1" Of Water Per Week And Other Lawn Watering Myths

Let's examine how plants grow too. Plants have a purpose. Their purpose is to grow until they seed so they can reproduce. That's it. That's what they're trying to do and we're forcing them to do what we want them to do. They want to put all their effort into producing seed using the least amount of effort possible. If there's enough moisture and nutrients in the upper part of the soil, that's all the roots they will grow. Growing deep roots is what we want to help grass survive the summer and look nice. Grass is happy to go dormant, we're the ones that don't want it to.Grass also doesn't have a sense of smell or other sensory perceptions as far as I know. You can't put water just a little bit out of reach and roots will chase after it so the idea that letting the root zone dry out and the roots will follow it is another part of this myth.If you put water past the root zone, by the time the plant decides it needs more water, that water will be well out of reach of new root growth. Remember, water moves down into the soil over time. The water that is there is just below the root zone now was in the root zone before the plant needed it. The water that was below the root zone is still going to be below the root zone.Green parts grow up, root parts grow down. Plain and simple. If you let the grass get thirsty like I suggested the grass is going to put more effort into root growth to try and find water. What direction are the roots going to grow? Down, because that's the general direction roots grow barring unusual circumstances. When it grows down it's going to find some of the water that percolated down since the last watering. There should be some there, The upper parts of the soil loses water through evaporation as well as what the grass has absorbed. If the plant can't get enough water it's easier for it to attract microorganisms that will help it get water and nutrients than it is to grow deeper roots so that will probably happen first depending on the level of available phosphorus where the roots are. It's a very complex ecosystem and plants are adaptive.Now picture a plant or a tree that has a shady side and a sunny side. The sunny side will be more full because the plant concentrates growth there, where it's easier to get what it's looking for. Same thing with roots. If you let the top part dry out and the bottom is still moist that's where the grass will focus it's root growth.The key part of deeply and infrequenty in terms of root growth is the infrequently part. To get a plant to do something it doesn't normally do you have to stress it and you stress it by depriving it of water in this case.If you're really trying to grow deeper roots because you've been on a shallow infrequent watering schedule the only difference you need to make is let the grass dry out more. You keep the amount of water the same but first you check other possible causes such as lack of phosphorus, compaction, hard pan and so on. Then check on how deep your roots are getting and adjust the water accordingly. Just plug in the new variable in for root depth in the form. How deep the water penetrates should be about the same unless you did something else like dethatch.Ok written more than I expected so I won't even go into how root development in grass is greater in spring and fall. Two seasons where trying to water deeply and infrequently will be hard considering the amount of rain we usually get in this part of the country.