The Wanderer

I heard an interesting and somewhat shocking interview on my local NPR station.  It blew away almost everything I thought I knew about watering my lawn.  Searching for the information I heard later lead me to an article by the same research team at MSU.  Below are some of their findings on the best way to irrigate lawns.  A lot of it is against the conventional wisdom.  No doubt this is the first time science has ever disproven conventional wisdom.

Here are some interesting out-takes:

• "Generally, lawn turf requires 0.5 to 1.5 inches of water per week"
• "That corresponds to 0.1 to 0.2 inch of water [daily]"
• "Light, frequent applications of water are much more productive than heavy applications once a week."
• "The best time of day for watering is early afternoon just before the highest temperature period of the day."

Full information at the link below.  I hope you find it as useful as I did.

Full Article: http://www.turf.msu.edu/docs/turftipsE09.pdf
MSU's Irrigation Practices to Preserve Water Quality
G.T. Lyman, P.E. Rieke & J.M. Vargas Jr.
Departments of Crop and Soil Sciences and Plant Pathology, Michigan State University