I absolutely love this idea! I can understand why other enhancements/changes would be higher on the list to get done, but having seen what a difference crop coefficients make in how often the system waters, this would be really, really nice!
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no, you are not missing anything at all, haha. I was merely singing the praise for flex, smart cycle in a diverse zone environment, where it is fun to see who gets water next and how much.
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" I was merely singing the praise for flex, smart cycle in a diverse zone environment, where it is fun to see who gets water next and how much"
Amen. The watering of my zones, some with buffalo grass (have to define as ‘trees’) - once every 45 days or so, some with zoysia grass (have to define as bushes) - once every 20 days or so, and some as warm season annual flower - once every 3 days or so, is all over the place. Well illustrates flex scheduling benefit.
Best regards,
Bill
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I wanted to use buffalo grass for our front and back but did not win that argument. What an amazing native plant.
Yep!
But, you can feel better on your decision not to use it when you take into account the subject of fire.
Indeed, at least here in the Dallas area, buffalo grass thrives on neglect. Really, no watering is needed, as long as you don’t mind snickers from your neighbors when they see the grass brown in color during long no rain periods.
Indeed we proceeded, and indeed for a few years we never watered it. Yes, the ultimate in residential grass - no watering required and not at the price of astroturf.
But …
We got scared a few years ago with a fire in the yard. Indeed it can become exceptionally flammable if it’s completely dormant - it’s not unusual here to once in a while have summers of 40, 50, or 60 days of 100+ heat.
So now we water it a little. It still goes brown a lot, but not completely. I use ‘trees’ as the setting in my Gen 2 Rachio running full out on automatic everything. The result is that during time periods of little rain the buffalo grass gets watered about once every 6 weeks. This is about perfect to keep the fire danger at bay.
Maybe someday you’ll have setting in Rachio for Buffalo and Zoysia (I use ‘Bushes’ setting) grass. Normal summer annual setting is just way too much water for these drought tolerant grasses.
Best regards,
Bill
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I just purchased a lot north of Houston which has sandy soil. I understand that zoysia may be be a good option. Nice to see you are doing well with minimal watering.
The science project continues. The key question is, how well does the Iro Gen 2 approximate the least amount of water needed for what’s planted.
This is a Dallas climate with the IroG2 running full out automatic. It’s connected to a weather station 0.9 mi. away: https://www.flickr.com/photos/33640382@N08/3132142296/
October is finished. My IroG2 used 12 hrs of water, versus 15 in Sep. So water output did drop 20%:
And the day by day detail is here http://www.welserver.com/perl/plot/WEL0343/Sprinkler1.png .
Meanwhile average temp dropped from 76 to 72, a decline of 5% month to month. 5 of the 31 days were near, at or above 90 degrees F:
And meanwhile rainfall dropped from 4.6 to 2.8" in Oct., a 39% decline month to month:
http://www.planoweather.com/wxrainsummary.php .
So while I’m disappointed that my IroG2 put out 12 hours of water in Oct., only 3 hours of water less than Sep., it looks like the Iro2G reacted reasonably to overall conditions. Indeed my grass (bermuda, St. Augustine, Zoysia and Buffalo are all appropriately green still (and it’s Nov. 6th!) and leaves have not yet started falling from trees.
November is starting out ominously. At the day 6 mark my Iro2G has already put out a little more water than at this same time for Oct. and for Sep. Historically though, it’s in the next few days that cold weather moves in (as defined by needing to turn on furnaces). And thus I’m expecting my IroG2 to substantially reduce its water output with the colder temps.
Best regards,
Bill
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November is finished. My question continues: How well does the Iro deliver the minimum amount of water needed? This note here is a month later update, for November, for a Dallas climate.
Again, no changes or adjustments to my Iro configuration. I’m on full out automatic with my Iro. And it uses a weather station just 0.9 miles away: https://www.flickr.com/photos/33640382@N08/3132142296/
My IroG2 used 8 hrs of water, versus 12 in Oct. So, water output did drop 33%:
So how did the environment change to cause the IroG2 to make the decisions it did:
Average temp dropped from 72 to 60 degrees F, a decline of 17% month to month. Two of the days during the month had lows before 40 F.
Rainfall increased from 2.8 to 6.3", an over 2X increase month to month, and third highest for the year:
http://www.planoweather.com/wxrainsummary.php
8 hours of IrgoG2 watering in November during a time period of 60 degrees average temperature and over 6" of rain in a Dallas climate.
Best regards,
Bill
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