Flexible Daily Feedback Wanted

davidj · January 30, 2018, 11:48pm

Hi everyone, new to rachio and have loved all the conversations. Learned a ton so far!

I took my first crack at adjusting everything for a Flex daily schedule. I’d love some help/feedback from all the experts here. Everything was planted at the end of December.

I just had my front yard completely re-done. As all of the plants/grass are new except for two established trees. I’m not 100% sure how to set the flex daily schedule for the new plants and then adjust as they become established. I’m assuming this will be a mix of root depth and allowed depletion, but it would be great to get some advice in this area.
I’ve posted my settings so far, any red flags or advised adjustments?

Watering Plan

Plant Types

Zone 1 (medium drip)

Zone 2 ( Medium drip, little to no sun in winter)

Zone 3 (Low Drip)

Zone 4 (Lawn, Delta Bluegrass Bolero https://d2jug8yyubo3yl.cloudfront.net/26999B2F-7C10-4962-918C-E964709E745D/36e721d4-c0dd-4c94-87fc-2bcd0f0e6335.pdf)

Any thoughts or comments are highly appreciated!

Sprinklerman · January 31, 2018, 12:43pm

I like to start new landscapes and grass on a fixed schedule until they are established.

Pay attention to your roots zones as everything matures.

Have you seen any water pooling or running off your property with the current schedule?

Linn · January 31, 2018, 2:27pm

You will want to set up a custom nozzle for your drip zones. See Drip Emitter Calculator for Precipitation Rate & Area

Linn · January 31, 2018, 2:30pm

I see that your root depth for all the non-grass areas is set to 3 in. That seems way too shallow to me. I have my annual only bed set to 5 in and my mixed perennial/shrub/annual zones set to 7 in. That seems to work pretty well for me.

Also, I’d set the crop coefficient to around 80-85 for the non-grass zones. Setting my allowed depletion to only 25% seems to work better for me as well.
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davidj · February 1, 2018, 12:49am

I’m planning on adjusting the root depth every few weeks as the plants mature, I haven’t seen any pooling water with the current schedule.

davidj · February 1, 2018, 12:56am

I just used the method here https://support.rachio.com/hc/en-us/articles/115010540608-Precipitation-Rate-Calculator to attempt to set up custom nozzles. They seem to be on the high side? I did all these calculations after a 10 min run then reading the water meter. I entered in the area and this is what I got… It seems a bit strange since I have an emitter on each plant… This system seems to be better set up for spray system.

Zone 1 (medium drip) 0.69 in/hr

Zone 2 ( front right path) 0.41 in/hr

Zone 3 ( low drip) 0.81

Linn · February 1, 2018, 4:33am

The method in the support article you used only works if your emitters are laid out in grids. That’s why @azdavidr put Drip Emitter Calculator for Precipitation Rate & Area together. You may be OK since you did the calculations from the water meter. The huge majority of my emitters are 1/2 GPH, and I have a custom nozzle set to .2 inches/hour.

davidj · February 1, 2018, 5:53pm

@Sprinklerman What would you consider well established?

Sprinklerman · February 2, 2018, 12:48pm

@davidj In the warmer months usually two weeks of twice a day watering will establish most turf root systems to get back to normal watering. Landscape plants may take longer since the soil is a lot looser and dries out quicker.

Winter months can be trickier since there is not as much evaporation. You can always go out and tug on the new sod/plants to check for root growth. Once you know there is root set, you want the plants to start seeking water in deeper soil.