3 numbers on the bag).

Might this be Scotts Turf builder with summer guard? 20-0-8

http://www.scotts.com/smg/catalog/productTemplate.jsp?proId=prod100064&itemId=cat50044

I believe this was the culprit.
Scotts� Turf Builder� With PLUS 2� Weed Control

It's been about a month and I threw the bag away when I finished with it. This is it I'm pretty sure.

So I got out there and took a few pictures of the lawn. Let me know what yall think I should do. I haven't been able to find any new growth down at the roots of the grass. The main section of the lawn is not as bad, only where I had overlap in my track did it burn, but the side of the house the spreader must have kicked to a higher setting yet even as it is pretty much scorched.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lawn Disaster 2011

From the looks of things in the picture, you've got fertilizer burn.

Do you have Bermuda? If so, it will fill in the dead spots once it can. It may take a while since those are some big dead spots, but Bermuda is a hardy grass and it spreads pretty aggressively.

You can probably speed things up by taking sprigs from healthy areas and planting them at intervals in the bare spots.

I know the pain of trying to water deeply with clay soil, and I think you're doing the right thing. When I bought my house, I could only water for 15 minutes per zone before it started to run off. So I watered for 10 minutes each zone, then ran through it three times, for a total of 30 minutes (similar to your approach). By doing that, I got the soil moist and ready to take water, and each cycle got the water deeper. As time went on, the soil was able to take more water without running off. I now water for 20-30 minutes per zone and repeat three times.

How long do you think it will take for the bermuda to recover on its own? Is there anything that I can do to try to help it along? I'm leaning towards just getting the affected areas resodded. I took a picture as well of a particular weed that I'm having trouble with especially, what form of weed killer would be best for it?