I have been using flex daily for over 8 months on my front lawn without issue and with the hotter temps in southern California I am getting some browning and wanted to know the most efficient way to reduce the browning. I am guessing that it would be in the advanced settings. Thank you
@jnyphoto The easiest way to have the flex schedule water more frequently is to increase your crop coefficient 5-10%. This will make the crop burn water faster and depletion will happen more often. You can adjust the value then look at your soil moisture graph to see future simulated watering frequency (how often it will water).
If frequency seems fine you can always just increase watering durations on the schedule.
Hope this helps.
So it changed from every 4 days to every 3 days I don’t think I will need to increase watering times correct? After the summer do you recommend changing the coefficient back to the original?
I’d start with frequency and see if that helps.
Yes, you can move it back after summer. I typically adjust similar in Colorado, first third of season I have it at our default, during summer will increase a bit if needed, and then during fall will push back to default. We used to dynamically adjust this value, but then wanted to expose to people since it is a powerful lever. At some point we may incorporate dynamic adjustments again.
Thank you I will post back in a week or so with an update.
On a side note my neighborhood received one of the cards from my local Water District promoting Rachio and I was able to convince five people to go for it.
Ok great, more frequency will help, you can always adjust a bit more for a month or so until out of the hottest time of year. The good news is your lawn is getting trained for deep watering and over the years will become more drought resistant and will be able to go longer periods without watering.
Fantastic! We really do appreciate that. I’m going to send you a swag code for some Rachio fun. 
Thank you very much this will reinforce what all my friends and neighbors know that I’m a home automation - Improvement geek.
My other zones appear to be fine so I wouldn’t think about changing their coefficient during the hot times too correct?
Be careful what you ask for 
If things are going smooth I’d recommend continuing as-is.
Okay thanks again I’ll get back in a week or so with a report.
I just spoke to one of my friends that I have referred and the installer said that we have Clay loam soil. I have all my zones set to clay. if I change everything over to Clay loam am I asking for trouble right now?
Clay loam has an available water capacity of .2 inches. This will water more (duration) but decrease your watering frequency since it will increase the size of your bucket (ability to hold more water). Maybe something to try next season as the roots get used to less frequent waterings, but deeper soaks.
One fun thing to do is create a phantom flex zone that you can change settings on and see how it behaves in the virtual watering world.
Good idea thanks
I don’t want to have to make a manual adjustment a few times a year to accommodate hotter weather. I prefer to rely on flex daily as ‘set and forget’ continuously.
Here’s a +1 to put back in the algorithm adjustmenst that make things a little non-linear. Since I’m optimized for the hot summer months my guess is I’m over watering some in the cooler months.
Thank you.
Bill
I have a very drought tolerant type of fescue and had issues with browning this year.
No matter how much I watered it was still not recovering.
I ended up calling a grass treatment company and it turns out I have an infestation of chinch bugs.
We looked at some extra dry spots and they were easily visible.
They end up attacking the grass and it looks exactly as if your lawn needs more water.
You may want to look into that aspect as well.
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/pest-control-tips/chinch-bugs.html
Clay soil in So Cal? Wow, not easy to find that stuff. Have you done a catch test because 1.5" is a pretty healthy sprinkler system. All mine measure at 1" from the low flow heads they sell here.
