Why 0% soil moisture & not scheduled?

I have a Flex Lawn schedule set up with mentioned lawn zone. It has depleted soil moisture to 0%. Allowed (default) depletion is 50%. This does t seem logical. What am I missing???

I see many of my zones soil moisture going way below what I thought I understood to be allowed depreciation. I’m continually having to engage manual watering to bring (Fill) zone back up to 100%. What don’t I understand about FlexSchedules?

@miketeel

What is the controller name and zone in question?

Thanks!

:cheers:

Rachio 16-1 Guest Front Lawn. It’s now at 110% cause I ran it manually.

However look at any of the 4 Rachio controllers and you will find several zones that are below 20%.

@miketeel I think there might be a little confusion. 0% is actually not fully depleted, that would be a permanent wilting point. On the chart 0% means you hit the bottom of your managed allowed depletion which is just 50%.

MAD is the maximum amount of Plant Available Water (PAW) allowed to be removed from the soil before irrigation refill occurs.
For most landscape purposes, 50% MAD represents a reasonable overall value.
For sensitive, shallow rooted plants, or heavy compacted soils, a smaller depletion should be considered (30-50% MAD). For stress-tolerant plants, deep root zones or lighter soils, a larger depletion can be used (50-70% MAD)

This chart shows that before you hit 0% of your MAD we automatically irrigate.

I did notice one thing:

  • You have quiet a few controllers all running flex daily schedules. IMHO I’d try to get one of these dialed in with appropriate settings, then if happy apply to other controllers. I know its hard enough trying to get one controller, even one zone working properly if things aren’t just “working”

Hope this helps.

:cheers:

Dear lord I hope that UI changes. It has to be one of the least intuitive in the app. :no_mouth:

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Then why there no scheduled watering and I had to manually fill up?

I agree, the interface is very difficult to understand and could spell the failure of Rachio if tt isn’t fixed.

Looking at your next flex daily schedule for Flex Lawn watering it does show on the dashboard and in the simulator for 6/6. I can’t speak to what you previously viewed.

:cheers:

I had the same question when I was new to Rachio, but now that I understand it makes perfect sense. Many people have had this question, and if I had not asked, like you did, I think I would never have understood this. Perhaps Rachio needs to put something up front in big bold letters so that is the first thing that is understood when first installing a Rachio controller.

I agree, there needs to be a better description of the MAD. Even I who have a degree in horticulture and know about plant water depletion get confused with this terminology. Each year I have to remind myself that the percentage is not the percentage of water in the soil. Perhaps it should be called - percentage of water removed from the soil before the next irrigation cycle. I realize that’s a mouthful, but certainly describes it better for most folks.

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