I Watered My Lawn But Now It’s Brown

Q: We recently had a new home built. Sod was planted the last of June. For the first two weeks, the sprinklers ran each day at sunrise for forty minutes per zone. I run them for twenty minutes per zone after each mowing. Now my entire lawn has turned brown and is nearly dead. 

A: This sounds to me like the sod was watered too much. It is good practice to water heavily for a few days after laying sod but your eventual goal is to reduce irrigation to an inch of water applied once a week.

You do this by applying slightly more water but at longer intervals between each irrigation. Current weather and temperatures determine how long it takes to get to the goal of one inch per week. Grass grows best when it is watered deeply and allowed to dry somewhat before water is applied again.

I’ve outlined one example of a sod watering schedule at bit.ly/GAsodwater but it could be greatly different depending on the weather.