[Green]

I've noticed that a big rain of more than an inch often lasts for more than a week as far the grass is concerned.

Watching a recent video by Pete from GCI Turf, I listened to him state that with 4 inches of rain recently, he knows from experience that his grass will be good for at least 3 weeks before he has to start monitoring it or think about turning on his sprinklers if there's no further rain. Wow!

Obviously, some of this depends on the temperatures, and the type of soil. Pete has NC red clay, which I guess would be great at holding water once it gets fully saturated. My guess is that a more sandy soil, like mine, might not do quite as well.

And it's not like he's getting high 80s or 90s every day this time of year as he would in July and August. Part of me also can't help but think that all of his humate applications over the past few years have increased the water retention ability of his soil.

Has anyone else experienced the ability to go beyond a week between watering if it rains more than in inch?

 

[Turfguy93]

Had this save in my photos on my phone. Pretty helpful to me

 

[Green]

Awesome!

 

[j4c11]

It really depends on temperature, but with low 80's as average for this time of the year I'd expect to go at least 2 weeks on a good rain. I might be able to push that with PGR and moisture manager. I don't really start "irrigating" until about June, and even then it's just enough to make it to the next rain. I haven't watered at all this year.

 

[Miller_Low_Life]

This is good information. There's too much stress waiting on rain. We have it in the forecast for everyday this week, but I doubt we get very much. It's tough to explain to the wife that I need to water the lawn even though it might rain the next day.

 

[g-man]

The correct term for how much water a soil can hold is "field capacity". There are tables that provide average data based on the soil type (clay vs. sand). You could also do a test for your own soil, but it involves getting the wife to agree to place some dirt in the oven.

Once you know your field capacity for your root depth, then you could subtract your evaporation rate (ETo) to the root depth that Turfguy93 posted above.

Or you could get a soil moisture probe and control your irrigation based on it via your PWS..

 

[probasestealer]

@Turfguy93great link.

I do very little "watering". My goal is to topdress with organic matter (compost), use cracked corn and alfalfa during the spring and a soil surfactant to cut down on the need. I just applied Penterra last night during a rain shower, excited to see the results.

I don't currently have irrigation and would like to thank I don't need it, but we'll see if I change my mind in the future.

Our summer's are pretty brutal though.

 

[Powhatan]

I mainly rely on rainwater. Even though my loamy sand soil doesn't hold water long, the tall fescue deep roots do help keep the grass alive.

This is end of Jul 2017 with several weeks of high heat and drought. Notice on the left side of picture the tree roots are sucking up so much water there's a very noticeable dry ring in front of them.


Two weeks later and couple days of some decent rain, the grass is greening back to life.

 

[Suburban Jungle Life]

I mainly rely on rainwater. Even though my loamy sand soil doesn't hold water long, the tall fescue deep roots do help keep the grass alive.

This is end of Jul 2017 with several weeks of high heat and drought. Notice on the left side of picture the tree roots are sucking up so much water there's a very noticeable dry ring in front of them.


Two weeks later and couple days of some decent rain, the grass is greening back to life.

Wow. That's a big change. Great example. Do you think keeping the cut higher in summer would help? 4+"

 

[Powhatan]

Wow. That's a big change. Great example. Do you think keeping the cut higher in summer would help? 4+"

I was cutting @ HOC 3.5" during the summer and stopped once the grass was showing heat/drought stress. Going higher to 4" I guess might have been acceptable, I normally never keep the grass that high.