Simple way to reduce all programs by a specified %?

post by mcentush on May 29, 2022

Been using Flex Daily for 2 years and lawns and shrubs seem to be doing pretty well. However, our water district just imposed a mandatory 15% reduction. Is there a simple way to temporarily adjust the entire schedule to ratchet back all times by 15% rather than having to adjust each zone individually? Also, even if I manually reduce times, won’t the Flex Daily program simply run more often since it won’t, technically, be raising the soil moisture as much for each run? I understand that a full 15% reduction may not be what Rachio calculates as “healthy”, but I am willing to stress the lawns a bit in order to do my part given the terrible drought here in the West.

P.S. Yeah, at some point, I’m sure I’ll throw in the towel and remove the lawn… by choice or necessity.

post by ECOBEARD on May 29, 2022

The best way might be to reduce the crop coefficient for each zone by 15%. Multiply your current crop coefficient values by 0.85 and that will be the number you enter into Rachio.

You can also keep some zones the same and some others reduce by more than 15% if some plants can tolerate any more reduction and some can handle a lot more in order to get a 15% reduction overall.

Another way is to increase root depth and hope to catch the little rain you are getting with the deeper roots.

post by mcentush on May 29, 2022

Thanks. Definitely a possible work-around! Though, sure seems like an excellent enhancement idea. Somewhere to control the percentage of application of the Rachio calculated value (ie… 100%, 85%, etc.) w/o having to muck with the Advanced Settings for each individual zone. So many of us are already confused by those. Especially if we bothered to have a Pro assist with proper settings. Would hate to mess with them just for something like this.

post by Matt2 on Jun 21, 2022

Wouldn’t it also work by “increasing” the output settings of heads or drip so the system would respond with a shorter run time?

A simple % to increase or decrease would be nice.