Jul 14
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Watering Tips For Winter: Irrigation Controllers

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As we move through the colder months of winter the amount of watering needed can be very low, and with winter rains it is best to change your automatic irrigation controller to suit these conditions. I would advise turning the controller dial from ON/AUTO/RUN to the OFF position. When watering is required simply turn the controller to the ON position, it is best to water during the morning. Once watering is complete, turn the controller back to the OFF position.

In spring when regular watering is necessary simply turn the controller back to AUTO/ON.

It is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the manual setting on your controller. In manual mode you have the option to run 1 station/area/zone or to run all programmed zones. When in manual mode it is a good idea to walk around and check that the irrigation is performing correctly.

If you don’t like the idea of turning the controller off, you can install a Hunter Soil-Clik which monitors the moister in the soil and communicates with your controller to tell it when to water your garden/lawn. This is also an excellent tool to help you save water and to avoid over watering in the wetter months. Soil-Clik cannot be installed on some controllers.

The team at Aquamann

Jun 30
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Sample Blog Post

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During winter, there are some handy tips and tricks for healthy winter gardens.

Now that the cooler weather of winter is here, gardens don’t loose as much water to evaporation as they do in summer. Because of this, soils can easily waterlog if over watered, particularly on the southern side of homes and in well shaded areas.

If you have an automatic watering system, during these cooler months reduce the watering time to at least half that of summer. 

When watering, do so in the morning so that both soil & plants can dry off before nightime. This will reduce fungal disease. If possible, water directly onto soil & not onto plant foliage. Fungal diseases love wet conditions and if the plant leaves are wet during the night, this creates ideal conditions for fungal diseases to proliferate, so this is very important for healthy plant growth.

It is commonly thought that plants don’t need fertilising in winter, but this is not true. Plants will flourish with the right winter fertilising. What is more important is the type of fertilisers used. High nitrogen fertilisers are more suited for spring through to autumn, but not really for winter. However, fertilisers containing high amounts of Potash (Potassium) are excellent for developing deep green leaves and promoting plant strength and vigour through winter.