Last Updated on August 29, 2023 by ILGM Ninjas
The purpose of water is to move nutrients through the plant to grow and repair, period. Getting it there (to the roots) can be a challenge but experiencing stress can take a while to overcome and the longer you are in it the worse it gets. Let’s learn how to avoid that. Remember that your lawn likes to be watered deep and infrequently (twice per week), at night so that the water gets 6-8″ deep. There are four stages of stress, here they are.
- Stage 1: Footprint test. If you can see your footprints 30-45 minutes after you walking on it you need to water more. This will recover in a few hours.
- Stage 2: Darker shades of green (matte). When you see this increase your duration. This will recover in a few hours to a day. Continued stress in this manner will cause issues in the winter.
- Stage 3: Brown spots, irregular along with dead tips signals more stress and disease due to shallow watering and will recover after a couple weeks.
- Stage 4: Silver colored green grass. Severe stress. This typically happens in high heat with prolonged water deprivation. You will want to avoid this at all costs as it takes a lot of energy to recover.
Almost ALL stress related to water deprivation can be avoided or mitigated with proper watering techniques as well as healthy soil that is high in organic material with healthy levels of microbiology. This is the core of our program and actually allows you to stockpile and store water the healthier the soils get.