The fall equinox began on Sunday September 22. This is the day when there is an equal amount of sunlight and darkness. Temperatures are cooler at night and not as warm or hot during the day. Your Long Island lawn and plants are preparing for winter and begin to store food in their roots. They are not growing as much and therefore require less watering.
At this time, I would recommend reducing your watering to every other day and 50-60% of the normal run times. The soil holds moisture longer and there is less evapotranspiration. The evapotranspiration rate is approximately 0.1” per day for a 
total of approximately 0.7” per week of moisture loss. If it doesn’t rain for an entire week than that is the amount of irrigation that needs to be replaced. The past few weeks have been dry with little or no rainfall and I would continue watering until winterizing.
Winterizing will begin the middle of October, and I ask that you call our office at 631-423-2211 to schedule your appointment. Winterizing is an important service that purges your system of water and prevents water in your system from freezing and cracking the pipe, valves, and sprinkler heads. We have a brief time limit to winterize all the systems we service. We recommend that all systems be winterized by Thanksgiving.
If you have any questions or concerns, then please call our office, or visit our website at www.rainrich.com and fill out the contact form. You can also email me at rsilverman@rainrich.com. We look forward to serving you!
