Las Vegas Summer Setup and Programming for Flex Daily

Belatedly… You have all the information you need to get closer to the answer for watering.

Use the equation from https://support.rachio.com/hc/en-us/articles/115010379587-How-do-I-calculate-my-precipitation-rate- to calculate in/hr, where you’ll convert your most important tree’s gallons per hour to gallons per minute and use your most important tree’s drip line area for the area. If the canopy dimension you have is the diameter, then half that and use pi*r^2 to get the drip line area. You’ll set the drip zone to water your most important plant.

For example:

11 gph / 60 min/hr = 0.183 gpm
4 ft/2 = 2ft = r
3.14*2^2=12.56 square feet

(96.25 * Q) / A = PR (nozzle or precipitation rate)
(96.25 * 0.183)/12.56 = 1.4 in/hr

I suggest not using the default 24” for root depth as not many trees root that deeply and most trees seem to get the bulk of their water near the surface. I have found 8-12” root depth sufficient for trees.

Mess with the above advanced settings first then crop coefficient (see below). There is a discussion thread on soil Available Water but don’t have the link handy right now.

Allowed Depletion is fine at 50%.

For drip, 100% efficiency is fine but in reality is slightly less.

Crop coefficient is hard to find but really important. It’s how much water you plant uses. A plum in the desert will likely have a high coefficient closer to 90% to 100% or higher for the summer. Check your regional ag university extension to see if they have crop coefficients or ETc for stone fruits.