If I go with Rachio Flex Daily Schedule and set Root Depth to 6in and Allowed Depletion to 50%, I find that the watering is frequent, sometimes every other day on warm sunny days of the North East. Grass looks good in spring but I am also wondering if the default settings needs to be tweaked further to encourage deep root growth. Kentucky Bluegrass has shallower roots compared to other cool-season grass, and is more prone for diseases and is not as drought tolerant. Some of the recommendations is to stress the grass through consistent mowing and deep infrequent watering. Some literature recommend watering 1in per week (either once a week or splitting in two sessions). I was thinking if I should increase Allowed Depletion to say 80 or 100%, and allow the grass to reach the wilting point and then water it. Has anyone experimented with Flex Daily Schedule advanced settings to achieve this?
I’d leave AD alone. You can simply increase the root depth of the zone…that will decrease the frequency.
What is the downside of changing AD versus RD? My understanding is that they are equivalent as long as the product of the two values is the same. Or am I missing something?
Guess I don’t really have a good answer for you, other than it has been recommended not to adjust AD much. Other changes can net adjustments in duration as well as interval, were adjusting AD will only adjust interval.
Ya I’ve wondered this too. I’ll say my lawn looks great from the schedule provided but I’d love to see it water every four days deeply instead of 2. It does seem to to calculate the soil losing water before then even after being full. Weather here has been cool so I imagine it will be every two days once things warm up (being on even restrictions).
I recommend mowing at 3-4inches, provided your sprinkler risers are above this height. You might be able to lower the crop coefficient and increase the root depth setting. The higher mowing heights help increase rooting depth. Slow release fertilizers also help prevent the leaf blades growing at the expense of the roots. This will help with the 1/3 rule when mowing.