Better settings for trouble spot

Schedules & Zones Fixed Schedules
1

First post here, sorry about the length/breadth…
I have a vegetable garden problem. My soil and exposure are such that, no matter how much I water early on in the day, the top couple of inches gets completely dried out by mid afternoon. As you can imagine, this is havoc on seedlings and new plantings. I have plenty of water retention below about 6”, but my plants don’t seem to ever significantly reach there.

Is my problem in my settings, my soil, both?

I have full sun exposure (SW) in raised beds on a steep slope, soaker hose and fixed sprays, mostly mild winds (3-10mph) like clockwork at about 1pm daily.
My settings are:
-fixed schedule, watering every day, 5 am, 6 minutes,
-garden
-loam
-lots of sun
-flat
-100 sq ft
-0.17in./in.
-root depth 12”
-allowed depletion 50%
-efficiency 80%
-crop coefficient 85%
-nozzle in./hour 3.12
I have rain skip/wind skip/smart cycle/saturation skip/seasonal shift on

2

Simply, I’d add another fixed schedule in the afternoon to top off the garden. Probably in the 3-6 minute range. Try the low end first. Fortunately Rachio makes adding another schedule for any zone super easy.

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3

You might want to turn off saturation skip though. I see nothing wrong with your settings but they don’t materially affect fixed schedules besides saturation skip. Advanced zone settings are largely used by Flex but I don’t personally recommend Flex for water hungry gardens.

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