New turf - too much or too little water?

jeffryesnicola · May 2022

We laid new turf three days ago and it is starting to look yellow. We've been watering for 30 minutes a day.
My husband thinks it is being over watered because, despite improving with sand, compost and top soil, our soil is clay dominant.
I feel we are not watering enough.
We're both new to gardening so any help would be very much appreciated.

BenCotto · May 2022

Massively under watering I would say. Most of what you are watering will rest on the surface and quickly evaporate due to the wind and the sun. I would mentally divide the lawn into four quarters and, on a 4 day cycle, give each quarter about 3 hours’ watering in late evening. I would keep this going for a month, or more.

JennyJ · May 2022

I agree, the water needs to soak through the grass and roots into the soil below to encourage the roots will grow down into it.

Fairygirl · May 2022

I'd agree too. It's virtually impossible to overwater grass, unless the soil conditions are boggy underneath, in which case it wouldn't be happy anyway.

For the size of the bit in that photo, it would need at least an hour or two on a regular basis if you're not getting 'proper' rain consistently.

jeffryesnicola · May 2022

Thank you all very much, how long after increasing watering should I start to see an improvement?

MrMow · May 2022

You should see the effect after 24 hours.

All sprinklers have different outputs, so the flow rate of a sprinkler should always be considered. so 30 minutes on 1 could take several hours on another. you could post the size of the lawn in square meters, and then take a water meter reading and water as normal and tell me how many litres you have used and I will work out how many mm you have applied. you can loose around 2 to 3mm of water a day on healthy growing turf and double that on an extreme summer day. so for the next 3 days I would go at around 6mm of water and then back off to about 3mm, new turf can have a fair amount of thatch so water lightly and then allow a hour for it to push in to the profile and then repeat. a simple flat tray with two one pound coins will give you the equivalent of 6mm of rain or a simple rain gauge is very cheap and very handy in a garden.

You can lift a corner of the turf and see if it is wet underneath, it will do no harm after jut being laid. it will tell you instantly if it is dry or wet.

New turf - too much or too little water?

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