Irrigation-checking

While the soils continue to dry after last week's rain planning for the summer watering scheduling does not seem too critical. Now is actually the perfect time to get ready for the watering season coming up.

A few maintenance tips include:

1. Turn on the syustem and walk to every emitter and visually check to see that water is coming out. Its much easier to check it now instead of when the plants desperately need it. Finding a plugged or missing emitter now saves plants later.

2. Check the valves and back-flow preventers. When pressure is on they should not spit, dribble or leak. If they do let a knowledgeable person discern if repair or replacement is in order.

3. Place a bunch of soup cans evenly spaced in the lawn and turn on sprinklers. Let it run for the normal cycle. After they are off check to see if all the cans have an equal amount of water in them. Many of the 'diseases' in turf are usually uneven water to different areas. Not much problem now but it will be in June.

4. This is also a good time to do some mearsurements of you sprinkler system. The target amount of water for lawns in summer is one inch per week. So by mearsuring how much water is in the cans after the cycle you can adjust the times to equal the inch-per-week target.

April is also the planting month. Watering plants correctly the first summer poses few problems because most drip systems are set to come on frequently and the emitters are close to the plant. This is correct for the first summer. Remember the only root system the plant has is defined by the container it was in.

After the first year comes the challenges for watering. Using nature as a model should guide you.

Young trees and shrubs protect themselves in the wild with a dense low growing canopy. A canopy that continually drops leaves, flowers and fruiting structures. These act a natural mulch to cool the soil, keep other plants from sprouting and is moves the water out as way from the base.

Even the structure of the branchwork acts as an umbrella to move the rain water out to the canopy's edge. Ever go under a tree when its raining? Its dry. So why water under the canopy? It does not work that way in nature and your watering should mimic nature as much as possible. Water out away from the trunk after the first year. If watering at the proverbial drip-line is feasible then do it. If not then at least get the bulk of the water away from the base of the plant.

Another naote from nature. Ever see flowers or ground covers growing under the canopy of trees? Neither have I. By planting around the base you will need to water close the the trunk and frequently to keep the little plants alive. Good for them; not so good for the trees.

Instead of calculating gallons-per-hour for you system, try visualizing where the water will go into the soil. If the water going into the soil matches where the roots roam then you have watered.

But, if we get rains like the last week consistantly throughout the summer you don't have to worry about it. Wanna bet the rain's gonna last?

Written by Terry Mikel, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 602-470-8086.
Material originally appeared in Arizona Republic
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