Trees and Shrubs

When watering trees and shrubs with gator bags you must fill the bags every 2 days in hot weather, and every 3-4 days in cold weather.

Large B&B Trees and Shrubs

You must thoroughly soak them every 2 days in hot weather and every 4 days in cool weather.

Annuals

How to care for new annual plants installed.
Because new annuals require more water than other plantings (smaller soil container dries out faster), do not depend on your irrigation system to water this sufficiently.

Annuals should be hand watered at base of plant approximately every 3 days or even more often if the plant looks dry, droopy, dehydrated.

Also, because annual color blooms almost its entire life, fertilization of annuals weekly is recommended with a liquid based fertilizer. (i.e, Miracle-Gro Liquafeed or comparable)

Shrubs and perennials – The shrubs and perennials will require watering twice per week for 3-5 minutes per plant.  This watering should saturate the ground around the plants root ball but not cause standing water to form for more than 30 seconds.  The plants should be watered for the first 3 months, with watering times increased by 35% in the heat of July and August. 

Trees – Trees are a special case, being larger plants and slower to recover from transplant shock. Watering new trees depends upon several factors: species of tree, soil type, exposure, and available soil surface area of the planting site are just a few things to be considered. At a minimum, water your new trees twice a week with a slow, saturating soak from a garden hose. The key idea with tree watering is to keep the top 8″-12″ of the soil moist. A good method of checking the soil around the root ball for moisture is digging a small hole in the soil backfill next to the root ball about 6″ deep. Feel the soil from the bottom of the hole for moisture, if it’s wet, don’t water the tree that day. Fill in the hole after checking.The tender, fibrous roots that these plants produce are in need of continuous moisture until established in the new locations.  The main requirement of most plants is water, even more so than nutrients. In most cases a minor change in watering timing or duration can be the difference in a plant surviving or not. 

Sod

How to care for your new sod.
Starting IMMEDIATELY after new sod installed, soak to 2-3 inches beneath sod, “Flooded” and this should be repeated every 3 days for a period of 30-45 days. Continue this watering program unless you get a substantial rain (2-3″ rain event)

The first time you water immediately after sod installed may be midday or evening; future waterings should be done early morning between the hours of 4am-9am if possible.

It is best not to water midday, as this is when evaporation rate is highest. It is also best not to water at night as this can bring in fungus and insects.

After 30 days, test the rooting of the sod. Try to pull up on the sod at the edges. If difficult to pull up, you can start mowing your lawn. (follow best lawn practices and heights to mow based on type grass installed)

Also, once sod is rooted, you can then cut back watering to recommended rates (follow best lawn practices and quantity/frequency of watering based on type grass installed)

The average for all grass is 1″ of water per week for an established (rooted lawn).

Do not fertilize your new sod until at least 45 days after the new sod is installed. Check the manufacturer’s recommendations on timing/rates of fertilizer, etc of year for fertilizer installation for your type of lawn sod.