Pollution Water: Saving Florida Water

I received an email today from a forum/networking thing I belong to.
The whole question was rating St. Augustine grass as a "drought tolerant" plant species.
Give me, and the State of Florida an f###ing break! Here's my response:


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I have to wonder if the “drought tolerance” of St. Augustine grass is the real question on this thread.

Shouldn’t the question be “why do we care how drought tolerant St. Augustine is, let’s use less water/fertilizer/pesticide?”

Other than obsessed HOA’s, whose ordinances can be changed using legislation, the whole point is using less water/fertilizer/pestacide. Right?

How about preventing HOA’s mandating St. Augustine? I’m a certified commercial CID. I could design an efficient system to water my Bahia grass and install the system myself.

But why? For the neighbors? For the good of Florida? I don’t understand why “Florida” grass is such a bad thing.

When it rains my Bahia grass is green. In the dry spring it’s brown, but then it greens up and grows like crazy in the summer. A natural process.

I use some Netafim drip on my flowers, and only when they droop.

Where did this idea come from that your yard has to be as green as the water it’s polluting, 24/7/365?

Sorry to beat a “dead horse”, but it comes from builders selling the “tropical wonders” of Florida to snowbirds.

When I lived on Casey Key (barrier island south of Sarasota) I’d watch landscape workers drop spreading fertilizer along the seawall, where the St. Augustine grew right up to the 18” concrete divider between the “Winter Home” yard and the inter-coastal waterway, with the nitrogen/pestacide “machine-gunning” the water of the Snook habitat.

It’s not the grass that’s the problem, it’s our lack of backbone in telling residents “it’s not your water, it’s our water, and you have no rights to it.”

At the point we are now, with half of the reefs in the Keys and the Bahamas either dead or dying, it’s time to get tribal.

St. Augustine drought tolerance is less of a problem than our idea of what “Florida” is.

We solve that, we solve it all.

Sprinkler System Longevity

Hello Craig,

I saw your website on irrigation repair. I wondered about a few items, like "replacing rotors, repair leaks", "Replacing rotors, nozzles" etc... my landscaping company is all over the place on prices. And, they've been frequently finding things to repair - the system was put in 2003, so would you say that I'm at a breaking down point for rotors and such? What should I expect in terms of the old system wearing out? Is there a certain number of years to expect for rotors and such?

So, I thought I'd try to take a little control of the situation. How much expertise would I need to be able to replace rotors and repair leaks on a system. These sprayers rotate about 180 degrees and spray about I'd guess... 30 feet. I wanted to hear a bit from you about the DVD and your site to help me make a join or not decision.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
William, Phoenix Arizona

Hi William. A good quality rotor should last at least 10 years, although many last 20 years. By "good quality" I'm referring to 3/4" inlet rotors. Even some of the most reputable irrigation manufactures make some rather flimsy (in my opinion)1/2" inlet "mini rotors" that don't seem to last.

The same longevity mentioned above applies to the valves and the controller as well as the pipe and fittings.

Of course other factors can come in to play.

A "clean" installation that included flushing the system well before pressurization helps preserve the life span of the equipment.

Water quality can also affect the longevity of the sprinkler system. If you are on a well or lake pump, a sand filter should be installed. If you have re-claim water you should put in a re-claim filter (see the post below.)

As to the issue of leaks, again the quality of the installation matters.Poorly glued (solvent weld) pipe and fittings will be a problem forever.

All sprinkler systems require maintenance as even the best products need "tweaking" from time to time.

As to whether you need my DVD and membership site to repair leaks and replace rotors, the short answer is: no. Many homeowners do their own small sprinkler repair jobs oblivious to the existence of my website :)!

However, if you are "not handy" and would like to save yourself a lot of frustration and multiple trips to the hardware store, the DVD and accompanying manuals and power points will definitely shorten your learning curve.

Lawn Sprinklers Do Not Turn On

Greg Hall said...

My sprinkler system has had no problems for 12 years. I can't get any of my zones to pop up now to winterize. The wiring does not look like it is damaged. I think it my be my controller. How do I check to see if my controller is malfunctioning. The system was working good all summer.

Hi Greg,

When nothing works, check the basics. Is the water on to the system? Pump or city water? Have you checked the voltage coming from the controller? Do you have a rain sensor? Is the common wire well connected in the controller?

Using an ohm meter, check the continuity of the valve circuits. Place one probe on the wire terminal marked "com" (for common). Touch the other probe across the zone 1, zone 2. etc. wires.

If you a complete circuit you will get a reading of 20-60 ohms. If the readings are higher, you have a common wire problem. Do you have a wire junction under or near the controller? Check the common connection there first. If not, check the first valve electrically down stream of the controller. If the problem is the common wire, 90% of the time it will be a connection at or in between the first valve and the controller.