Water Requirementsand Irrigation SystemManagement
Eric Peterson, Natural Resource Education Specialist, West Extension Area, Wyoming
Lawn irrigaon accounts for nearly half of homeowner water usage. Many homeowners irrigate too of
-
ten and for too short a period to meet lawn and especially landscaping (tree and shrub) needs and oencompromise the health and vigor of their landscape’s plant community. Others tend to leave the waterrunning too long resulng in wasted water and high water bills. Properly adjusng automac wateringsystems is an important pracce generally overlooked or oen incorrectly done.
Factors Aecting Proper Irrigation Scheduling
Irrigaon requirements are a funcon of four things: plant adaptaon, soil properes, precipitaon, andevapotranspiraon rate. Any of these factors can become the most crical component of an irrigaonstrategy’s success or failure.
Plant adaptation:
There are plants adapted to dry environments while others are adapted to moremoist environments. Homeowners who have implemented a xeriscape strategy will generally have re
-
duced irrigaon requirements. More tradional home landscapes are composed of plant species withhigher water requirements and lower tolerance for drought. Those more tradional home landscapeswill thrive given the irrigaon strategy suggested here.
Soil properties:
Soils can vary tremendously in their eecve depth and composion (of clays, silts,sands, and organic content). These factors aect the amount of water holding capacity. Coarse (sandyor gravelly) soils do not hold as much water as ner (silt or clay) soils. Water inltraon is quicker, andwater may move beyond root zones in the coarse soils. Water holding capacity determines the relavelength of me between irrigaons. Inltraon rate aects the speed at which we can eecvely applywater.
B-1201 May 2010
LANDSCAPING:
Table 1. Available soil moisture holding capac-ity or various soil textures
Soil texture Available moisture(inches of water / foot of soil)Coarse sand and gravel 0.2 to 0.7Sands 0.5 to 1.1Loamy sands 0.7 to 1.4Sandy loams 1.3 to 1.8Fine sandy loams 1.7 to 2.2Loams and silt loams 2.0 to 2.8Clay loams and silty clay loams 1.7 to 2.5Silty clays and clays 1.6 to 2.2
Adapted fromwww.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ageng/irrigate/eb66w.htm
Table 2. Infltration rates or common soil tex-tures
Soil texture Inltraon rate(inches of water / hour)Coarse sand 0.75 to 2.0Fine sand 0.50 to 1.0Fine sandy loam 0.50 to 0.75Silt loam 0.25 to 0.4Clay loam 0.10 to 0.25
Adapted fromhttp://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/pnw/pnw287/#table1
Precipitation:
Regardless of whether irrigaon is viewed as supplemental to precipitaon or vice versa,precipitaon and irrigaon constute water applied to the soil. Rains can and should enter into the deci-sion process regarding the need to irrigate. Homeowners oen overesmate the amount received if theydo not have a means to measure precipitaon. Rain gauges are inexpensive and can provide informaoncrical in properly scheduling irrigaon.
Evapotranspiration:
Evapotranspiraon is a combinaon of the disappearance of moisture from thesoil through surface evaporaon and the consumpon of soil moisture by plant transpiraon. Evapo-transpiraon is aected by many factors including temperature, wind, slope, aspect, and relave humidi-ty. Evapotranspiraon rates will vary over the course of the year. Evapotranspiraon rates for Aon, Wy-oming, are presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Aton Daily Evapotranspiration Frequency (1988 – 2002)
Fromwww.wrds.uwyo.edu/sco/climateatlas/evaporaon.html#104
2
Maintaining Soil Moisture
The amount of moisture available in the root zone (0-12 inches) of most small-stature landscape plants,when balanced against the evapotranspiraon rate, indicates most lawns only require irrigaon once ev
-
ery four to eight days to stay healthy. This predicon should be periodically ne-tuned depending uponobserved weather condions and, parcularly, sprinkler zone variaons in aspect, slope, shading, anddistribuon eciencies. Severe condions could double evapotranspiraon rates. Providing periodic irri
-
gaon sucient to thoroughly wet the top 12 inches of the soil prole guarantees deep percolaon suf
-
cient to meet the needs of large-stature landscape plants like shrubs or even trees. Allowing depleonof water in the soil prole (not quite to the point of wilng small-stature plants) provides oxygenaon tothe soil’s micro-ora and fauna and encourages plants to extend root systems deeper into the soil.The resulng balance of the important irrigaon factors might look something like this:For example, 12 inches of a well-weed, sandy loam soil should hold between 1.3 and 1.8 inches of moisture (Table 1). Assuming no rainfall, the water in the soil should be sucient to last ve to sevendays in an average July when evapotranspiraon is 0.25 inches per day. Seng the program to apply1.25 inches on ve-day intervals will meet needs while a four-day interval provides extra insurance.
Programming The Automatic Irrigation System
Many water-related landscaping issues can be traced back to the sengs programmed in the automacwatering system. Oen, the contractor sets up the system to irrigate for a few minutes every morning.Somemes it is programmed to irrigate several mes a day for newly seeded or sodded lawns. Thesestrategies please the homeowner who has invested in a system with such capabilies. The strategy isgreat for establishing turf from seed. It is, however, absolutely the incorrect program for establishedplants. The installer’s error is in not encouraging the landowner to alter the schedule to a more properregime. In addion, many systems will revert to some default program aer power outages requiring ahomeowner to periodically check the current program for correctness.Shallow-rooted plants result from irrigang every day. Irrigang less oen and applying more water perirrigaon results in deeper-rooted plants and healthier turf. Plant roots grow deeper into the soil and theplants become more vigorous if enough water is applied when you do irrigate. Deeper-rooted plants usewater and nutrients from a larger volume of soil and are well-prepared to withstand occasional neglectand short-term drought condions (or system outages). As a guide, if Kentucky Bluegrass doesn’t springback aer being stepped on, it’s probably me to irrigate. Moisture-stressed grass oen takes on a dull
-
er blue-green color indicang the need to adjust watering schedules.The system’s applicaon rate is easily determined by placing something as simple as empty soup cans inthe sprinkler zone and measuring the me taken to accumulate a measured depth of water. If soil prop
-
eres are such they aren’t capable of absorbing recommended irrigaon volumes (Table 2), runo willoccur. Runo water is wasted water, and the rate of applicaon must be managed. One strategy is tochange to smaller, lower-output sprinkler nozzles and longer run mes. A more praccal soluon is tosplit irrigaon into shorter me segments and alternang run me with soak periods to accommodateapplicaon of the proper irrigaon volume during the scheduled irrigaon day (Figure 2).
3
�
(
1)
=
+
ℎ− �
(
1)
− �
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
Landscaping: Water Requirements and Irrigation System Management
Lawn irrigation accounts for nearly half of homeowner water usage. Many homeowners irrigate too often
and for too short a period to meet lawn and especially landscaping (tree and shrub) needs and often
compromise the health… (More)
and for too short a period to meet lawn and especially landscaping (tree and shrub) needs and often
compromise the health… (More)
35.0K
Reads
205
Readcasts
390
Embed Views
Get Scribd Mobile
To get Scribd mobile enter your number and we'll send you a link to the Scribd app for iPhone & Android.We've sent a link to the Scribd app. If you didn't receive it, try again.
We'll never share your phone number.
Recommended
More From This User
Notes
Load more
