Yeah, I would assume that’s because the area that grows more is a bit stronger. In the area circled below, before Rachio, it would always been green, but it would never grow vertically and areas around it would be taller after a week+ of not mowing.
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The areas that do not grow as tall most likely have a smaller root mass. You won’t be able to tell next year I’m willing to bet…
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WOW! That’s all I can say. That’s a grass you could run barefoot in! Nice work 
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Thanks! It’s funny you say that. I was at a friend’s this weekend and they had a party in their backyard. Their bermuda looked green, but when you were on it barefoot, it was prickly… very shallow, grass was not growing up, but out. I was that guy at a party closing inspecting the grass
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hahahahahaha, you have become “that guy”. join the club. when im other places that have a nice stand of bermuda, i rate it by how itchy i would be after rolling in it…
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I had my first bout of mushrooms last week, yet grass has water far less in August. I actually attribute it to the following
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Lots of small amounts of rain that pushed out my Flex watering
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The wet grass, along with vacation, prevented me from keeping my mowing height at 1.75" which I had all summer, so longer grass blades along with wet topsoil I think kept conditions right for mushrooms.
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I notice that with these low rain amounts per storm, the top soil stays moist, but I can’t stick a screwdriver down deep so I assume the roots are getting a bit dried out. My grass did show signs of stress because of this, even though storms kept pushing my watering out further.
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Check this out. I keep my grass looking great and feeling great, and this is my water bill this past month. My water usage for August was almost half of what it was last year. August is our monsoon month and while I did not receive a huge amount of rain this year, it’s great knowing that what rain I did have, along with other weather factors, were calculated into my frequency and obviously cut down on what I watered vs doing with the dumb controller last year.
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That is awesome @Modawg2k! I can’t wait to get my main system transferred over to Rachio. With 16 zones on that one I should see some big savings. Dialing in my smaller 4 zone system first as a test right now.
What I will say is that in preparation, I have been spending A LOT of time rehabbing my drip and sprinkler systems to make sure they are at their peak performance. I am finding that this is key to a functioning Flex schedule.
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Absoluately. I replaced some sprinkler heads when I first performed a catch cup test earlier this summer because I realized they weren’t not functioning 100%. I plan to do an overall of my drip system this fall.
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I couldn’t agree more! Like @Modawg2k I changed out all of my heads, and will be attacking drip when the heat drops just a bit more.
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Wimp! 
Just got done messing with mine for the last 3 hours…it was only what, 105 today?
I didn’t even leave the house today… granted football
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I ended up spending the day on drip for my pots. They’re in the shade. 
So I’ve had some mushrooms growing and I haven’t really done anything different watering wise. I’ve let my bermuda grow a little longer than normal so I’m wondering if the long longer blades, along with cooler temps are keeping the topsoil moist to the point where mushrooms can grow. I have a hybrid bermuda (Tifway) and I think it’s supposed to be kept very short. The Rachio is still watering quite often, slightly less then mid summer.
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Have you done winter grass yet? I just did some major work on the sprinklers - added a valve, relocated, etc. and did overseeding too. Rye is coming in nicely with the manual watering schedule - 5 min intervals 3 times a day. I’m ready to reduce that now and want to get the Rachio flex schedule dialed in but am not sure about what changes need to be made for the grass…especially differences in summer/winter grass.
Are you using “Flex” daily/monthly or do you prefer manually setting it? I’m getting the impression that Flex Daily is what Rachio customers should be driving towards, but again - need to do the math on the yard. I’d like to hear others’ experiences on how they set their flex schedules to accommodate changes in grass, and what the general consensus is there… thx in advance!
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I just seeded last week so I’m running my fixed schedule 4/day for another 5 days or so.
I would think the only initial change would be to switch your plant type from warm season grass to cool season in all your grass zones. That will change your coeffecient from 0.65 to 0.70. You can then adjust the coeffecient up or down once you get a feel for how your rye is handling things.
I’m flex daily, all day every day 
I think that system works great and can really accomodate for changes… like 95 degrees end of october! It’s all about settings and just making sure you have those dialed in… and of course making sure your sprinklers, valves, etc are all working properly like you did.
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What do you think @Modawg2k and @JPedrego , time to de-thatch soon ??
My Bermuda hasn’t ‘greened up’, but nighttime lows are in the 70’s. I’m thinking mid-June but am wondering what the other desert-dwelllers have in mind.
Full link to the above: https://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/lawns/dethatching.html
I was originally shooting for mid May for dethatching and maybe aerating but I’ve been pretty busy and when I’ve had free time I’ve been lazy. Looks like I’ll probably try to get to it next weekend. My lawn has greened up pretty well and the temps fall well within the suggested range so I think I’m good to go.
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Just yesterday I mowed to my normal bermuda height on my mower. Definitely a lot of dead rye thatch out there. I took my dethatching rake to some of the bad areas, but boy does that suck doing that. . @azdavidr Do you dethatch with a hand rake or machine?
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