The reason for this Website is to help people understand how they can save on their landscape irrigation water and save money and have healthy plants. There are many good products out there, but I am only going to talk about the one’s I have used and have had great success with.

The precipitation rate is calculated in inches/hr. The sprinklers and emitters are rated at gallons per hour (gph) and gallons per minute (gpm).  If you have a mini sprinkler 360 degrees that applies 10 gallons an hour, its 10gph, and if you have a regular 360 degree sprinkler it puts out 3.7gpm.X 60 minutes=222gallons in an hour. Then standard sprinkler puts out 22.2 times more water then the mini sprinkler. The mini-sprinkler is not as robust as the standard sprinklers and care must be exercised when working around them with weed whackers and other tools. The mini-sprinklers should not be operated with pressure that is over 30psi, as they may start leaking.

The advantage of the mini sprinkler is little or no runoff on the 5 soil types. Coarse sand, fine sand, fine sandy loam, silt loam, and clay loam. The clay has a low intake/infiltration rate which also has a high potential of ponding and runoff.

Silt/loam are affected by droplet energy causing surface sealing and compaction. This will increase the likelihood of wasteful runoff.

With sand, there is less chance of runoff, however through percolation, water can  exude through coarse sand?  In the coarse sand, water can percolate as much as 30 ft. in an hour, depending on the depth of the water table.

Your soil is the key to your landscape, as a water holder, and anchor for the roots, and a provider of nutrients and storage. Your soil can be the success or failure of your project whether it’s a garden, lawn, or commercial job. Obtain a soil test and know what percent of sand, loam, and clay you have. Know your soils characteristics  and it’s Ph. With the soil test, they generally recommended an amendment to your soil to improve its characteristics.