JB Instant Lawn Blog

Irrigation Tune Up Time

May 1st, 2014

If you haven’t turned the irrigation system on yet, this weekend would be a great time to check it out before the temperatures get much higher. It is a lot easier to make repairs when the weather is still cool. Here are a few tips to think about when starting up the system and adjustments to make.

• When turning the supply line on make sure you have a release valve open or a sprinkler station on to relieve pressure and prevent water hammering.
• Run each station and watch the heads to make sure you are getting the proper coverage and make adjustments as needed.
• Check out nozzles and change out if worn.
• After running the entire system look around the area for overly wet areas where a leak may be occurring.
• Create a schedule for watering, continue to closely monitor the system to make sure the coverage is correct and the lawn isn’t too wet or drying out too quickly.
• Water early in the morning, watering at night can breed disease.
• Keep an inventory of spare parts, for example PVC pipe fittings, spare sprinkler heads, extra nozzles, a 2nd adjustment tool, and PVC pipe primer and cement. That will help you out if you have to make an after hours fix on your system and don’t have time to go to the store.

Deep and infrequent irrigation pattern will produce the deepest root system. By deep and infrequent we mean watering for longer times but fewer days per week. If you are watering everyday for a short amount of the time the roots do not have a lot of motivation to grow deeper in the soil looking for water. The trick is to water to a saturation rate that does not allow for water running off of the surface, but not so short that the lawn dries out the same day.

Every 4 to 5 years it may be time to replace the irrigation heads, check with your local irrigation supply outlet to see the latest and most efficient sprinkler heads.

Think about adding a rain sensor to your system, it will turn off your system if the level of rain exceeds the threshold you set for the system. The rain sensor is a great addition if you find yourself traveling away from home often.

If you have any questions that are not answered in this post feel free to post them here or on our Facebook fan page.