Most of us likely pay no attention to how or when we water our lawns, perhaps only putting the sprinklers or reticulation system on whenever it is most convenient for us, or when we see that our lawns may be in need of a drink of water. As we’re about to explain however, there really are good times and not so good times that we should aim towards when watering our lawns, which can be of most benefit to the health of our lawns, to help protect our lawns from disease, and that we don’t waste as much water as we otherwise might.
We want to encourage everyone to water their lawns in the morning, rather than the evenings.
Solar Powered Food and Water Delivery
Just like all other plants, lawns have a vascular system which distributes water and nutrients throughout the plant to keep it alive, healthy and well watered. This vascular system, like a bloodstream, is fuelled by the photosynthesis process, which in turn is powered by solar energy from the sun.
So during the day, when the sun is out, and when the day is bright, is when this vascular system of the lawn will be most active, drawing up water and nutrients from the soil and into the turf.
With this in mind we can see that watering in the morning really is the best time of day to water our lawns, that we are applying water to the lawns at the very beginning of the day, so that the lawn has that water available to it throughout the entire day to use as is required.
Watering Lawns At Night
Lawns are still active during the night, they still uptake and circulate nutrients and water, but this is done at a much greatly reduced rate when compared to the daytime. Therefore we can see that watering lawns in the morning really will provide the greatest benefit to the lawn when otherwise compared to watering lawns at night.
If we watered our lawns at night, then a greater percentage of that water applied will not be used by the turf at all, but would instead drain away deeper into the soil and into the water table below. Which in turn would then require us to be applying a little more water to our lawns to keep them healthy and well watered, to account for this overnight water loss.
And our lawns could go into the next hot Summers day, without enough water to get them through.
While the amount of water loss from nighttime watering may be small, let’s consider this in its right context. All those little amounts of extra water we apply every single time we water our lawn over the life of the lawn, will quickly add up to enormous amounts of wasted water over the entire life of the lawn. Water wasted needlessly.
Lawn Disease
In the hot Summer months especially we can easily deduce that watering lawns at night when the temperature is still very warm may not be such a good idea for another reason, which is lawn disease.
Imagine we water our lawns on a hot balmy night, sure a lot of that water goes down into the soil, but also a lot of that water will also sit right inside the dense thatch layer of the lawn too. Lets now imagine all that abundant moisture being trapped inside that dense thatch layer of turf on a hot night and we can see a perfect storm of humidity is created within that dense matting, and that this then becomes the perfect breeding ground for lawn disease to flourish.
While watering lawns at night does not guarantee an outbreak of lawn disease, we most certainly are increasing the risk of such by creating the perfect breeding ground and environment for lawn disease to take hole and develop.
For all these reasons, I always prefer to water my own lawns In the morning.
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