# Watering 1" in one Day



## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

So I am on a well, I have 38 zones on my property. Due to my well size, I can only run 4 rotors at once (1 zone), and putting down 1 inch of water with a rotor takes alot of time. My math tells me maybe 1 hour 20 mintes per zone to get an inch.

Now what I have done is broke the lawn up into 6 six programs. The goal here is to water 2 hours each zone, some will only be an hour due to shade. I dont have track home builder soil, I have good quality loam soil, and so far from what I have seen, the rate at which the water gets applied to the soil, the soil is able to absorb everything in 2 hours time without being insanely saturdated like you normally you normally would see.

some of these programs i am starting at 8pm and wont finish up till 8-10am in the morning. I really can not avoid watering during the day as much as i dont want to. I did my sprinkler output test over several days and the results averaged around 1/8inch in 20 minutes per zone.

I suppose this would be okay if I only water each section 1 time a week and put down 1" of water each time? I have bermuda grass in south texas, i know i should be putting more down but, I cant have my cake and eat it too.

Down the road ill be putting in a 500 gallon tank with a booster than I can go wide open throttle.

Thoughts? I have a Hunter HCC Hydrawise.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

1in at once is likely not ideal. Read the ET and irrigation guide to calculate the right amount of inches/frequency.


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

No not ideal but its realistic. I literally can't pump out enough water between nightfall and sunrise to get more than that.

I did a test patch and I got moisture around 6 inches deep with zero run off with running and that was 8 hours after the two zones ran. I think I'll be now after running that test.


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## Wiley (Dec 2, 2019)

STI_MECE said:


> No not ideal but its realistic. I literally can't pump out enough water between nightfall and sunrise to get more than that.
> 
> I did a test patch and I got moisture around 6 inches deep with zero run off with running and that was 8 hours after the two zones ran. I think I'll be now after running that test.


You may be better off spreading out that inch throughout two or three irrigation events during the week. When applying that much water all at once it's unlikely that all of the water will be held within the root zone for optimal plant hydration. I think you're going to need to be creative but maybe in a different way.

I believe that's what @g-man was hinting at. As mentioned previously read through the ET and irrigation guide. The info will help ensure that you get the most bang for your buck when you irrigate.


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

Sorry if I came off the wrong way. This is why I came here for the creative ideas. With what I have now, I start irrigating on Sunday and by Friday all the zones have been cycled.

I'll take a read on the ET values but I'm gunna need to figure out how to work this Hydrawise program better.

I will say this I do slightly miss my Rachio because it actually had alot more advanced options. But in the case of Hydrawise I can still do everything the Rachio can, with alot less features.

Thank you guys for the help. I'm hoping y'all can understand why I'm taking this quiet seriously. The last thing I want to do is be irrigating my lawn in the middle of the day and watch it evaporate before it hits the ground. Although having a nice lawn does require water, all I want to be is smart with my water

Hydrawise has smart watering and it looks at ETs in my area so I'm gunna investigate that alittle more.


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## Wiley (Dec 2, 2019)

No worries. Is your goal to have the same quality of turf for your full 5 acres? Or are there some areas, maybe around the house, that might be managed differently?


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

Wiley said:


> No worries. Is your goal to have the same quality of turf for your full 5 acres? Or are there some areas, maybe around the house, that might be managed differently?


Long term yes the same quality turf. Although, it's unrealistic for me because I could not keep up with the mowing, my wife only lets me mow on weekends lol

Right now I have 1/3 irrigated maybe. So for now, and my sanity. My long-term goal for the current irritated portion is to get that nice clean cut Bermuda lawn.

I don't think it will reach it's full potential until we get a bigger well with a booster pump. The irrigation can from 40 down to 20 zones. As it stands, looking deeper into my irrigation programs, I might also have to consider irrigating one portion of the yard, every other week. That in then would mean I run 20 zones a week.

I need to get pictures of my lawn up in my journal but I haven't had time yet. I was out there 10 yesterday in 100 degree heat.

