Zones with 12+ hours of sun

I briefly searched and couldn’t see where this was addressed in the past few years, but I’ve got a couple zones with 100% sun…sunrise to sunset…and they don’t look too good during long periods of no rain. What is the best setting to address?

@beaups - I think some folks create a separate fixed schedule to run during really hot weather. That schedule can be enabled or disabled as needed. So there would be two schedules running on those zones.

1 Like

I have a disabled fixed schedule to prevent it from ever running without manual intervention. But despite being disabled, it still allows use of the Quick Run button on particularly hot days (when ET far exceeds application of water). To do this, create a fixed schedule for the zone, disable it, then access it like you’re changing the schedule settings. The quick run button appears. Tapping/clicking that button will run the predetermined time you’ve set.

If you know the weather is going to be disasterous for a week, set a start and end date and water by time and don’t disable.

1 Like

Thanks both of you for the quick reply. I wonder we can’t have some advanced setting that controls some factor of the evapotranspiration rate? I hate to resort to manual control, would be nice to just tell rachio that these 2 zones get 14 hours of full sun and let it manage accordingly.

@beaups - there is an advanced setting to increase the crop coefficient which means the plants are using more water and Rachio will water more frequently.

4 Likes

Thanks. That still doesn’t seem like the correct way to address this. On cool/non-sunny days, that method (I think) would indicate more consumption than actual. I wonder why Rachio can’t let us adjust this variable properly?

A single adjustment solution may not exist at this time for your specific situation but Rachio really has all the tools to get the desired result, with a bit of creativity. Just takes a little bit of time to understand Flex Daily (w/ soil moisture chart), the specific environmental characteristics unique to your planted areas (especially soil available water content), and then Advanced Zone settings.

Anyway, with higher crop ET, yes more moisture will be lost in Rachio’s model than a lower crop ET, but the difference would likely be minimal on cooler days since it’s multiplying that coefficient to a lesser evapotranspiration rate. Your plants will simply receive a little bit more water than they should but likely to no ill-effect, especially during hot summer months with full sun. In my mind, without any mathematical proof, it’ll all average out over time :slight_smile:

4 Likes

I would of course change the crop ET back down to 80% or whatever the customary seasonal average default is for your plants when the summer season is over.

3 Likes