Drip line - what am I doing wrong?

[yaron]

Hi,

I’m a new user trying to setup Rachio… I’m slowly troubleshooting all 6 zones I’ve installed so far, all are defined using default settings - the right soil type, sun etc.
I’ve started troubleshooting the simplest zone - my vegetables patch. It is an area of 5x4 (meters) with a grid of drip line - 1.6l per emitter, emitter every 30cm and a space of 50cm between lines. I’ve read through several support pages and tried the online drip irrigation precipitation calculator. I’ve done the math, plugged the number into a custom nuzzle, saved and… magically Rachio decided my vegetable patch needs 1 minute of watering. Although moisture level is low - it still thinks 1 minute will be enough. The area is a dessert like area, and water is needed.
Any guidance?

Thanks!

[Sprinklerman]

Can you post some pics of your settings?

How close is the weather station?

Have you tried emptying the moisture levels to see if it reformulates a new watering time?

[Linn]

Take a look at this. In most cases, you will need to define a custom nozzle.

Drip Emitter Calculator for Precipitation Rate & Area

I put together a calculator for precipitation rate (PR) and area of emitter systems that do not have continuos, evenly spaced emitters. The calculator is complete, and includes the link to the Web Soil Survey instructions as well. The calculator is easy to use, but please read the notes above the calculator to be sure you give it the right data. The information below the calculator is just a description of the equations involved, so ignore that part of you don't care for the details. Please…

[yaron]

Here is a picture of the vegetables patch, although I don’t think it will help much

You can see one drip line above ground, all others are installed below ground. The weather station is about 5.5 miles away. I’ve tried emptying all zones when I’ve started.
@Linn, I have tried the spreadsheet you mention, it is great, but does not work for me. I use it for another area in the garden, where I have lots of pots with individual emitters:

This is another area I’m trying to troubleshoot. I played a bit with the advance settings (created a custom nozzle for my 0.5GPH emitters, and lowered the depletion allowed to 20% to make it work. As the pots dry out fast, I wanted to have it watered frequently (btw, it would be nice if the flexible schedule would be able to water pots multiple times a day - in warm weather it is required). I hope the new calc will work.
The two other zones I’m playing with are my trees and the garden hedge:

The trees got individual emitters per tree (based on the tree size. Some got 8 GPH while some got 16 GPH). It is a bit problematic to define the right PR. The hedge has one long drip line (same one as in the vegetables patch).

What I do know is the flow rate for each zone (I got a fertilizer pump installed and its app calculates the flow rate), however I can not figure out how to use it (perhaps to get more accurate water consumption data?).

Any further insights would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Yaron

[Sprinklerman]

@yaron Beautiful garden.

Do you have all the zones on one schedule?

If not, have you experimented with each zone on a different schedule?

You’ve got a lot going on there. I think you’ll figure it out with fine tuning and experimenting. I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong.

[yaron]

@Sprinklerman Thanks for the support. It took me a while, but I got it all figured out. I do believe the algorithms in the system, and the way we use the system could be much easier and I hope a new version will simplify things for users, solve countless bugs and incorporate better algorithms making sure plants got the right amount of water while we keep on saving water.

What I have now, after a lot of fine tuning, is one flex schedule for 4 zones and one daily schedule for the two other zones. I’m planning on getting the last to zones to be combined with the flex zone in the next few weeks. I found that when everything is on one schedule, things tend to work better (as I had schedules changing duration due to the weather, and then the longer schedule ran over another schedule and practically canceled it, instead of just delaying it (one of these bugs…).

[Sprinklerman]

@yaron Well done, and I agree, one schedule for everything is ideal. I love simplicity.

There will always need to be app bugs to fix, for sure. As there will always need to be consistent zone plant material and emitters to evenly balance the watering. All landscapes are dynamic, so the challenges will be never ending.