# How much water per DAY?



## Brou (Jun 18, 2020)

It's well known that Bermuda grass requires 1-1.5" of water per week during the growing season.

What I'm wondering is how much water do you all recommend per day? I manually move my sprinklers and when set to a 180 degree pattern they put down about .5" in 60-70 minutes.

Would it be best to water .25" every other day and pray for rain or water .5" twice a week? Or something else?


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## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Deep and infrequent here.


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## Brou (Jun 18, 2020)

Ware said:


> Deep and infrequent here.


How deep is deep and how infrequent is infrequent? Half an inch twice a week? One inch once a week?


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## BubbaGrumpus (Jun 17, 2019)

Yes. Seriously though. You're right on. In the warmer climates you water more often then in cooler climates.

The standard to start at is 1" once a week, BUT most of us in the south need more then that.. ie.. 2-3 times a week @ .5 inches.

Watch your grass. See how it reacts/looks. There is no real science to it besides that.


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## WDE46 (Mar 11, 2019)

Your lawn is going to be fine at 1 time a week unless you're mowing super short.


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

Once a week here. 1/4 per area, takes about one hour per zone. If it rains no water for that week from me


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## rjw0283 (May 11, 2020)

Depends on soil type and some other factors. I water when the grass starts to turn color in a few spots (everyone usually has a few areas that brown up before the rest of the yard) These areas are my indicators to water. I'll do a deep water, and usually follow up the next day with a mild soaking. That usually gets me another 3-4 days until the spots show again. Hopefully it's rained by then. I don't have an irrigation system either.


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## testwerke (Apr 4, 2019)

rjw0283 said:


> Depends on soil type and some other factors. I water when the grass starts to turn color in a few spots (everyone usually has a few areas that brown up before the rest of the yard) These areas are my indicators to water. I'll do a deep water, and usually follow up the next day with a mild soaking. That usually gets me another 3-4 days until the spots show again. Hopefully it's rained by then. I don't have an irrigation system either.


This is so true. I recently learned this the hard way. A deep watering brings the spots back to life


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## rjw0283 (May 11, 2020)

testwerke said:


> rjw0283 said:
> 
> 
> > Depends on soil type and some other factors. I water when the grass starts to turn color in a few spots (everyone usually has a few areas that brown up before the rest of the yard) These areas are my indicators to water. I'll do a deep water, and usually follow up the next day with a mild soaking. That usually gets me another 3-4 days until the spots show again. Hopefully it's rained by then. I don't have an irrigation system either.
> ...


Now if only I had a reliable weather forecast. I just love it when I run the sprinkler put everything away, and we get 1 inch of rain when there was a 0% chance of precipitation, but usually it's the opposite. They call for rain, and nothing.


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## BermudaBoy (Jun 27, 2019)

rjw0283 said:


> testwerke said:
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> > rjw0283 said:
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I read this and knew you had to be from NC. It's been like that the last two weeks. Wake up to a 0% chance of rain and before you know it there's a monsoon outside.


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## Brou (Jun 18, 2020)

BermudaBoy said:


> rjw0283 said:
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> 
> > testwerke said:
> ...


Same here. What makes it worst is that the forecast has been calling for afternoon rain but the chance progressively lowers throughout the day. I never really know when to wake up early and water the lawn.

-At 6 am yesterday there was a 60% chance of afternoon storms. 
-At 12 pm yesterday there was a 20% chance of afternoon storms. 
-At 4 pm yesterday there was a 10% chance of afternoon storms. 
-At 7 pm yesterday (after I prepped the hoses/sprinklers for morning watering) I started hearing thunder. The chance of storms had gone up to 70%. I put everything away, changed my alarm from 4 to 5:30 am. 
-At 8 pm it rained. 
-At 8:05 pm it stopped, COMPLETELY!

*NC weather forecasts are trash.*

I wish I could just water when I see the grass begin to turn colors BUT I'm color blind. My grass always looks a lime greenish/yellow brownish color to MY brain. My wife always says nope it's green. That makes me really dependent on how many inches of water it's getting.


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## Groundskeeper Willie (Feb 22, 2019)

I've been noticing unreliable rain forecasts here in GA as well - reliably unreliable. You see relatively high chances given for rain that somehow always dwindle to nothing as the expected hour or day approaches. Weather.com is the forecaster I rely on - and now rely on to always be wrong. The thought occurs to me that maybe they know their prediction models are faulty but won't fix them because overestimating rain chances drives up the click count from people repeatedly checking in to see how the chances are holding up.


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## Buster (Apr 3, 2020)

Don't water Bermuda every day, you're just making the weeds and the weed seeds happy.

Bermuda actually likes deep and infrequent. It's okay if the top few inches bake and dry out.


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## J_Monkey25 (Apr 28, 2020)

Buster said:


> Don't water Bermuda every day, you're just making the weeds and the weed seeds happy.
> 
> Bermuda actually likes deep and infrequent. It's okay if the top few inches bake and dry out.


Does this hold true even without any rain for 3 weeks and a 5 day stretch with 100+ degree temps? I hear some say during those conditions it is best to water every few days but don't know which is better.


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## PhxHeat (Oct 18, 2019)

Here in Phoenix the early summer temps are in the 90s. The "regular avg" summer high temps are 100°-108° with random stretches of 110° to 117° days. Still 100° at 10 pm or later, you bet. It's not uncommon to have summer morning low temps around 90°. Consistent day time highs of upper 90's and above from June into October. The humidity is pretty low with yearly average of 36%. Phoenix only gets about 9" total precipitation per year.

