5 top tips to maximize your irrigation system during these hot Mississippi summer days. 1. Turn on your irrigation system manually and watch it run in each zone. You may discover broken sprinkler heads that are costing you big money in lost water. Broken heads reduce pressure and cause other heads not to cover correctly. If you do not notice broken sprinkler heads until plants are in distress it may be too late. 2. While the system is running look for heads that are mis-aligned due to mowers or foot traffic. Make sure heads don't hit the house or the pavement. It makes no sense to water either one. 3. Are the sprinkler heads overlapping one another? A good system will shoot water from one head to the next. Systems where water coverage barely overlaps are going to give you dry spots between the heads during really dry weather. I have seen irrigation contractors attempt to save a dollar by spacing heads too far apart. Long after he is gone the problem shows up as a dry spot. 4. Set your system to run early in the morning between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. Watering at this time of the day (during growing season) allows your water to stay in the ground (as opposed to evaporating), helps keeps fungus at bay, and allows the plants to maintain their natural wet/dry cycles. 5. Put a back up battery in your irrigation clock. This is usually a 9 volt battery and will keep the timer set correctly if the power source were to go out. It will not run your irrigation system, but you will not have to reset the timer after every power outage.