Few questions on zone setup and programs
Hello.
I have a unique situation and I'm trying to figure out how to setup my zones.
I have 4 zones plus master valve. I connected them to the controller. Now I'm trying to setup the zones and going through the settings.
I have subsurface irrigation installed on all zones. everything runs 4-6\" under ground. I use this http://www.netafimusa.com/landscape/products/driplines/techline-cv/ Spacing of emitters is every 12" and each line is spaced 12" apart. Each emitter outputs 0.9GPH.
What do I choose for zone settings considering these parameters?
Should I bring down Wind sensitivity to 0 since its under ground? Also evaporation rate doesn't exist because of that.
Also one of my zones has Silty loam I don\'t see that setting in the zone. Should I choose Silty Clay?
Thank you
Alex
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Hi,
Wind sensitivity still maters for plant transpiration as it removes the thin moist air layer near the plant leaf. As the irrigation is in soil you should reduce the crop coefficient by defining a custom vegetation type, for example our Lawn/Grass has 0.8 coef, which should be lowered to 0.5 or even 0.4 (depending on grass type).
We will add Silty Loam to future updates, but I think you'll be safe with Loam type.
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Yes, but instead of surface drip, I would change this to a custom "sprinkler head" and use this formula to calculate the precipitation rate (in/hr):
(231.1* * Emitter Flow Rate) / (Emitter Spacing * Row Spacing) which in your case:
(231.1 * 0.9) / (12 * 12) = 1.44 in/h
I would also set Application Efficiency to 90% (0.9).
The numbers might need some more tuning in time so it's best to observe your vegetation and let us know.
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Went through a lots of docs about SDI (subsurface drip irrigation) - it seems it does not alters the plant's coefficient which will evapotranspirate the same quantity regardless of the irrigation method. So You can use the selected plant instead of custom 0.4. Sorry for the misunderstanding about this - I needed to take a few hours of documenting before giving a final answer,
Your SDI changes the application efficiency which is correct to be 0.9 - SDI has 0.85-0.95 efficiency overall in most of the case studies.
After the settings done we recommend to observe Your vegetation at least in the first year since the numbers are numbers but Your soil can present irregularities, SDI is also known to produce irregular irrigation patterns and the precipitation rate can vary depending from the pipe pressure which is never a standard one across the globe, not even in the same city. Depending on Your observations You can tune either the variables, either the suggested time if it is not enough or it is too much.
If You are interested about the background of SDI (or anyone else reading those posts) searching after SDI irrigation will reveal many articles like this one.
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