Hi. I started out using Rachio this spring and initially did not have my zones set up well. I started using a flexed monthly schedule and it just didn’t water enough and much of my grass went dormant. I then programed it similar to my OLD controller to water each zone every other day for 30-40 min which was what used to keep my grass looking good and sure enough after a while it looked great. Now I would like to get a FLEX schedule working. I’m in CT (06378) with fescue grass in sandy loam in full sun. I dug up a patch and my root depth seems pretty shallow - maybe 2 inches. That might explain why I would have to water so frequently to get it looking green. I have a lot of zones and it’s not possible for me to water them for a long time all on one day. My previous FIXED schedule would water half the zones on day 1 and half on day 2. Is it possible to do something similar with a FLEX? When I use a FLEXED schedule it seems to want to water every day… How do I encourage the root depth to go deeper by not watering frequently but not stress the shallow roots?
Thanks
You could create 2 differente Flex schedules and put specific days on which they can run, that way you ensure they both done run on the same day. If you had 10 zones for example, maybe put 5 zones on Flex schedule 1, and 5 zones on flex schedule 2.
You need to water deep to encourage deeper root growth. However, if you have very shallow roots right now, you need to start out small… I’m not very familiar with fescue, but perhaps put your zone setting to 4". Over time (a month??) increase your root depth to 5… and so on.
Im not to far from you in Ledyard. What do you have for your soil and nozzle settings? I use flex, but I didn’t have the rachio for the summer so I can’t speak to how well mine was set up. Its been good so far.
@liovino Keep in mind when you look at the calendar on Flex schedules, that even if it says it is watering that day doesn’t mean every zone in that schedule is being watered. Sometimes it can be a little misleading at first glance! I would be pretty surprised if it was watering every zone every day. Obviously first priority would be getting those settings all correct, but just a pointer once that’s done!
As suggested by mckynzee each zone is independent (even when on the same Flex Schedule)
For example a zone with trees will water for longer and much less frequently than a zone with shrubs or grass.
Multiple schedule can/will run on the same day. One trick is to change the start time on the schedule, i.e. set schedule 1 to start at 6am and schedule 2 to start at 6:01am to make sure schedule 1 runs first.
Look for threads on Web Soil Survey for info on soil type in your yard.
Here are some instructions.