I’m using the flex schedule. In the past week we have had over 3” of rain. My system wants to water tomorrow and several of my zones are still soggy. Do you recommend just skipping the run or going into the zones soil moisture setting and hitting the fill button?
I believe it is due to the soil type, loamy sand will have you watering fairly often since the available water capacity is very low compared to a soil like loam.
Can you try changing one of the zones to loam and see what the watering graph looks like? Loam has a AWC of .17 which signifies can hold a lot more water.
Also, curious if the system chose that as default value (Loamy Sand) or you changed to that?
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I will try that and see what it does. I believe I did select the soil type based on the USDA Web soil site survey. Here is what it had for my property.
Typical profile
- A - 0 to 5 inches: loamy fine sand
- Eg - 5 to 10 inches: loamy fine sand
- Btg - 10 to 54 inches: sandy clay loam
- BCg - 54 to 60 inches: sandy loam
- Cg - 60 to 72 inches: loamy sand
I changed a zone to loam and here is the graph. It wants to water less often but a lot longer. About an hour a zone. I guess I’m back to trying to figure out my exact soil type.
I also did a jar test but my jar wasn’t one with flat sides. I guessed 10% clay, 40% sand and 50% silt. I’m really not sure where this is on the triangle. Perhaps loam or silt loam. Any guess on the soil type is appreciated.
You can dial back the watering minutes if you feel the frequency is better, but maybe the watering duration is a bit high.