Hi Guys,
I currently live in Tucson, Arizona and I’ve been reading many of your posts and many of you seem very knowledgeable when it comes to appropriately setting up the Rachio system for the Arizona climates.
I was hoping I could seek out the assistance of the community members to optimize my Rachio system as my grass, trees, and plants are all dying since switching to the “Flex Daily Schedule”.
I currently own the Rachio WiFi Smart Lawn Sprinkler Controller, 8-Zone (2nd Generation).
I have a relatively small patch (approximately 500 square feet) of now Bermuda summer grass which I seed in the fall with Rye. Within the patch of grass I have 3 small palm trees and a couple of bougainvillea along the back wall. At the moment my grass looks brown and spotty especially in the more sun exposed regions. My palms trees are hunched over and yellow and the bougainvillea are drying out. Around the yard, scattered on a drip system with little emitters are various small potted plants such as geraniums and a small gardenia. I also have 2 large citrus fruit trees (orange and grapefruit) in a rocky area near the grass on bubbler emitters that also seem relatively under-watered on this new system.
I have been using this Flex Daily Schedule for 3 weeks now. Currently I have set my settings to water before sunrise (recommended). Zone type: warm season grass, fixed spray heads, loamy sand soil and lots of sun exposure.
Prior to this I was manually watering each zone on a timed schedule, per my landscaper recommendations, with the Rachio system twice a day (AM & PM) and was getting relatively good results but I was afraid I wasn’t watering intelligently or too much (being wasteful). Now I think, the “smart” flex daily schedule is being way too conservative resulting in my grass, trees, and plants to die.
Do you have any recommendations for me to make my grass green and plentiful and prevent my trees and plants from looking like death? Please, keep in mind, I’m a novice when it comes to the art of irrigation (soaking, soil types, root depth, crop coefficient…are all new terms for me).
I would really appreciate any guidance you may have to help me save water while still being able to keep my plants and grass alive during this brutal upcoming souther Arizona summer climate.
Lastly, I have no ties to sticking to the Flex Daily Schedule and would be happy to switch to another schedule if somebody has better recommendations for one of those schedules.
Thanks for the help guys.