Is lawn watering time or water quantity more important?
Water volume is what actually matters for lawns, but most sprinkler systems only let you program run time duration. Trying to translate minutes into the right amount of water leads to guessing how long to set the timer, which makes it hard to give the grass the right amount of moisture.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Doing the tuna can test to measure total water outputDid this help you?
- 2Watering for 30 minutes twice a week instead of multiple shorter intervalsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Right now, I water 3-times a week for about 10 minutes.”source ↗
“So here’s my question: is time important or is the quantity more important?”source ↗
“How long do I set it to water 3 times a day? 30 minutes? 20 minutes?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 12What order should I do lawn care tasks like aeration and seeding?
- 4How long and how often should I run drip irrigation for new plants?
- 20Will heavy rain wash away grass seed after overseeding?