New turf - need help asap!

crayola

Hi all

We had a new lawn laid this morning, and it looks fabulous.

Our gardener told us we would need to water it for two hours a day, every day. This seems a lot to me, but I haven't done this before so don't know if that's normal advice. Does that sound about right?

Having watered once now, I am pretty worried about ruining the turf and fear that my equipment may not be right. I am using one of those 'spike' sprinklers, and even after 5 minutes it seemed to have completely waterlogged the lawn. The grass is now flat in some areas and has pools of water around it.

I'm really worried about starting the sprinkler up again as I fear I am ruining the garden.

Is it really supposed to get this wet/waterlogged? I only let it spray for a few minutes as it looked like it would do a lot of damage in two hours.

Grateful for any replies as I know I need to start regular watering right away and have no idea what I'm doing wrong! Will I just need to splash out on a more expensive sprinkler?

thanks all

kategregory

Hiya,
My partner is a Landscape Gardener and has said that 2hrs seem reasonable amount of time how ever if it's puddling it could be a case of poor ground preperation or ground compaction, try watering several times a day for shorter periods if you can as this may help, in this wind it specially important you keep the turf moist!

dragon47

You must not let the new turf dry out. How often and how long to water it for, depend on all sorts of things.

At this time of year it probably will need watering twice a day for about 30 to 60 min.

If you think it's had enough you can lift a piece and feel the earth under the center of that piece and it should be very wet. The first time you do it you could run out and check it every 10 min or so until it's done and then you know how long it takes for you.

Note:- don't lift any turf after the first couple of days because you don't want to break any new roots that may be growing.

Hot and windy conditions will dry the turf out more quickly so you may need to water more often on those days.

After a couple of weeks you should be able to cut back to watering it to 2 or 3 times a week and pray for rain thereafter...

crayola

Thanks both. Fortunately last night it rained here a little bit so I think I have probably got away with not watering it properly for one day but I am wondering what to do today. It is very sunny here and I know you're not supposed to water turf in the sun to prevent scorching.

Would it now be best to wait until the evening to do the full 2 hours? I watered by hand first thing in the morning so it now feels damp but thought I had better not do any more than that.

Thanks!

newsgroup_monkey

We replaced all the turf in our old house. It was done by a fella who was the groundsman for a county cricket ground so he knew a thing or two!

We were told to water once in the morning for an hour and then in the evening for an hour. We used one of those round sprinklers.

A bit like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blackspur-Round-Lawn-Water-Sprinkler/dp/B002BT2HUY