Averages are very nice, but the don't tell the whole story; if 10 students have a 100 average and 10 have 50 average, although the class average is 75 what you should be reading is "something is really odd about that set of figures."

Those 90 degree days sucked water a lot faster and rainfall during the summer is often a deluge followed by a long period of little to nothing (consistently wet summers do, of course, happen). High, blazing sun will also drive off water faster than lower, weaker sunlight even if the air temperature is effectively the same. Plant surface temperature differs between those two scenarios.

So the rules are a nice guide, but definitely don't tell the whole story and don't substitute for having a good sense as to when your particular lawn needs water. But they're a decent place to start if one has no previous experience with this...

I think lawniac has a good approach. Don't overthink it. The deep and infrequent guidance that I print all the time is only a guide. The main idea out of that is you should water deeply and infrequently and not daily for 10 minutes at a time. The farther away you can get from daily watering the better off the grass will be. I'm looking at YOU, California and Florida. For some reason you can't reason with those people.

We've gotten 3 inches per month this year until this month. This month we got 4 inches. Most of that rain fell the first week of the month (temps in the high 80s) and here we are at the end of the month (temps in the very high 90s). According to the theory 4 inches of rain should last a good long time, but it got really hot, windy, and dry/arid. My legal day to water is Tuesday, but my lawn looked fine last Tuesday. Then last Friday the grass looked drought stressed. Knowing that we were going to have temps in the very high 90s for the next 4 days, I took matters into my own hands and watered (Like a coward, at night - because the water company operators live literally on my street and drive by at all hours). I watered 1/2 inch. Today, Tuesday, it is not looking like it will go another week, so I will water and try to get a full inch down tonight.

I found this on the internets, does this look right?

[img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/63/1d/b4/631db40f0e0ab9337e1a31a1afa01e66.jpg[/img]

That is spot on Joe. Believe it or not, that grey looking grass will bounce back in about 30 minutes once it gets water. Once it gets like that, you have 24-48 hours tops to give it water before it goes brown.

Learning to diagnose drought stress and disease at a glance is one of the most valuable skills in lawn care in my opinion.

My biggest early mistake was taking the deep and infrequent mantra too literally. Some recommending that practice live in the south and don't understand that northern grass is much more sensitive to drought. My KBG with my sandy loam soil couldn't dream of going 7 days in 90 degree weather. That's a fantasy. Last year was the first time I decided to ramp up the watering but we got so much rain (and fungus) that I hardly had to irrigate at all!... Mother Nature, whaddya gonna do?

The southwest has similar issues although there are pockets of soil which will hold water. Generally from the western Texas Hill Country and west all the way to Palm Springs it is very difficult to hold to the temperature schedule in my blurb on watering. But if you live in the gravel soil of El Paso, growing grass is a near impossibility.

My biggest early mistake... Some people go cold turkey from daily watering to weekly or monthly watering, and the grass cannot take that. The roots are too short and dry out in just a few days. But if you transition to deep and infrequent by only deep watering and only when the grass needs it, that will work better.

On the other side of the fence, I have deep, silty soil. There have been times where March, April and May droughts have had no visible impact.

From gray to brown takes a full week except in one or two areas, so I have tons of leeway. Since I also have a thing about tossing drinking water on the lawn, I tend to let nature take her course, with some assistance from me.

Before dry periods, cut long (or don't cut at all). That slows evaporation.

What are the signs of "drought stress?"

Thanks

gle-

Check out my link in the 4th post

thanks Joe