So I finally pulled the trigger and ditched our dumb automatic watering system for the Rachio. After setting up the zones and giving the controller all the information I know about our soil type and square footage of the trees, I’m left with some puzzling answers by the Rachio app.
My citrus trees were planted about 2 months ago and are dwarf variants of Valencia orange and Meyer lemons. The nursery conditioned the soil and recommended 12gal of water every other day. So far the orange tree has done very well but the lemon is not taking as well.
My concern here is the Rachio app has calculated 3.5 hours combined for both trees every other day. Which is an INSANE amount of water (1gal/min through our soaker hose - tested and verified).
So, my question is can I add a wireless sensor to each tree that would provide feedback to the Rachio system to ensure the system does not over/under water the trees? These things weren’t cheap and I don’t want to void my year guarantee from the nursery.
If there is a wireless sensor that will reach deep enough, which one would you recommend?
Thanks in advance!