Good day. I’m trying to help my daughter to recover her dwarf fescue sod lawn which was installed in early November 2023. I’m wondering about the best way to use or not use the soak function in Rachio to control fungus.
Here’s the backstory:
The sod was looking fantastic until early 2024 when an irrigation valve broke and she had to go to hand watering for 3 weeks until we could get the right part to repair.
Within a few weeks brown spots started to appear which we attributed to inconsistent and spotty watering. We did a water volume test in early July and made some minor adjustments to the rotating heads to ensure proper coverage. We also fertilized the lawn at that time. We thought that those steps would correct the problem but it kept getting worse so we increased the watering schedule since the Rachio flex schedule was only watering once every 7-10 days even in summer and on hot east San Diego County days (Zone 10b).
Between the stress of the faulty hand watering and then overwatering she ended up with a fungus apparently. Since then we have applied two treatments of Scotts Disease Ex two weeks apart and let the lawn dry out.
The sod company advised that we water every other day now for 1.5 inches a week and says the grass should come back. I’ve set the Rachio to a fixed schedule to go on M-W-Sat since there is no such thing as an every other day schedule. It will run the rotary heads for 60 minutes.
The lawn is completely flat but has one sliver that is in the shade most of the day. That sliver is still green even though we turned the lawn off to let it dry out (as advised by the sod company).
Do we use a Smart Cycle or is there a better way to manage the lawn so that fungus is controlled?
If you have read this far, many, many thanks!!!