First time user, first post. So far very pleased with the app and how it was able to allow me to run all over my shy half acre to test things without having to run back to the box and press a bunch of buttons every time.
Here in the Phoenix area, the master gardeners recommendation is to water plants deeply not shallow, (drip system here) and to do it with several days (14-30) days between.
I purchased the Rachio 3 to give me a bit of flexibility over my previous irritrol box that didn’t have any automation ability, however the feature I seem to be missing that it had was the ability to specify a number of days between watering (as in more than next week)
Is there some way that I’ve not been able to discover to specify that I want to water only every 9 or 14 or 21 or 30 days?
With a fixed schedule, I’m not sure you can stretch that far between scheduled waterings.
You are 100% correct that it is better to water for longer durations, less frequently, but it isn’t necessarily a set 14-30 days in between year round. I’m in Gilbert, and I have my Rachio set up on Flex Daily, which dynamically adjusts watering needs throughout the year as needed based on a number of conditions. In the winter, my deeper rooted tree zones will go 3+ weeks between watering, but in the blistering summer, it will increase the frequency to about once every 7 days. My shallower shrub zones will run about every 10-14 days in the winter months, and every 4-6 days in the hottest months of the summer. I promise, if you try to water every 14-30 days in the summer, you will have dead plants within weeks, regardless how much water you apply.
I’d highly recommend dialing in your zones and system settings, and take a look at the Flex Daily scheduling.
If you create a Flex Daily schedule, the duration of watering is determined by the root depth setting and the frequency of watering is determined by the crop coefficient setting. You set these values for each zone under Advanced Settings.
Once you have these and the other advanced settings dialed in, a Flex Daily schedule will dynamically determine the duration and frequency of watering, based on the weather (precipitation and temperature). There a number of us in the greater Phoenix area who successfully use Flex Daily. You may have to tinker with the Zone Advanced settings at first, but once they are dialed in you will be good to go.
so that was what I was hoping to do but, at least on the web app, it doesn’t seem to allow me to chose a watering interval other than ‘what day of the week’. did I miss something?
