Well, shallow roots are not a problem if you keep on watering. Preventive fungicide take care of fungus and pre-emergent takes care of weeds. It would cost me about $1,000 a month in water to do that, so deep roots that can take advantage of deeper water reserves are a must for me.

@Nebraska: I wonder the same thing. I've been watering "infrequent and deep" for about 3 seasons. Parts of my lawn look stressed in the hottest part of the summer, and the lawn is never 100% green except for spring and late fall (in NJ with KBG lawn). My next door neighbor mows lower than I do (I'm at 4") and waters EVERY single day, as does another of my neighbors down the street. Their lawns look mostly green while mine is a mix of green and brown stalks. Not bad, but just not 100% lush green.

I posted about this a year or so ago, but I can't find it. Morpheus said something like the lawn won't look 100% like lawns watered every day, but they will be more disease/weed resistant and generally healthier.

The pitch as I understand it is that watering every day for short duration causes the lowest levels of soil to get drier and the upper inch or so to be wet all the time. This encourages shallow roots, which also encourages weaker leaf growth. Shallow roots also promote formation of thatch in thatch prone grasses like KBG. Shallow roots also means warmer roots in the heat of summer which equals more stress on the lawn.

It goes on and on as to why daily watering is bad. Like you, though, I look at their nice green lawn and I wonder. On the other hand, I mow high and I can tell you my lawn is considerably thicker and more plush to walk on. If you look down vertically there is a definite difference in density. So you do have to be careful about the lawn "being greener on the other side of the fence."

I assume that the issue becomes a numbers thing. A lawn watered too frequently that is fungus free due to fungicides (free from good and bad fungi) may look great for two seasons and then be wiped out from some disease caused by the watering practice. (Can you really prevent all fungi with a fungicide?). If you look at all lawns, I'm assuming frequently watered ones crash and burn a lot more than ones watered "properly" do.

This is mostly conjecture on my part because I haven't seen comparisons anywhere, though I'm sure the "deep and infrequent" mantra is based on good science. One thing is clear, though. If you believe a healthy soil ecosystem is important for the best lawn growth, then you can't use fungicides. If you don't think fungi are important for the lawn, then i suppose you can probably water every day, too.

Thanks for your response. I did read where in the hottest months, you can water briefly every afternoon for a few minutes in each zone and that will help keep the grass cool and less likely to burn. Maybe that's what they are doing? Maybe I only see that and don't see their deep watering because it's early in the morning?

Nope. They water every...single...day just because that's how the sprinkler people set it up (actually early in the morning before sunrise).

What kind of grass do you have?

How high/low do you mow?

Does your soil seem to be consistent across the garden or do you have spots where it is gravelly or spots where nothing seems to grow? I'm thinking construction trash burial site, buried stumps, or buried rocks.

When were the last 2 times you fertilized and what did you use?

Have you had your soil tested (I know daniel has)?

Another reason for deep and infrequent watering as opposed to daily is that if/when the sprinkler system breaks, usually while the owner is away on a 2 week July vacation, the shallow rooted grass will not survive much more than 2 days without its daily dose of water. We used to see that happening all the time before all the lawn forums got on the deep and infrequent bandwagon. Frequently watered turf is fragile and very dependent on the frequent sips of water. My lawn just went through all of June, July, and 3 weeks into August with no watering and no rain since the Memorial Day deluge of 2016. That's 11 weeks in the Texas Hill Country with temps consistently in the mid to high 90s.

But Dennis isn't it true you have a warm season grass that likes the hot weather? If I get one week in the nineties my KBG has trouble no matter what, except maybe by watering every day when it is that hot???

Your neighbor's lawn will almost always look better because you're viewing it from 50 feet away, compared to looking at yours from 5 feet away. There's an optical illusion at work there, so don't drive yourself crazy over it.

I've raised objections over the usual watering recommendations based on 1" every week etc simply because a one size fits all does not work for everyone. There's a lot of factors at work here, grass type, full sun vs shade, canopy density, soil type, air temperature, cloud cover etc. 1" a week on Bermuda in Texas is going to be just fine. 1" a week on KBG in NY is probably going to be fine too. 1" a week on TTTF in TN or NC or VA, you're probably going to have a dead lawn by the end of summer. When the temps climb into the mid 90s and stay there, and it's about 80 at night too, you can go about 4 days at most before the grass starts to turn. If your soil is sandy it's going to have to be watered more frequently no matter where you are.

Point is, if you're looking to water infrequently, watch the grass and when you see drought stress, water. Could be every 3 days one week or every 5 days the following week in the summer, or once a month in the spring, or not at all in the fall. This allows you to wait as long as possible between each watering session - when there's drought stress it needs water, whether you last watered 3 days ago or two weeks ago.

So what's the solution if you don't want to bother with keeping an eye on the grass? If you just want to press a button and forget about it? Watering every day, or every other day, or every 3 days will do it and covers most situations - works in the summer, works in the fall, works in the spring. I don't recommend that you do that, I'm just trying to explain what I think is going on.