I just installed my new Gen2 controller for a very small (230sq ft) front lawn in a middle-unit rowhouse. I have 8 MP Rotator 1000 sprinkler heads that cover the entire tiny rectangle-of-a-lawn. I also have 7 different shrubs with a drip line as a second zone, separate from the yard.
When I plugged in all the data for my zones (including the square footage in the advanced settings), the Daily Flex Schedule still came up with a very high watering duration. It came up with:
Grass for 41 minutes
Shrubs for 3 hours and 10 minutes
Grass again for 41 minutes
Does that sound unreasonably long to anyone else? I’ve gone through my zone settings very carefully, and even had a landscaper double check the settings with me by my side.
@RedRainIsFallingDown Your settings look good, one thing I noticed is your inch/hr for nozzle is .5in. That will have you watering in that 40+ minute range. If that truly is the precip rate (did you do a catch cup test?) I’d maybe start there and if looks like over watering just dial back the minutes. For the shrubs, the default root zone is 15 inches (and you have .5 inch nozzles) which is why it wants to water for so long, but won’t water that frequently. I usually recommend starting with a grass zone to see how flex daily behaves, tune it, then roll out to other zones if you like the performance. Shrubs, trees, etc. definitely behave differently with flex daily since they have long roots. Most people water incorrectly (short watering, frequent) which doesn’t promote healthy roots. Also, I would assume for trees and shrubs to have emitters, dripline but some folks have normal nozzles which IMHO is not optimal watering. Hope this helps.
Thanks so much for taking a look and chiming in on this, franz! Quite an impressive product and company you’ve made for yourself!
I think I’m interpreting the precipitation rate correctly? But I’m fairly new to irrigation systems, so I can’t be 100%. I have not done a cup test. I’m basing that .5in number off this spec sheet I found online for my MP1000 sprinkler head. Sorry I can’t link directly to the relevant spec, but it’s on page 13, in the first column. I noticed most of the precipitation per hour numbers were all right around .5in, so that’s why I went with that number. If I’m misinterpreting that, let me know. My yard is covered by 8 of the MP1000’s.
Also, my shrubs are each wrapped twice with a drip line, buried under the mulch. They aren’t covered by any nozzles. That should already be reflected/calculated in my Zone 2 settings.
I don’t think spec sheets are that helpful unless you truly know your water pressure. .5in does seem low but I’m not an expert in that area. If you went to .75in/hr or 1in/hr your watering duration would go down quite a bit.
Nice! Then this deep watering approach might truly be what they need.
I use the MP Rotators quite frequently. They are actually .37 to .52 inches per hour depending on the radius, arc and pressure. I end up setting them at the .7 inches per hour in order for them to water accurately with the Rachio. This setting seems to work best when the outside midday temp is in the 90 to 95 degree range with low humidity and needs to be adjusted when the humidity is higher.
I run the Hunter MP nozzles as well, and .5" is a good starting point, but if you can get around to doing a catch cup test, you can dial it in a little better as they can vary quite a bit with pressure and layout/overlap. The goal of these nozzles is more even coverage with less run-off and misting, plus with the low PR, you can run WAY more nozzles on a zone than you can with traditional spray nozzles that will use up to 4 times as much water/hour. I was able to combine 8 old spray head zones into 3 zones without dropping below the recommended PSI of the nozzle.
Also, mine run for almost 2 hours per zone to put down the required 1" of water for my lawn.
I LOVE these MP nozzles in my front yard. The coverage is so much more uniform that my spray nozzles, especially in larger yards. The only downside I see is the long watering times. When I had the 8 zones, there were days when I would water for almost 16 hours if all the zones happen to fire. Being that I was able to combine so many zones with the lower PR, I’m now down to 6 hours…I’m threatening to swap out my backyard nozzles to the MP’s as well. The MP’s also really shine when adjustable spray patterns are needed. I’ve yet to find a VAN nozzle that is consistent with the spray pattern, but the MP’s are rock solid from 0 all the way to 360 degrees!
