Water Wednesday Recap - Irrigation and Calibration - UF/IFAS Mid-Florida Research and Education Center

Water Wednesday Recap – Irrigation and Calibration

Last Updated on March 16, 2022 by

Why do we have irrigation systems in Florida? What are irrigation system requirements and why does what we do in our own yards impact Florida’s water? Last Water Wednesday, Tina McIntyre and Brooke Moffis, the Horticulture Agents in Seminole County and Lake County gave us an overview of irrigation systems and how home landscape impacts Florida’s water bodies.

Why do we irrigate in Florida?

The average annual rainfall in Florida is around 54 inches. It seems to be abundant. Why do we still irrigation in Florida?

Brooke told us:

“Florida experiences a wet and dry season. The wet season ranging from June to August, September time frame. The dry season ranging from October through May. Irrigation or at least hand watering is often necessary during the typical hot, dry months, September and October and again in April and May. The state Florida soil is Myakka sand. It has limited water and nutrient holding capacity. When we get droughty and soils become so dry they are hydrophobic, it is time to turn the water on for plant survival. It’s important to realize that irrigation supplements rainfall, many people often think about this backwards and water thinking that rainfall supplements irrigation. As Florida homeowners, we need to get away from this kind of thinking to better conserve water. When Florida is hot and droughty, even a well designed irrigation system can only do so much.”