NO WATERING REQUIRED! TexasET Network Landscape Watering Recommendations - "Cougar Austin Redbud"

Being winter,  with very low ET an

the recent rains we have had, no need to water this week. Enjoy the gorgeous weekend. And if you have not thought about getting your mower ready for spring, take it in for a tune up and blade sharpening BEFORE the spring rush begins.. We use AA lawnmower  They are great. 
AA Lawnmower!

TexasET Network Landscape Watering Recommendations - "Cougar Austin Redbud"

Watering recommendation for "Cougar Austin Redbud" for the past 7 days:0.17 inches* Date ETo Max Temperature Min Temperature Min Humidity Total Rainfall 01-29-2015 0.1 78 48 32 0 01-30-2015 0.09 59 48 38 0 01-31-2015 0.04 62 48 57 0.35 02-01-2015 0.09 70 47 53 0.02 02-02-2015 0.08 49 34 31 0 02-03-2015 0.03 43 41 54 0.29 02-04-2015 0.03 55 42 78 0.09 NOTE: These reported values are hourly averages, not absolute highs and lows. *Recommendations based on the following parameters (assuming no rainfall): Adjust this watering recommendation for any rainfall that you have received during this time period. TexasET Weather Station : Austin (LCRA Redbud) Plant Coefficient : Warm Season Adjustment factor : Normal

This information is provided by the "Irrigation Technology Program" under the direction of Dr. Guy Fipps. If you would like to discontinue service please click on the link above to log into your TexasET profile. To discontinue service for only this station select "modify" from your site list and delete the site. To discontinue all TexasET emails select "Modify your user profile" and uncheck "Receive watering recommendations by email".

This email was sent to cougar.irrigation@gmail.com by Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension

Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension 600 John Kimbrough BLVD, Suite 509 7101 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-7101

What is ETo ( Evapotranspiration ) and Why is Smart Control so important during this drought.

We have been sending out watering recommendations based on ET network data locally available in Austin, TX. There are 2 of these $5,000+ weather stations in Central Austin, one at LCRA Redbud office and one out on the Morris Williams Golf Course. Seems like it is a good time to explain what ETo means and how we use the data to program controllers. Evapotranspiration is the loss or use of water through the combination of evaporation and transpiration.  The evapotranspiration rate in the area where the system is located is the first important factor to gather when creating an irrigation schedule.
Solar radiation and wind (1) cause water to evaporate from the soil surface.  Water is absorbed by the root structure (2) and is passed upward through the plant tissue (3).  Transpiration (4) occurs when water evaporates from the plant surfaces directly into the atmosphere, or into intercellular spaces and then by diffusion through the stomata to the atmosphere.
Reference evapotranspiration or ETo is a standard measurement of evapotranspiration.  ETo is expressed in inches per day, month or year.  ETo is an estimate of the evapotranspiration of a large field of four to seven inch tall, cool season turf that is well watered.  In most instances, it will not be necessary to replace 100 percent of the reference evapotranspiration rate.  The rate may be adjusted according to a plant factor or landscape coefficient.  Replacing too much may be a waste, while not enough will stress the plant material. We typically use historical ETo and Rainfall data to seasonal program irrigation controllers since we have 30 year historical ETo data that is widely available and historical rainfall data. The data below was taken from http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/texas/united-states/3213 and it covers the years 1981-2010. I inserted our recommended water budgeting percentages by month. You can make monthly adjustments, 12x a year , when you perform you monthly system maintenance check. The problem is this is STATIC, 1x a week watering adjustment recommendations based on historical 30 year data. For our clients on Monthly service plans , we are constantly monitoring past and future monthly weather conditions and checking soils moisture and making these monthly adjustments for them. The problem with historical data is that it is an average over 30 years and some of these years may be super hot and dry and others may have been cooler and wetter.  In 2011, with 90 days over 100 degrees and another 90 days over 90 degrees, we had an ETo of close to 100 that year and almost no rain during those 180 days, Supplemental irrigation required was almost 4x that of a normal or "average" year. This was what I would call a "panic year" for most landscapes. We saw millions of trees die and are still seeing the affects as this 7 year drought drags on. With the data we send out weekly through this blog, you can make weekly adjustments ( 52 x a year if you like ) to runtimes and such, and this is pretty good since we are on 1x weekly watering restrictions and for most landscapes this is "close enough." But when we are entrusted with such a valuable life sustaining resource as water and a valuable asset like plants and trees that can out live people is "close enough" good enough anymore? All automobiles today have a gas gauge and a warning light that comes on as you approach empty. Your HVAC has a thermostat that makes adjustment automatically to keep you home envirnment almost perfect. Mobile phones have a low battery indicator and even have a " LOW BATTERY plug me in" indicator that pops ups. Unfortunately most legacy automatic irrigation systems don't have any ET automatic adjustment features and last I checked, my  plants and trees , don't send our text messages saying "water me i'm thirsty and about to die." Or even worse "don't water me, I'm drowning with all the rain we had this past week". "Dumb" time based irrigation controllers are just going to put out the same amount of water regardless if the plant needs 1/4" or 1/2" or 1" of water this week or no watering at all. Smart Controllers with onsite Weather Stations ( typically a Solar radiation sensor or a Tipping Rain bucket )  are the most economical and environmental solution,. They take data measurements approximately 50 times a day , 365 days a year and use that data to adjust watering as needed. In December 2014 , Austin received close to normal rainfall at about 2".  But we received 5" of rain this past month for January 2015 ( 3" above average of 2") and some more rain yesterday. I just checked the watering history on my Rainbird ESP-SMT smart controller on my personal residence and the last time it watered was Dec 8th,2014 and it is not predicted to irrigate again until the 8th of February for some grass zones and the 16th of February for my shrubs and bushes ( assuming we do not get rain between now and the 8th or  the 16th ) 2 months of NO SUPPLEMENTAL irrigation which results in a huge water and energy savings, lower water bills and healthier and happier plants. SMART CONTROL IS THE WAY TO GO!

