Sprinklers - DO’s and DON’Ts

Do's:

  1. Make sure your sprinklers are set to come on at the correct times. It's important to keep the soil moist, especially during the first few weeks. Ideally, your sprinklers should come on in the early morning and late evening.

  2. Check your sprinkler system regularly to ensure even coverage across the entire area. If there are dry spots, adjust your sprinklers accordingly to avoid patchy growth.

  3. If possible, water the hydroseeded area lightly several times a day, especially if the weather is hot and dry. This will help keep the seed moist and improve germination rates.

Don'ts:

  1. Overwatering. While it's important to keep the soil moist, overwatering can lead to problems such as fungal growth and washing away the seeds.

  2. Don’t water during the heat of the day. Watering in the middle of the day when the sun is strongest can cause the water to evaporate before it has a chance to soak into the soil.

  3. It’s important to refrain from adjusting the sprinkler system while it's running. Make any necessary changes when the system is off to avoid damage or misalignment.

Travis from Green Gro Hydroseeding walks through the most important part of any new lawn: a sprinkler system that waters evenly. Even professionally installed systems often get it wrong. In our experience, about half of the contractor jobs we follow aren’t nozzled, designed, or installed correctly.

In this video, Travis covers:

Missing nozzles that gush water like a hose, flooding one area while the rest of the zone dries out

Mixing popups and rotors on the same zone, which leaves some spots swampy and others burnt up for the life of the lawn

Matching nozzle size to coverage area. A quarter circle, half circle, and full circle rotor all need different nozzles (for example 2, 4, and 8 GPM). Using the same nozzle on every head is the most common mistake we see.

Poor head placement that over-waters some areas and leaves gaps in others

Adjusting the rotor screw to spread the stream evenly so you don’t end up with “crop circle” dry rings

If your hydroseed isn’t growing in certain spots, the sprinklers are usually the cause, not the seed. Don’t assume your system was set up right. Check it.

At a client’s home in Providence, Utah, Travis shows the common sprinkler mistakes that cause problems in a lawn down the road, whether the system was installed by a contractor or a homeowner.

In this video, Travis covers:

Never mix popup and rotor heads on the same zone. Popups put out water much faster than rotors, so you get mushrooms in one spot and dry patches in another.

Head-to-head coverage. Heads should be spaced so each one reaches the next. Spacing them too far apart to save a few bucks leaves areas that never get watered.

Don’t cut corners on parts. Cheap valves can mean expensive repairs later.

Set your run times correctly. In summer, run popups 30 to 40 minutes and rotors 60 to 90 minutes, two to three times a week.

Doing it right from the start costs less than fixing it later and keeps your lawn green and even.