Sprinkler system schedule

Friend,

Might I be so bold as to recommend getting rid of your current program and buying a Rachio device? Programming it is simple and the device is around $100 for up to eight zones.

Yours,
TulaneLSU

Friend,

When Grandfather had not the earthly strength to tend to his beautiful tomato garden and the rest of the yard, I was tasked with keeping it watered. The old Rain Bird system he somehow mastered was a complete puzzle to me. It made a mockery of me. It was not until I bought the Rachio that I tamed that device and brought creation again under my lordship. Yes, it is worth it. May God’s blessing grace your garden with a bounteous harvest.

Yours,
TulaneLSU

Put a measuring can in the yard and run the system for 5 mins.

Figure out how much water fills up the can.

You need to run the system enough each week 2-3x so that your yard gets 1.5” of water total in each zone including whatever rain you might receive.

Usually that means ~2x @20 mins each or 3x @13 mins.

Whatever you do, run the system early in the morning to prevent water loss and reduce the chances of fungus issues which will occur if the soil is always wet overnight.

Not necessarily a one size fits all solution.

Generally an 1-1.5inch of water per week is recommended. Sprinkler run time to achieve this can vary by zone based on type of sprinkler heads as well as coverage. For my yard I have some zones that require 30mins of run time and others are fine with 15.

If you really want to nail it down, you can basically do a sprinkler audit and put down a bunch of rain Guages like this in yoir zone and run the sprinkler system for 10mins and extrapolate what run time you need based on the gauge that has the least amount of water. This also allows you to see what sections of your zone is least covered and make adjustments to the heads as needed. A tuna can is also an option it's about an inch in depth.

As far as frequency, depends on your soil type. If you have mostlu clay soil that tends to retain water, then you may be able to just divide your watering in to one or two sessions of irrigation per week. Less frequent watering us usually better, because less likely to develop fungal issues and promotes better root growth/drought resistance.

With that said if you have very sandy soil(like me) you may need to watering more frequently for less amount of time to achieve the same total irrigation. I typically run my system 3-4 times per week.

Ultimately you also adjust your watering needs to what you grass is doing and looking. If it's turning brown or looking crispy, then adjust watering accordingly.

Advice above is right you want to run the zones long enough to get 1-2 inches per week into your grass usually between 4:30am and 7am in the morning. Usually best to do this just 2-3 days per week so your grass grows deeper roots.

I would just run all zones MWF for 12-15 mins until it gets hot and then see if any of them are drying out. If so, increase that zone.

Thanks everyone this has been super helpful. I’m going to take some measurements and see how much water I’m putting down and go from there.

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Some of the new RainBird controllers are Wi-Fi capable if you buy an expansion module. It would give you control similar to the Rachio. Check your controller before you make a change.

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Mine has the Wi-Fi module and the seasonal adjustment w/ rain sensor but it still needs a base setup to adjust off of that I think I need to get lined out.