LCRA chart updated with 2014 inflow Totals Highland Lakes.......15% of historical average.

2014 Water Flowing into the Highland Lakes total = just over 200,000 acre feet. This is about 15% of the normal inflow into this lakes since 1942 ( the year Mansfield dam was completed.)

It is amazing that even with all the growth in Central Texas that the lakes are still at 35% full.

We can only hope we get a spring like 2012 and start our the year with some good water conservation on everyone's part.

Below is the the link to latest chart released by the LCRA.

http://www.lcra.org/water/water-supply/drought-update/Documents/InflowsTotals.pdf

Effective rainfall explained ( with actual rainfall charts!)

There is a lot of confusion surrounding using weather reports and historical rainfall ( backyard or online rain gauges )and how much rain actually soaks into the soil profile and goes deep into the root zone of plants and becomes plant available water (PAW.) Rain that gets absorbed into the soil in the exact place it landed is call this EFFECTIVE RAINFALL.

The rule of thumb for scheduling irrigation is to take 75% of all rainfall as effective. On a Day in which we get a nice light rain, few an far between in Central Texas,  75% can come close to reality, but for most of central texas in flash flood alley, this is overly optimistic.

Below is a chart of Wednesday Jan 21 from about 4pm to 9am  Thurday Jan 22nd. We received a total ACTUAL rainfall over an 18 hours period of 2.23 inches ( $5,000 weather gauge measured at LCRA Redbud Center so pretty accurate). The gauge measures and transmits in 15 min increments, so we were able to calculate EFFECTIVE RAINFALL using typical absorption rate of 1/4" per hour ( or 1/16" per 15 min interval ) for clay loam soils. The calculated EFFECTIVE RAINFALL is 1.55 inches. 

The RED line is water that went into the ground where it landed and was effective. The BLUE peaks are essentially runoff, the water may pool somewhere and not run into the street, but is is not in the same place it landed.

The Effective rainfall comes in at 70% of actual rainfall which is pretty much the highest percentage we can ever expect in Central Texas.  When we see rainfall rates as high as 4 or 5 inches per hours, it is not uncommon to see effective rainfall percentages in the 10-25% range.

If we get back-to-back rain storms and the soil is already saturated ( a term sometimes called FIELD CAPACITY ) , we may not absorb as much of the rainfall rainfall that is considered "effective."

Thanks and happy pondering. Cougar Matt out.

Good steady rain today - TexasET Network Landscape Watering Recommendations - "Cougar Austin Redbud"

Rain, Rain , Rain, after a few almost spring days in the 70s and hitting 81 degrees Jan 20th, the typical cool and rainy weather has returned today. I was awoken this morning by the swirling wind and rain that seemed to be pelting all the windows in the the house. Seems like a typical winter rainy season, no water required this week. The Morris Williams Golf Course weather station is offline the TexasET network, so we grabbed the LCRA Redbud data for this week. Login to your TexasET profile

Watering recommendation for "Cougar Austin Redbud" for the past 7 days:0.16 inches* Date ETo Max Temperature Min Temperature Min Humidity Total Rainfall 01-15-2015 0.07 58 38 43 0 01-16-2015 0.05 65 33 33 0 01-17-2015 0.07 70 35 33 0 01-18-2015 0.07 72 41 13 0 01-19-2015 0.08 75 35 29 0 01-20-2015 0.08 81 39 24 0 01-21-2015 0.03 57 50 73 0.18 NOTE: These reported values are hourly averages, not absolute highs and lows. *Recommendations based on the following parameters (assuming no rainfall): Adjust this watering recommendation for any rainfall that you have received during this time period. TexasET Weather Station : Austin (LCRA Redbud) Plant Coefficient : Warm Season Adjustment factor : Normal

This information is provided by the "Irrigation Technology Program" under the direction of Dr. Guy Fipps. If you would like to discontinue service please click on the link above to log into your TexasET profile. To discontinue service for only this station select "modify" from your site list and delete the site. To discontinue all TexasET emails select "Modify your user profile" and uncheck "Receive watering recommendations by email".

