We live on 1 acre in southern California. I have 30 zones (3 Rachio 3 controllers) Each zone MAY contain trees, shrubs, grass, annuals, perennials and ground cover. I’m attempting to set up flex daily schedules that match ( as closely as possible) the type of plant type that is predominately in that zone. How many schedules are reasonable and how do I adjust start times so they don’t conflict with one another?
@wpetedodd - Rachio can handle different plant types on the same Flex schedule. Having multiple plant types in a single zone is sub-optimal as the zone will need to be configured for the most water needy item. Rachio will only water the zones that need watering. I might configure one controller for M, W, F watering and the second controller for S, T, TH watering with both of them starting at the same time, say 6 AM (as an example). For the third controller, I’d have it start at in the evening, say 6 PM. That way the schedules shouldn’t collide.
If you have drip zones, you could put them in their own schedules and set up the controllers as @DLane suggested. But you could let the drips run during the daytime – that would also help spread things out.
I agree totally with you setting up schedules to match plant types. While it’s not necessary, it makes things a lot easier to figure out the timing that you want.
Thanks. Good suggestions.
With 3 controllers (1-16 zone and 2-8 zones) I am finding that even though I have scheduled different days and times, I notice that this morning a zone is watering on Wednesday that is scheduled for T-Th-Sat. Could this occur due to Allowed Depletion dropping below 50%? How can 2 zones watering at the same time when they are scheduled for different days?
@wpetedodd - are any end before (sunrise or specific time) settings on the schedules?
If so, that will cause the system to back the time up for a potential maximum run time that can cause it to start the day prior.
Thanks. That make sense but I don’t understand that if the total water time is 7 hours (30 Avocado Trees) it looks like the 7 hours is only water time and does not include cycle & soaking time because the schedule started yesterday (Tues) at 10:30pm and is schedules to run for 738 minutes (12.3 hours) Am I correct?
@wpetedodd - I’ve seen lots of other posts with end before time settings causing unexpected start times. From what I understand the schedule gets built backwards and assumes the worst case for if it needs to water everything.
The notices in my history include the soak times.
Thanks for answering so quickly!