Regular watering during the night can cause fungus issues and plant health issues. Watering during the evening or morning also allows me to see if there’s any breaks or leaks that are less likely to be seen in the middle of the night.
The app seems to default to a preference always watering at night but I wish to set the watering times during the early morning and evening rather than during the night. The app seems to only allow a set start before time, or end before time. This doesn’t allow for watering in the morning and evening since only one option can be selected?
How can I ensure multiple watering schedule times on a zone that are only during early morning and evening only for the required total time split between morning and evening and not during the night?
You can put different zones on different schedules with different start times. What part of the country are you in? I hear your concerns about fungas and night-time watering, but here in North Texas, it is so hot during the growing season (especially in recent years), we are more concerned with evaporation. So, I set mine to “finish by” to comply with our watering restrictions and let it go, with great success.
How will you know that two or more waterings are needed? It sounds like you may be looking for a more traditional date/time/duration type controller. Although Rachio can be used in a mode similar to the old Rainbirds out there, its value is in the Flex modes and Weather Intelligence feature. Set it and let it decide when to water (with some constraints).
I’m watering patio pots. Total time is about 11 or 12 minutes but if all at once it drips out the bottom. Pots require watering multiple times morning and evenings to keep from drying out.
I have 8 total control valves for different zones. I had a older controller that I replaced with the Rachio timer which works great for most zones but not all if I am not able to accomplish the need to also have a fixed schedule it doesn’t seem to understand or accommodate. The Orbit B-hive does allow this so I may have to return the Rachio if I can’t fix this simple task every non-smart controller can perform?
You should be able to have an AM schedule and a PM schedule for the pots. But, perhaps you should look into the soil media in the pots so they don’t drain so quickly? Slow down the emitters and run longer with less water?
It’s potting soil so that typically needs to drain well for annual flowers. I’ve used in line emitters, drip emitters, and misters. Currently I have low flow bubblers with flow control valves.
For our pots I set up two schedules for the same zone. One runs early in AM and the other mid afternoon. This works for fixed schedules only so far as I can tell.
