Follow these steps when setting up your irrigation clock this spring.  You will save water and improve the health of the turf in your lawn.

1st-  Consider the amount of time you want to water each area **Note: consider differances with rotors, pop-ups and moisture requirements for each area in the lawn.

2nd- Consider and set the days you’d like to water.

3rd- Set your run times on all zones for half of the total amount of time you want to water for each zone.  Example:  If you want to water Zone 2 (rotors) for 20 minutes, set all you run times for 10 minutes

4th- Here is the key… "Start times".  You’ll want to set up two start times back to back.  Calculate the total amount of time it takes for 1 cycle to run.  Set the second run time so that it starts immediately when the 1st cycle is done.  Example:  If it takes 2 hours for 1 cycle to run then you’ll need to set "start time 1" for 7:00 am and "start time 2" for 9:00 am.

By doing this you will ensure that your plants are taking up 100% of the water and not running down the curb into the sewer.  This will also help with encouraging deeper root growth which will help the overall vigor of the turf during stressful periods.