Watering new sod/trees

[Trouthunter]

I put new sod and trees in last october. They still need a good soaking, but when is a good time to start?

[Powerstroke]

I would say if your soil gets dry then you should start watering. All the trees in my yard are starting into spring. The maples have already bloomed and the buds are swelling on the elms.

Of course trees and grass need different types of watering. Make sure to use a trickle method to SOAK your trees. Set a hose on low and let it sit next to the trunk of the tree for at least 10-15 minutes per tree.

The lawn should get about 1" of rain a week. Get a rain gauge or two to help you if you don't have a sprinkler system. Watering twice a week will give it time to dry out between waterings and encourages deeper root growth.

[doser]

When it comes to new sod you can never overwater.

[LABS4ME]

You can't over water for the 1st couple days. After that you can easily over water new sod. Over-watering of new sod will cause the sod to "melt" out. It also causes funguses to get a foot hold and it does not put demands on the sod pad to drive it's roots down into the soil... it has all the water it needs right at the surface. Nothing causes weak grass more than over watering. It has zero heat and drought tolerance and leaches all the nutrients available at the root zone through the soil.

When we sod a new lawn, we recommend watering the new pads until the soils under the pad are wet and soft, then administer (1-2) 15 minute waterings (weather dependent) a day for 7 days. The next 7 days the sod recieves (1) 15 minute watering per day and finally 1" of water per week thereafter. I do 2 waterings per week to achieve this at my house... some do one, some do every other day. But it is imperative that it gets a drying out period between waterings Even when relatively new.

One other side effect of over watering new sod is that it easily kills newly planted trees. One of our greatest warranty hurdles we face is educating landowners to take into consideration their newly planted trees. Too much water on the sod will flood the root balls of those trees and they will rapidly develop root rot and suffer from not having any air available in the soils. The majority of the trees we need to replace are killed by over watering... and a lot of it comes from people WAY overwatering their new sod.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Bigdaddy18]

Very well said LABS4Me. There are some customers that you can tell a hundred times how to water and give them instructions on it and still have no clue...