I live in LA and have only ever had a dumb sprinkler system. It has 5 zones
1 - Small amount of grass by side walk
3 - Flower beds
1 - bushes along back wall.
Traditionally it has been set of odd days and ran for approximately 8 mins on each zone.
When I setup the Rachio on daily flex, it wants to water for about 1h20 in one go in each zone and then nothing for weeks. This does not make any sense to me as it would cause huge run off and puddles everywhere. Also most of the beds are covered with stones so as the soil gets no direct sunlight.
How can I take advantage of the Rachio system, at the moment it is set on manual because I don’t trust it, especially in this very hot SoCal weather.
I too am new to this and was surprised and the length of time Rachio suggested for my zones. I have drip irrigation and it had some zones at 1 hour and 9 mins and some at 1 hour and 26 mins. The difference being how much sun they got. After doing some reading I decided to back down the times a bit and use the manual cycle and soak so that the ground has time to absorb the water. From what I read it is better to water less frequently to promote longer root growth. We will see how it goes.
I also read that making this change may cause Rachio to think I know best vs it knows best. I am not certain. Disclaimer: I am new to all this and just trying to figure it out. So this is not solid advice but rather me sharing my interpretation of what I am reading.
