Summer arrives this week along with heat and humidity. It is time to increase the watering with more time per zone and every other day watering. For many of you, especially if you live in Nassau County, the code is odd days of the month if you have an odd # house address and even days if your home is an even # address. If you live in Suffolk County odd/even day watering is voluntary. Best to check with your water company to learn their regulations.
As a guide, run times for irrigation zones with rotary heads should range from 30 -60 minutes per zone, spray zones 10 -20 minutes, and drip 20 – 40 minutes per zone. As per Cornell Cooperative Extension the recommended application rate for watering is 1” per week. Factors that play into watering include the area lawn or planting, sun or shade, and heavy clay soil vs. sandy soil.
The best time to water is early morning. An ideal time to start the cycle is 2am and have completed before you wake up and begin your day. Watering early in the morning is an efficient time as the wind is calm and evaporation is low.
I would also recommend that you check your system once per week and manually run each zone for 5 minutes and visually check for broken sprinkler heads, pipes, and valves.
A beautiful landscape is a valuable investment and the cost to maintain a sprinkler system that sustains a healthy landscape is far less expensive than replacing lawn, shrubs, and trees. Please call our office at 631-423-2211 or click here to arrange an appointment. For more information about Rain Rich please visit our website at www.rainrich.com. We look forward to serving you!
