Watering the lawn properly is essential to keep it healthy and lush. But despite your efforts, it’s easy to overwater or underwater.
Even if you have an automated irrigation system for your lawn, you still need to intervene occasionally to adjust the schedule according to the weather. For example, during an exceptionally rainy month, you’ll need to skip some of your usual watering sessions. But if the following month is unusually dry or hot, you may need to add extra watering sessions to prevent the lawn from drying out.
+ Vintage Kitchen Trend Is Back, Says Shea McGee — and You Can Recreate It for Under $30
One of the biggest mistakes everyone makes when watering the lawn, however, is watering at the wrong time. To minimize water loss from evaporation and prevent fungal diseases, the best time to water your lawn is between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m.
However, it’s not always practical for all gardeners to water the lawn early in the morning, especially if they don’t have an automated irrigation system to do it for them. So if you can’t water early, you’ll need to adapt your watering routine to offset the risks of watering later in the day. Here’s why watering in the morning is the best option for your lawn and what to do if you can’t water that early.
How to maximize the benefits of morning irrigation
The early hours of the morning, roughly between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m., are when temperatures are cooler and winds are calmer. This is the ideal time to get the most out of your lawn irrigation system, as most of the water applied will penetrate the soil. It also increases the chances of watering the entire lawn evenly, since there’s less chance of strong winds blowing water around, causing some areas to become oversaturated while others don’t get enough. Finally, this period is close enough to daytime that the grass doesn’t remain wet longer than necessary, which helps reduce the risk of diseases spreading across the lawn.
However, the exact timing depends on your climate and the time of year. Your goal is to find that window when the sun hasn’t yet dried up the dew on the ground, so the risk of evaporation is low—but not so early that your grass stays wet for hours before the afternoon sun and wind can dry it.
For gardeners in cooler climates or during the colder months of spring and fall, this may mean waiting until closer to 9 a.m. or even later. Those in warmer climates or during the hottest weeks of summer may need to shift their schedule closer to 5 a.m., as dew on the ground will have already dried well before 9 a.m. Regardless of where you are, it’s a good idea to adjust your timing throughout the growing season to account for changes in temperature and daylight during spring, summer, and fall.
What to do if you can’t water your lawn early enough
While early morning is ideal, it’s not always practical. If you don’t have an automated system and you’re too busy in the morning to take time for lawn care, all is not lost. The second-best time to water your lawn is in the evening, around 8 p.m. Evening watering still offers the advantage of less evaporation, with up to 50% less water loss compared to daytime watering.
However, leaving grass wet overnight can increase the risk of disease. To minimize this risk, it’s even more important to water deeply but infrequently if watering at night. Give your lawn all the water it needs for the week in a single application so the grass stays dry for the rest of the week. It also helps to store the hose in a shed or shaded area to avoid watering with hot water that’s been sitting in the sun all day.
The hottest time of the day is between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. During this time, you lose the most water to evaporation—up to 30%, depending on the day’s wind, temperature, and humidity. If you absolutely must water during this time, be sure to increase your irrigation to compensate for the evaporation. With a 30% loss, your lawn receives only about 0.7 inches for every 1 inch of water applied. Therefore, you need to apply nearly 1.5 inches of water to ensure at least 1 inch is absorbed by the soil.
Source: HouseDigest
This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
