Settings for deep watering

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Earl Adamy

January 08, 2021 19:30

I am using RM on a 100% drip system for newly planted shrubs and trees on 3 zones in the Phoenix metro area which has little rain and terrible hard clay soil . Settings are:

• Vegetation: Bushes
• Soil Type: Clay
• Slope: Flat
• Sprinkler Head Type: Surface Drip
• Sun Exposure: Partial Shade
• Area: (# square feet by zone)
• Total Flow: (total gallons per minute for all drip emitters in zone)

I have enabled weather and seasonal adjustments and adaptive frequency. It is linked to NOAA.

We were advised to opt for deep watering over frequent watering so I set the cycle to every 3 days and it calculated the watering time accordingly. I found that it was going 6 days between watering when skipping so I set the cycle to every 1 day. It is now applying less water and skipping every other day.

I would like to see it go a minimum of 3 days between watering but water on the 4th or 5th day when needed rather than waiting for the 6th day. Is there a way to do this?

I am also concerned that the long watering duration from a multi-day cycle could over saturate the clay ground. Will the Auto setting for Cycles and Soak automatically split each zone's watering cycle into multiple on/off periods to avoid saturation?

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  RainMachine Nicholas January 11, 2021 09:18

  I would put it with a frequency of daily (you can use every 3 days though) and set a minimum watering duration threshold for each zone involved to a duration that you need to deep irrigate. This way it will only start when at least that duration is meet. It still won't be perfect but it might be healthy for what you need.

  As for Auto-Cycle, yes it should work as you mention, it does depend on particularities of soil but in most cases it just does the job right.

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  Earl Adamy January 12, 2021 02:00

  Setting a minimum time does not seem to be a viable solution since requirements change with the weather. It seems to me that once a watering has been skipped, the program should apply water when the requirements have been met.

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  RainMachine Nicholas January 12, 2021 07:43

  With minimum time the RainMachine will accumulate water until threshold is meet. It does take weather into consideration and will just accumulate until threshold.

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  Earl Adamy February 25, 2021 15:16

  I changed the settings on Feb 20 to water Zone 1 daily with a Minimum Rollover Threshold of 2400 seconds (40 minutes). The weather here is pretty constant so there is not a lot of variation in watering time. It has been watering 20+- minutes every 2 days on the daily schedule so the 40 minutes is a test before I bump the minimum higher. Unfortunately, RM has now ceased watering completely, apparently because it is not accumulating water until the threshold is met.

  • Feb 12 = 21 minutes
  • Feb 13 = AF skip
  • Feb 14 = 20 minutes
  • Feb 15 = AF skip
  • Feb 16 = 20 minutes
  • Feb 17 = AF skip
  • Feb 18 = 21 minutes
  • Feb 19 = AF skip
  • Feb 20 = 24 minutes
  • Feb 21 = AF skip
  • Feb 22 = 0 Min watering time
  • Feb 23 = 0 Min watering time
  • Feb 24 = 0 Min watering time
  • Feb 25 = 0 Min watering time

  I am attaching a screen shot of the settings page for Zone 1. I need help with this because it is not working.

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