MSU:Water lightly and frequently during summer?

[slash8118]

I live in Tennessee and was reading thru an article put out by the university here:
https://utextension.tennessee.edu/pu...nts/W161-F.pdf

Below is the specific part of the article that i wish to discuss: basically-
I am trying to figure out which school of thought would be better for my lawn (which is Tall Fescue)?

"One irrigation philosophy is to water thoroughly
and infrequently in an effort to encourage
turfgrass plants to develop deep roots. The soil
is moistened to a depth of at least 6 inches and
the turf is not irrigated again until symptoms of
drought stress begin to appear. Many industry
professionals managing turfgrasses in loam soil
keep this philosophy in mind and set irrigation
systems to apply ½ inch (about 320 gallons per
1,000 square feet) of water no more than twice
each week. When thoroughly irrigating turfs
maintained on slopes or in heavy clay soils, it may
be necessary to activate sprinkler heads in each
zone several times to avoid runoff.

Another irrigation philosophy, based, in part, on
research conducted at Michigan State University,
is to irrigate lightly and often (e.g., 1/10 to 2/10
inch of water every other day) during the summer.
A goal is to meet the daily water requirement
of shallowly rooted turfgrasses while conserving
water by preventing runoff and the percolation of
water below the turfgrass root zone. Damage from
certain diseases and insects may be reduced when
water is applied by light, frequent rather than
deep, infrequent irrigation."

[ReddensLawnCare]

Bermuda and other warm season turfs have shallow roots, while fescue should have deep roots. Does that help? You should water infrequently and heavily
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[R&S Lawn Care]

What is considered shallow vs. deep? I ask because i was doing some dirt work in my yard and found common bermuda roots about 8-10" deep and there were still roots in ground past that depth. My 5 acres is non irrigated, and red clay in areas a few inches below the surface. I aerate once a year, which has helped tremendously. I've started providing fall fescue overseeding with good success, but ive not yet dug up any fescue to see root depth.
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[Exact Rototilling]

Subscribed
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[ReddensLawnCare]

I had no idea it went that deep. I have always seen it around 4"-6 max.
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[Smallaxe]

The readers of this article could walk away thinking that light daily watering is a good idea...

but all kidding aside,,, it was good to hear it said that multiple irrigation events per day to get clay/slopes to soak in rather than runoff...

[R&S Lawn Care]

Where im at, any water is better than no water! I would like to do some experimenting with sub soil irrigation.
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[Kiril]

Originally Posted by ReddensLawnCare

Bermuda and other warm season turfs have shallow roots, while fescue should have deep roots. Does that help? You should water infrequently and heavily

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/a...s/bermuda.html

The frequency of irrigation is dependent on water use rate and soil type. Clay soils, for example, hold more water than sandy soils and, consequently, require less frequent irrigations. The depth of the rootzone also influences the frequency of irrigations. Bermudagrass roots can grow to a depth of six feet or more depending on soil profile characteristics. However, the majority of the root system, 80% or more, is found in the top 6 inches of soil. Where roots extend several feet into the soil, thorough and infrequent irrigation produces the most drought tolerant turf. Light, frequent irrigations such as practiced on golf greens produce shallow-rooted grass that shows drought stress very rapidly.

[Duekster]

In my book 1/10 of an inch is not effective so those folks need to be slapped. My feeling is 0.25 or more per application and I like to see 0.4 to .05 applied via soak cycle on heavy clay.

http://texaset.tamu.edu/effrain.php


The concern is over Joe home owner being told to water deeply and restricted to one or two days so he waters to the point of run off, and or well past the effective roots zone.

The other concern is if you do have to cut back frequency on Turf that is used to getting watered every day. Turf will become lazy and put energy into top growth instead of deeper roots if watered some every day. I say let the roots chase the deeper water.

I know that is a point of debate at TAMU, if you can influance root growth with watering frequency.

[Kiril]

Originally Posted by Duekster

In my book 1/10 of an inch is not effective so those folks need to be slapped. My feeling is 0.25 or more per application and I like to see 0.4 to .05 applied via soak cycle on heavy clay.

tmax = [1 / (P * b)] * {fo - P + fc * [ln (fo - fc) / (P - fc)]}