This email was sent to cougar.irrigation@gmail.com by Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension

Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension 600 John Kimbrough BLVD, Suite 509 7101 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-7101

RAKE LEAVES, LOOK FOR LEAKS - TexasET Network Landscape Watering Recommendations - "CougarCare Central Austin"

As you can probably imagine with the cool weather and the rain over the weekend, there is NO WATERING REQUIRED this week for warm season grasses, also no watering required for cool season rye grasses.

If you have not already done so, picking up all the fallen trees leaves from the grassy areas will to allow the grass to get some sunlight and dry out. This is the time of year where fungus diseases like brown patch, take-all root rot , and necrotic rings ( aka fairy rings ) can get a foot hold and reek havok on lawns. These diseases typically start in areas where leaves then to accumulate and there is little sunlight and airflow so the grass and the soil does not dry out.

You can learn more from the Texas A&M Agrilife website

https://aggieturf.tamu.edu/answers4you/disease/Take-all.pdf

What should I be doing this time for year with my irrigation system? After the recent freezes, it is a good idea to walk the yard and look for any mushy spots that may indicate a leak in the system. A lot of smaller leaks are easier to find this time of year as they will not dry out and sometimes only become an issue after these extreme temperature swings where the pipes can shrink or contract over long runs.

How to troubleshoot a leak 

1. Check the water meter to see if the small triangle ( unusually red ) is moving or rotating. If it is rotating then

2. Shut off the water to the irrigation system, at or before the backflow.

3. If the triangle STOPS , then there is a leak, mark any suspect areas with a flag or stake and wait a few days to see if the area dries up. 

4. Call us to come out an troubleshoot 512-769-2351 or email service@cougarirrigation.com

Otherwise, enjoy the cool weather.

Cougar Matt out.

Watering recommendation for "CougarCare Central Austin" for the past 7 days:0.08 inches* Date ETo Max Temperature Min Temperature Min Humidity Total Rainfall 01-07-2015 0.11 48 23 32 0 01-08-2015 0.05 37 30 42 0 01-09-2015 0.04 37 32 47 0.14 01-10-2015 0.02 42 33 97 0.37 NOTE: These reported values are hourly averages, not absolute highs and lows. *Recommendations based on the following parameters (assuming no rainfall): Adjust this watering recommendation for any rainfall that you have received during this time period. An error has been detected in the weather data used to report this recommendation. TexasET Weather Station : Austin (Morris Williams) Plant Coefficient : Warm Season Adjustment factor : Normal

This information is provided by the "Irrigation Technology Program" under the direction of Dr. Guy Fipps. If you would like to discontinue service please click on the link above to log into your TexasET profile. To discontinue service for only this station select "modify" from your site list and delete the site. To discontinue all TexasET emails select "Modify your user profile" and uncheck "Receive watering recommendations by email".

This email was sent to cougar.irrigation@gmail.com by Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension

Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension 600 John Kimbrough BLVD, Suite 509 7101 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-7101

HARD FREEZE TONIGHT - TexasET Network Landscape Watering Recommendations - "CougarCare Central Austin"

As you can probably guess, NO WATERING REQUIRED this week ( for warm season grasses ), with more "wintery mix" of weather in the forecast for the weekend and more HARD FREEZES ( 22 degrees predicted for tonight!) on the horizon, a more urgent need is the 3 P's -

1. protect pipes - cover hose bibs - make sure all covers on valve boxes are in place and secure. If you have an RPZ, drain it or install a insulated pouch. Dekorra is the brand we install, although a moving blanket or some towels can be draped over the backflow in a pinch.

http://www.sprinklerwarehouse.com/Insulated-Pouches-s/7546.htm

2. Pets - bring them indoors, or small insulated pads should help them if their outdoor shelter is sufficient to block the north winds, google the K&H Tan Self Warming Crate Pad 

3. Plants - probably the hardest thing to do in central Texas - we have 24 randowm freezes last winter and this year will no doubt be the same.  There are several Tyvek material tarp blankets available, the "kleenex" of these is the planket see below link. http://www.theplanket.com/

Stay warm. Cougar Matt out.

Login to your TexasET profile

Watering recommendation for "CougarCare Central Austin" for the past 7 days:0.12 inches* Date ETo Max Temperature Min Temperature Min Humidity Total Rainfall 01-01-2015 0.03 39 34 70 0.44 01-03-2015 0.08 61 38 46 0 01-04-2015 0.08 47 30 40 0 01-05-2015 0.08 64 36 23 0 12-31-2014 0.05 41 36 70 0 NOTE: These reported values are hourly averages, not absolute highs and lows. *Recommendations based on the following parameters (assuming no rainfall): Adjust this watering recommendation for any rainfall that you have received during this time period. An error has been detected in the weather data used to report this recommendation. TexasET Weather Station : Austin (Morris Williams) Plant Coefficient : Warm Season Adjustment factor : Normal

This information is provided by the "Irrigation Technology Program" under the direction of Dr. Guy Fipps. If you would like to discontinue service please click on the link above to log into your TexasET profile. To discontinue service for only this station select "modify" from your site list and delete the site. To discontinue all TexasET emails select "Modify your user profile" and uncheck "Receive watering recommendations by email".

This email was sent to cougar.irrigation@gmail.com by Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension

Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension 600 John Kimbrough BLVD, Suite 509 7101 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-7101