Getting 18 pallets of celebration Bermuda today. I dropped a balanced fertilizer from the big box store (yuck) yesterday. Watered it in last night.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

If you read the irrigation guide, you will learn that you should not be doing 1in of water at once.


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

I am trying to achieve 1inch of water in one go, but I do not think I am actually hitting that. At most I would imagine I am around 3/4inch at most on a good day, in other cases I am at a 1/2inch. But that is based on running every zone for 1 hour.

I do not think I can achieve those numbers in the ET guide just based on the number of zones & amount of water being displaced in 1 hour. Like even if I assume I have an ideal lawn, I can not achieve the minimum amount of irrigation.

The only way to get around that would be to water during the day and night. But I am against watering in the day unless I am trying to wet down fertilizer.

If wanted to achieve those numbers my irrigation would have to run for 33 hours straight, which is 1.375 days. Running them 1 hour each just to get 0.6 inches down. my roots are well beyond established, this bermuda has been here for 20 years.

so even then, if I had to water every 2 days, then I am pretty much looking at irrigating 24/7 around the clock just to keep up. with a 15 hour break in between.

I think the only way to achieve anything ideal is by reducing the number of zones I have. IE bigger well and a booster pump. And that is assuming I can stomach watering during the day. Watering during the day would have to be extended to account for the heat and the increase in wind speed. But that is splitting hairs.

But I guess understanding the ET rules, I am still wondering whether or not my controller is up to snuff, It says to enter the amount of time and frequency i would irrigate during peak season. So my baseline would be an hour with 2 day break. I am going to see what happens from there.

Some how this fancy controller is not as advanced as the rachio, but I feel this controller is just as advanced, it just doesnt show me the calculations its running.


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## Rucraz2 (Apr 8, 2018)

38 zones?? Wowzers. I have 16 zones all with 4 heads and run every night from 9pm -6am and barely get an inch down all week running on my well. Maybe you need to downsize to achieve what you want on that area??


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## STI_MECE (Aug 4, 2020)

Rucraz2 said:


> 38 zones?? Wowzers. I have 16 zones all with 4 heads and run every night from 9pm -6am and barely get an inch down all week running on my well. Maybe you need to downsize to achieve what you want on that area??


I am covering 85k sqft. No need to downsize, the pump will run its course and then whenever it fails, an upgrade will come along the way. Eventually if i can get it down to around 20ish zones ill be good. But whnever the pump goes down, im going to increase my irrigation coverage as well, but at that point it will all be a hill of beans beacuse ill be able to size a booster pump so that i can reduce the zone count overall while also increasing the sqft of coverage on my yard


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## Amoo316 (Jul 8, 2021)

I just run mine during the day with no ill effects. I spend a full day watering my 2 acres. Am I losing some to evap? Probably. Am I able to water my yard twice a week doing it that way? Yup. Has my grass suffered? Nope.

At the end of the day like you said, it comes down to math. Some people won't water at night because of the possible increase in fungus pressure. Some people won't water during the day because of evap losses...etc. You have to be realistic here, like you said. The realistic answer to me would be to at least start those cycles closer to 6pm then 8pm, then run them to 10am. That gives you an extra 2-4 hours a day.

The real reality is it's damn near impossible to keep 5 acres looking perfect.

You need essentially 49.4 hours to put down an inch of water with 1.3 hours needed per inch.
6pm to 10am gives you 16 hours a day. 32 in 2 days. 48 in 3 days.

Now cut that in half. 49.4/2 = 24.7 hours to put down 1/2" of water for all your zones.

You can do this in 2 days. Give your system a break for 2 days then run it again.

From here you can fine tune the math to run them a little bit longer so you're running the full 32 hours in 2 days and up your water just a little bit if you want. That will put you safely over 1.3hours per zone per week to account for evap losses.

Or run 8 to 8 and run 1 zone a little earlier twice a week and you hit the 24 hours twice if you're really that against watering during the day.


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