Hi All,
Just bought the system and so far i am pretty excited about it. A little info on my house. It is an 1800 sq ft home and we live in Harris County Texas.
I think the soil type that we have here is Clay Loam, or at least thats what my sprinkler guy told me. I have St. Augustine type grass and I also found this bit of info too:
Anyhow, any advice or what not on getting this all started up? Any other info i can get you all please let me know and i will! Thanks!
@djphoenix18, it looks like your off to a good start with finding sine soil info. Take a look at this post as it should clear up how to refine the information and use it in your Rachio settings.
In case you have a drip system, this link may also help.
Welcome to the community!
Thanks @azdavidr!
Here is a good overview of all the information related to flex daily schedules
http://community.rachio.com/t/flex-schedule-guidelines-and-documentation/3799
My usual recommendation is to start with one or two zones, get those dialed in (when a zone is in a flex schedule you can view its soil moisture graph which shows how it will water), and then make any minor adjustments needed. Typically if you have questions sharing your soil moisture graph and advanced zone settings is helpful.
At some point we will be making flex scheduling adjustment easier without understanding some of the more advanced concepts.
As @azdavidr mentioned, welcome to the community!
Thanks, looking at the research i did, it says that my soil is an Aris-Gessner complex type soil with a rating of 0.14.
I did a little research and couldnt determine if Aris Gessner is a sandy loam type or a Clay Loam type… Any ideas??
@djphoenix18 I’m wondering if you followed the steps in the guide I gave ? If so, can you paste a picture of the result from steps 11 & 14?
Hi there, i went ahead and completed the steps that you were talking about:
Below Steps:
I hope this helps…
As your snapshot shows, you have Sandy Loam In the top 28 inches of soil:
Your other snapshot shows you have an Available Water Capacity of 0.15:
The instructions in the step-by-step guide explain how to use these in the app.
Thank you for taking the time to explain this all to me. I appreciate it.
So after inputting all of that info and fine tuning my zones, this is what it came up with…
Does that seem normal? Also i understand that this is just to begin the cycle… Thanks!
@djphoenix18, without knowing your nozzle settings I’m guessing you probably have rotor or rotary nozzles. St. Augustine grass is a warm season grass, which has a deeper root zone depth compared to cool season grasses. As such, the combination of deeper roots and slower precip rates would validate the watering durations you’re seeing. Please remember that Flex Daily schedules will water each zone on it’s own schedule as needed. For more details on the inner workings of Flex Daily schedules, please see this support article.
Hope this helps!
@djphoenix18 These are my favorite kind of posts- welcome to the Rachio Community!!
Like Emil said, keep in mind that flex scheduling is a bit of a paradigm shift from how you typically water. It waters for longer durations, but less frequently, to create a healthier and more drought resistant landscape. When used correctly, it is the ultimate way to get the “smarts” out of your smart controller.
Sounds like you have vegetation type and soil down which is fantastic- those are two of the most important settings. Emil made a comment about your nozzle heads- and I thought I would give you a quick way I distinguish between nozzle types just in case you don’t know which type you have.
Fixed Spray Head: Fixed spray heads are in a fixed position and do not rotate. They have a fixed stream that does not change.
Rotor Head: Rotor heads have one stream of water and the head rotates.
Rotary Nozzle: Rotary nozzles have multiple streams and the head rotates.
I think i have the nozzle heads pretty much identified. My house only has either Fixed Spray heads or the Rotor Heads. So i think i am good. Like i said, i was just a bit concerned about leaving my sprinkler system on for the 2 hours or so that it is recommending to start up the flex daily. My fiance was telling me thats going to cost a lot of money. lol
Although i understand that its going to do that to just bring the grass up to the 100% moisture level it believes it needs.
@djphoenix18, Flex Daily schedules will always assume your zones are empty to start – if you’ve been watering, feel free to “Fill” the zones via your moisture graphs. For details, please see the video at the bottom of this support article.
Another question… What if the weather station in your area is not monitoring precipitation? Does the Rachio still not water based on the NWS data? Should i change the weather station that i use? For example, i know today it rained quite a bit… The other stations measured some rainfall but this one did not.
Is your NWS pretty far away? (in my case, they are over 10 miles away from me). If so, you might want to see if you have a PWS (personal weather station) near you that appears to have good data. I found one 2.5 miles from my house that seems to do pretty well.
I didnt know we could use a PWS over an NWS weather station. Of course that was a user error. I see now where it says “Show Personal Weather Station” lol
Are you using a Flex Daily schedule Linn?
Yes, I use Flex Daily for all my zones and I’m really happy with it. It took some effort and learning on my part to use it wisely, but it was a great investment on my part. Rachio tries hard to make it as easy as possible, but there is just no way for them to know exactly what kind of soil we have, slopes, light conditions, root depth, kinds of plants, nozzles, etc. So the base settings will work OK, but going in and fine tuning to your conditions makes it a really nice system.
Thats good to hear. Ive been debating on whether or not to use a Flex Monthly or a Flex Daily schedule. Im a bit of a nerd and have been researching this a lot but i guess im just scared about changing to something new. Especially when it comes to the sprinkler system.
Do you know if changing the square footage of the yard changes the watering times for the unit? Right now mine is set to the default 500sqft, but i think my yard may be a bit smaller… Ill have to go and measure it and see what it is.
It does not. Changing sq ft only changes the estimated water usage. It has no direct impact on how much your system will water.
So, your “sprinkler guy” knows your soil type…
Did you ask him for help/advice with the controller set up too?
