Watering lawn in a remote location?

[sixdogs]

I start grass all the time in Ohio and wouldn't think of planting until September 1st. And then, use a deep rooted "tall" (it's not tall, just called that) turf fescue. It has a great root system does well in awkward situations like yours. Most Ohio DOT type mixes have that in it and most are blended with fast starting varieties that act as a nurse crop for the other seeds.

You need good seed to soil contact to make grass start so working the ground before seeding will prove beneficial. From what I have seen, poor seed to soil contact is far more responsible for germination failures that watering. I regularly start seed on prepped ground in late August and have excellent success even if little to no rainfall. Watering is not easy to do and I would forget about it. Poor soil contact is not made much better by water.

 

[GLyford]

I had very good luck on a project last year putting burlap over grass seed to reduce washout as it got started. I have also used hay or straw, and have seen people use tobacco cloth. Anything to reduce the impact from falling water and shade the ground a little to reduce evaporation...

 

[cold1313]

if you decide to go the gas powered pump route.... pay attention to "output head" aka output pressure. most gas pump are high flow, low pressure.... you need high pressure, low flow for running a sprinkler.

the roller pump powered off the pto is likely the cheapest option for you.

I can't water my lawn using my well... it just cant keep up.

I agree - the head pressure was my concern, aside from the lack of power at the pond. I could run the tractor but it's not my ideal situation. Likely hose or PEX and then sprinklers - on a timer for at night.

My well pump is new and is designed for a deep well, even though my well is "shallow" (we assumed it was deep when the old one died - so we bought a deep well version before finding out I was only 100 - 120' deep. Lots of water available - luckily. The rest of the house is on county water now, so the well isn't used for anything else at the moment.

 

[cold1313]

I start grass all the time in Ohio and wouldn't think of planting until September 1st. And then, use a deep rooted "tall" (it's not tall, just called that) turf fescue. It has a great root system does well in awkward situations like yours. Most Ohio DOT type mixes have that in it and most are blended with fast starting varieties that act as a nurse crop for the other seeds.

You need good seed to soil contact to make grass start so working the ground before seeding will prove beneficial. From what I have seen, poor seed to soil contact is far more responsible for germination failures that watering. I regularly start seed on prepped ground in late August and have excellent success even if little to no rainfall. Watering is not easy to do and I would forget about it. Poor soil contact is not made much better by water.

Agreed. I was able to get the fescue to start in some places but the soil is just fill to form the pond and the top soil was removed by recent work. My agronomist is going to pull some soil samples and then we'll go from that. Likely till everything to loosen the dirt as the dozer and excavator compacted the crappy fill dirt....bad combo!

 

[Industrial Toys]

This is the arrangement I use to water new grass areas.

Just under 1300 liters.

I welded a SS plate onto the container to make it more solid and reduce weight over using my rather heavy forks.

I use a 2" Pacer pump to suck water out of a pond and a fire nozzle to disperse it. I rigged up those two nozzles but it wastes so much water that I have to make extra trips to the pond, so it was a failed project.

These tanks can be pressurized (BTW, they are cheap here, like $150.00). I would have liked to try and use an air tank and regulator, just drop it off and run a sprinkler. Unfortunately, I think it would require some kind of filtration to stop the sprinkler plugging up from the pond water.

I ONLY water at DUSK. The experts say not to, but I really found this to produce the best results with a minimum of time, energy and fuel. The water has a chance to soak into the ground over night and not just evaporate before your eyes.

 

[kevinwak]

When seeding my lawn I watered using a 2” Honda pump pumping from the dugout. Not the fancy high pressure version, just the standard At first I only ran it through about 200-300’ of 5/8” garden hose from Costco. It would only work well for a single sprinkler. I later buried 1” black poly pipe the 250’ and with the 1” I could easily run three sprinklers off of it. I wish I had buried 1-1/2” poly and been able to run more sprinklers. The Honda pumps are centrifugal so it doesn’t damage the pump by just restricting the discharge, such as where it is reduced to the garden hose size, as long as you have some flow moving to prevent overheating.

I liked using the gas pump as it got about 2 hour run time on a tank of fuel. I used this as a built in timer. Set the sprinklers, fuel the pump and let it run until dry, no need to go shut it off. Next evening moved the sprinklers and started it up again.
I have tried many many types of sprinklers, and found the impulse are the most reliable, but give the most uneven coverage.

 

[BLSXJ]

I've been playing around with rain barrels and IBC water totes.... And Carrying water to your "grass area" only makes sense if you have a small area that needs water. I'm currently trying to establish grass in a 65x125 foot area (7000 sqft). If I plan to use water from a 275 gallon IBC.... I need to get 5 of them for every 1/4" of water.... it just does not work

I'm now looking into running a 500ft poly pipe....

 

[radios1]

I've been playing around with rain barrels and IBC water totes.... And Carrying water to your "grass area" only makes sense if you have a small area that needs water. I'm currently trying to establish grass in a 65x125 foot area (7000 sqft). If I plan to use water from a 275 gallon IBC.... I need to get 5 of them for every 1/4" of water.... it just does not work

I'm now looking into running a 500ft poly pipe....

try 2" you'll be happy at the flow 500F away..

 

[newbury]

I might have missed it but I did not read the size of the area the OP needs to be seeded. I read of "2 or 3 sprinklers", but that could mean almost anything. I've sprinklers that will barely cover 30' x 30' and ones that will cover half an acre.

IBC totes are great, usually can be gotten for about $50, but do not seem good for this use.

The OP has a 1 time need.

It reads like a tube is the only solution.

Note that most PEX is not rated for exposure to sunlight. Most garden hose is. Black poly irrigation hose is another option.

If I had to buy a lot of tube to deliver water for only a few weeks I would buy something I know I would be using in the future for other projects.

I'd probably buy garden hose in 50' lengths, 100' is just too heavy to lug around.

 

[ruffdog]

Water for a few weeks? I would use my plastic 55gal barrel that has a hose bib in it. Put it in the loader for gravity feed. I used this for tree plantings too.