I am trying to set up a cycle and soak for a new seeding lawn schedule. I go through the set up and I select every hour but I am confused on how to select a stop time. I can set it when to start, but I don’t see a selection to select an end time? I want it to start at 10:00 and end at 6:00.
I’ve found it better to use a Fixed schedule with Cycle & Soak to water often during the day for new seed or sod. I’ll make an example for you:
Say you want to water for 5 minutes every hour. So you want a Cycle of 5 minutes, and a Soak of 55 minutes. And if you want your starting time to be 10AM and last watering at 6PM, you’ll be watering 9 times, or a total of 45 minutes. So, you’d make a Fixed schedule, start at 10 AM for 45 minutes, then do a Manual Cycle & Soak set at 5 minutes Cycle time, 55 minutes Soak time. That should do it. Maybe a bit more complicated than a dedicated cycle type, but works well with Rachio.
BTW, I’ve had great success using a Fixed Schedule with Cycle and Soak IN ADDITION to my Flex Daily schedule on a zone where I installed new sod. I just added the cycle to water a bit 3 times a day to keep the sod from burning out, and cut the watering time back a bit as it became established. What I love is that the Flex Daily schedule gives the rest of the lawn, and all the roots, the remainder of the water it needs, and it adjusts automatically as you cut back on the Fixed time.
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Wow, this is actually super clever. I never thought of that.
I just planted new seed in bare spots and overseeded my lawn last week. I’ve been watching and since I’m in northern CA with temps 95+ for the past 6 weeks, my lawn dries out super quick. I’ve needed almost-hourly waterings from 6am to 6pm to keep my peat moss layer and seed moist.
As a result, I had to create like 10 fixed schedules to run on the top of the hour during the hours the sun directly hits my zone. This manual cycle and soak wizardry is fantastic and saved the grief of managing 10 fixed schedules. Thanks!
I also use a Fixed Schedule with Cycle and Soak to water multiple times for new seed/sod, as described by rraisley in post #2 above.
However, Rachio really needs a dedicated schedule type for this purpose, because the solution above is complicated and not at all intuitive.