Guys, I have a flex schedule setup, which started to behave a bit strangely. The schedule includes 2 zones, both irrigate the same one lawn. Now, for some reason (probably because I have a different efficiency, shade and slope setting for each zone) moisture levels are dropping differently. At the end it results in irrigation going out of sync and watering only one zone at a time. I though that when you put two+ zones in one schedule it guarantees that all zones will run together. Otherwise whatās the difference with creating a flex schedule per each zone if they run independently anyway.
So the question is - how do I force to run all zones in a flex schedule even if some zone moisture level is still above the depletion threshold?
I donāt think there is a way to absolutely guarantee that they will run on the same day. I have multiple lawn zones on a flex schedule as well and sometimes the watering days are off by a day even though I have the exact same settings for my zones. If as you say the settings (shade at least, I donāt think slope will affect watering frequency) are different then they definitely will eventually fall out of sync. There is no setting to get them to always run on the same day. The benefit to having them on the same schedule as opposed to on different schedules is that if they do run on the same day the controller can water different zones during the cycle and soak periods. Otherwise it would run one schedule entirely, including the non watering times between cycles, before watering the next zone. So the total time to run all the schedules will be higher.
Are you running Flex Daily? This is how it works. Once schedule set up (for all your non-drip zones) and it will monitor and take care of each zone separately. If you want them to all run at once, even if only one zone has dropped to itās depletion threshold, I think that is how the Flex Monthly sorta works.
In a flex daily, you could force them all to run at the same time if you manually went to the moisture level chart for each zone and did an adjust to empty each zone. But I wouldnāt recommend doing that. Totally defeats the purpose of flex daily.
Agree with Linn, the only way to get them to run on the same day is to go in and empty the moisture level the day before the zone to be watered earliest will be run. So your are effectively only using the settings for the zone that needs to be run most often for the flex scheduling. It would result in water waste for the other zones and would take a lot of micro managing with the existing flex setup.
Thank you guys for quick replies ! Resetting the moisture levels would not really help because they will go out of sync again eventually, so itās not a permanent solution. Now the reason why I want to run them together is because sprinklers in my setup overlap and I need to run both zone together to get full coverage of lawn irrigation. Right now Iām getting a middle section between two zones that get under-watered every time this flex schedule runs because it get only half the water it suppose to beg getting. I would really find helpful if a flex schedule would have a checkbox with an option ārun all zones if any is depletedā.
Iām on Flex daily and I have 3 grass zones together. One of them is off by a couple % points because I was manually watering due to playing in the sprinklers and catch cup tests. I manually ran the zones to get them as close together as possible and I will zero them out when they are close to 0 next time. I get what you are saying about having them all run if one goes to zero, but itās obvoiusly something that is not a part of the schedule. Youāre better off right now adjusting your zones to be on the same settings, probably using whatever zone has the greatest extreme of attributes that would causing the fastest depletion.
We have had this discussion before, and Flex Daily will not handle your issue unless all of your overlapping zone parameters are the same (sun/shade, etc.). Pick a middle ground setting in common for the two?
Flex Monthly does run all zones together, even if only one zoneās moisture level hits the threshold (overwatering the other zones). You could put those two zones in their own Flex Monthly schedule.
Yeah, but flex daily is just soooo much sweeter than flex monthly. Iād do what the guys have recommended. Find a happy medium with the characteristics and set those two zones identical and stay on flex daily.
I agree. If you think about it, the ideal case is truly to water each zone as needed. If one is in full sun and the other in shade, the turf will indeed have different needs. Flex Daily is accommodating that while minimizing run-off. However, if you prefer to run them at the same time and donāt mind more runoff, then you have one of the two options already suggested by others in this thread:
Use a āleast common denominatorā setting for all of your zones (full sun, longest roots, etc.) in Flex Daily.
Change the associated zones to Flex Monthly.
If your weather patterns can change fairly quickly, then #1 might be a better option. Otherwise Iām not sure youād see too much of a difference.
! Resetting the moisture levels would not really help because they will go out of sync again eventually, so itās not a permanent solution. Now the reason why I want to run them together is because sprinklers in my setup overlap and I need to run both zone together to get full coverage of lawn irrigation. Right now Iām getting a middle section between two zones that get under-watered every time this flex schedule runs because it get only half the water it suppose to beg getting. I would really find helpful if a flex schedule would have a checkbox with an option ārun all zones if any is depletedā.