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New lawn established. When can I stop watering?

8 years ago

Good evening everyone. So my new TTTF lawn is now fully established in NC. I just did my 6th cut on it today. I'm now down to the once per week watering and fortunately Mother Nature has been taking care of this for me for the last few weeks.

You read all these watering strategies for starting a new lawn and how to gradually wind it back once it's established. My question though is when to actually stop? Do I keep watering on through winter even when it isn't growing and it's basically dormant? I'm not sure if anyone has ever mentioned that part. I really want to get my maze of hoses out of the yard lol.

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Comments (4)

User
8 years ago
When you hit the once a week watering, you're done! You can remove the hoses at this point, and simply water about every 2 to 3 weeks (in November weather) if nature isn't supplying it.

Once growth stops, you don't technically have to water it at all. However, going into or through winter with very dry soil isn't a good idea, so I'd aim to have it at least moderately damp. The weather usually takes care of that for you.
newtolawncare Scranton 6a
8 years ago
Same here , new TTTF. After bone dry 5-6 weeks post planting, Mother Nature has been supplying .25 to 1-2 inch rainfalls every 5-7 days. I tore sprinklers down about 6 weeks post planting. After that I used hose a few times, and dragged the oscillator out once after final feeding. Nature had the rest.
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owlnsr
8 years ago
I overseeded with Titan RX TTTF and did the normal water routine:

1. multiple daily mistings until germination period is over; l

2. early morning watering daily for 15 minutes per zone for a week; l

3. early morning for 15 min every other day for a week;

4. early morning watering for 30 minutes every 3 days for a week;

5. early morning watering for 45-60 minutes once per week

Around number 5, I started noticing winter annuals like chickweed. I've stopped watering and decided to let Mother Nature handle things.

I will return to #5 for the first few weeks of spring but then I plan on watering only when the lawn shows signs of drought stress.
jta98z
Original Author
8 years ago
It definitely makes me nervous to commit to stopping watering. Probably because you have to nurture nurture nurture so much in the early stages, turning it loose on its own is scary.

What if mother nature doesn't rain for over a week? What if its almost two? Should I always intervene to make sure it gets some water at least once a week? Just asking because it looks like its going to rain here on Wednesday but I don't see any more rain in the forecast for the next 10 days after that. And its been a fairly warm November here in North Carolina.

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