I would like to program a zone for watering container plants. These pots all have drip that needs to run for one minute max, since more than that is a waste of water because it just drains through. During very hot days in the summer, it needs to run twice because the soil drys quickly. During the winter, it only needs to run once every few days. I’m using 2nd gen 16ch.
I had programmed a separate cycle to run this for one minute daily, but that defeats the purpose of a smart controller. It also meant some of my plants died on very hot days (114 deg) this summer. Now that it’s fall, they don’t need daily watering.
Originally I configured: Annual/Sand/Flat/Some shade/emitter
Avail water: .2 Crop coeff 1.2 Root depth 1" Allowed depletion 10% Efficiency 67%
This configuration caused it to water for one minute each day, but didn’t cut back. I changed the Allowed depletion to 20% and Root depth to 1.5" and it looked like it might water less, but today it watered for 8 minutes! It is scheduled to water again tomorrow!
What settings can I use to get the desired behavior?
I realize it isn’t smart enough to water twice in one day, but can I set up another schedule that only waters when it is very hot to pick up a second run if necessary? Right now, I would just like to to cut back watering to every second or third day without my needing to do it by hand.
Your original configuration seems to be the sweet spot.
The minimum water time is one minute. Check out this link, if you haven’t already: http://support.rachio.com/hc/en-us/articles/115010379087-How-do-I-edit-duration-and-frequency-on-Flexible-Daily-Schedules-
You may also think about amending your soil for summer watering to hold more moisture.
https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/hydrogel-gardening/