I used to just mow and water. That changed a lot after my front yard nearly died off 2 years ago due to what I now believe was WAY too much watering for my yard/grass.

I absolutley agree with EVERY yard is different and therefore requires different care. Grass type, cut length, frequency of mow, amount of watering, sun/shade, soil type, longitude/latitude, nutrient levels, fertilizer levels, temperatures, humidity, winds, landscaping, hardscaping, elevation ... etc etc etc.

After getting my yard headed in the right direction again, I did not initially go about trying to figure out how much water I was using. I more or less tried to figure out the minimum time my sprinklers needed to run to get water deep enough to be able to push an 8" screwdriver into the soil a few hours after my final watering cycle. This was based off the "screwdriver test" people here talk about and info/articles I read on watering bermuda. IMO, "MY" grass has benefited the most from narrowing down the amount of water it likes. Cutting lower/more frequently and weekly "spoon feeding" the fertilizer have also helped. It's been and continues to be a learning process.

I want to preface this next part with, we do get some monsoon rains here from time to time. So my sprinkler run days may be less to an extent. With the above said, last year I took the water bill for August and did some calculations based on gallons used. Loosely calculated by gallons used, it turned out I watered somewhere between 3/4" & 1" avg per week for August but not more. I say loosely because of the approximate sqft of the yard watered, we have a pool that evaporates & automatically fills, and obviously the water we use. Plus I didn't factor in any rain we may have had then.

This summer I'm cutting lower (mix of common bermudas) at close to 3/4". 
It's been pretty hot so far this summer with many 110°+ days. There hasn't been any monsoon rain to speak of thus far. Using a similar schedule to August of last year, I'm watering every 3rd day to the 8" screwdriver depth.... I've tried every 4th & 5th day but it seems to really stress my grass in the higher temps.

imo ... most common #'s that get thrown around are a generalized starting point to work from. It takes some tweaking to get things dialed in to a specific yard.


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## PhxHeat (Oct 18, 2019)

.... and I guess I left out the fact that the soil should have a chance to dry out before the next watering cycle. This allows the grass roots to breathe. That is every bit as important as it is they get water. Too much water, the roots suffocate and the grass will suffer and can die. Everyone, myself included always thinks about watering the grass/roots, but it needs to get air too. Excess water/moisture can cause a ton of other issues. Who wants to deal with rot, mold, mildew, fungus, algae, excess growth, soggy grass soil etc etc. I know, sometimes that just happens. Do what you can to get the roots some fresh air.


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## lucas287 (Jun 3, 2018)

Buster said:


> Don't water Bermuda every day, you're just making the weeds and the weed seeds happy.
> 
> Bermuda actually likes deep and infrequent. It's okay if the top few inches bake and dry out.


"Top few inches" made me laugh  my HOC is .7"! But, the principle is sound. Deep and infrequent for me too! I live in Boerne, north of San Antonio. Usually about 5 degrees cooler 24/7 but still hot. I only water 1" once per week.


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## IlliniFaninTX (Jul 15, 2020)

lucas287 said:


> Buster said:
> 
> 
> > Don't water Bermuda every day, you're just making the weeds and the weed seeds happy.
> ...


How long do you have to water each zone to achieve 1"?


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## rjw0283 (May 11, 2020)

Kamauxx said:


> BermudaBoy said:
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> 
> > rjw0283 said:
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This is the exact thing that happened to me, I ended up watering around 8pm. I have watered at night for years, I've never had issues, but my soil is sand so it runs right through it. I just don't have the time to do it in the morning before headed out to work. Would wearing polarized lenses help? When I wear polarized lenses it stands out night and day... But I'm not color blind.


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## Buster (Apr 3, 2020)

IlliniFaninTX said:


> How long do you have to water each zone to achieve 1"?


It depends on YOUR irrigation system. You need to perform an audit. You can find examples online but essentially you need to place out some tuna cans, and then time how long it takes to fill them in your various zones to 0.25 or 0.5"... then do the math.

Every irrigation setup is different, every zone is different.


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## Buster (Apr 3, 2020)

J_Monkey25 said:


> Does this hold true even without any rain for 3 weeks and a 5 day stretch with 100+ degree temps? I hear some say during those conditions it is best to water every few days but don't know which is better.


Yes. Most say with established, healthy Bermuda 1" to maybe 1.25" is plenty for the high heat. I shoot for 1" in high heat, 0.5" in the spring and fall when it's warm and my grass is pretty happy.

Remember, your Bermuda roots are 3 FEET to 6 FEET deep. You gotta get that water deep. Frequent surface watering is again, just helping the weeds.


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## lucas287 (Jun 3, 2018)

^ what @Buster said :thumbup:


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## lucas287 (Jun 3, 2018)

Also, something that doesn't get discussed near enough when watering is the topic is soil hardness. I've got pretty terrible builder grade, compacted, clay, caliche, hardly call it soil - soil. If I didn't regularly use PGR, humic acid, soap/shampoo/Penterra (wetting agents), then I don't think it would be beneficial to water once a week - the water would bead right off.

There's never a silver bullet. It's the culmination of proven lawn care methods that make it work.


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