Centipedegrass – Overwatered

Q: The person who put my centipedegrass sod down in March also installed the irrigation system. He said to water it 15 minutes every other day in each irrigation zone.

We did that but it started to become quite dry. We increased the watering time to 25 minutes every day very early in the morning. Is this too much water?

A: Did the installation guy mention changing your watering habits once the sod was established? If you are watering 25 minutes each day you are watering too much.

The correct process after installing sod is to water just enough to keep the sod moist until it roots and starts to green up. After that you should start weaning it over a period of a month. The final schedule should be one deep watering (an inch of water) per week, in the absence of rain.

It looks like the grass is stressed but not completely dead. Fertilize lightly (at half strength) now if you have not fed the lawn this season and start on the weekly deep watering. It may well recover by mid-summer.

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