TexasET Network Landscape Watering Recommendations - "CougarCare Central Austin"

Enjoying the cooler weather and so are the plants. Since no rain , would water on our normal seasonal budget/adjust  of 80% for the rest of October. If your controller is set to water 1/2" per start or cycle @ 100%, then 80% is about 0.4" which is just about right for this week. Come November 1st, we recommend a seasonal adjustment of 50%.

Watering recommendation for "CougarCare Central Austin" for the past 7 days:0.34 inches* Date ETo Max Temperature Min Temperature Min Humidity Total Rainfall 10-15-2014 0.14 86 52 19 0 10-16-2014 0.18 85 56 22 0 10-17-2014 0.14 85 59 42 0 10-18-2014 0.13 84 65 44 0 10-19-2014 0.11 79 65 54 0 10-20-2014 0.11 79 63 46 0 10-21-2014 0.13 80 61 28 0 NOTE: These reported values are hourly averages, not absolute highs and lows. *Recommendations based on the following parameters (assuming no rainfall): Adjust this watering recommendation for any rainfall that you have received during this time period. TexasET Weather Station : Austin (Morris Williams) Plant Coefficient : Warm Season Adjustment factor : Normal

This information is provided by the "Irrigation Technology Program" under the direction of Dr. Guy Fipps. If you would like to discontinue service please click on the link above to log into your TexasET profile. To discontinue service for only this station select "modify" from your site list and delete the site. To discontinue all TexasET emails select "Modify your user profile" and uncheck "Receive watering recommendations by email".

This email was sent to cougar.irrigation@gmail.com by Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension

Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension 600 John Kimbrough BLVD, Suite 509 7101 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-7101

TexasET Network Landscape Watering Recommendations - "CougarCare Central Austin"

Finally starting to cool off here in Austin at night, Plants are loving it and starting to flower all around town. 2" of rain on Saturday helped a lot.  Based on needing only .39" of water this week, if your rain gauge measred over 1/2" of rain this weekend, I would skip a watering cycle this week. Happy mowing !

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Watering recommendation for "CougarCare Central Austin" for the past 7 days:0.39 inches* Date ETo Max Temperature Min Temperature Min Humidity Total Rainfall 10-08-2014 0.17 88 72 46 0 10-09-2014 0.18 90 75 46 0 10-10-2014 0.2 91 75 41 0 10-11-2014 0.07 77 60 76 0.65 10-12-2014 0.06 76 60 82 0.01 10-13-2014 0.2 76 62 38 0.11 10-14-2014 0.19 78 55 18 0 NOTE: These reported values are hourly averages, not absolute highs and lows. *Recommendations based on the following parameters (assuming no rainfall): Adjust this watering recommendation for any rainfall that you have received during this time period. TexasET Weather Station : Austin (Morris Williams) Plant Coefficient : Warm Season Adjustment factor : Normal

This information is provided by the "Irrigation Technology Program" under the direction of Dr. Guy Fipps. If you would like to discontinue service please click on the link above to log into your TexasET profile. To discontinue service for only this station select "modify" from your site list and delete the site. To discontinue all TexasET emails select "Modify your user profile" and uncheck "Receive watering recommendations by email".

This email was sent to cougar.irrigation@gmail.com by Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension

Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension 600 John Kimbrough BLVD, Suite 509 7101 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-7101

WATERING THIS WEEK and ALTERNATIVE WATER SOURCES.

Humm, the William Morris golf course registered 2.38" in the past week.  I don't think we has as much rain in our hood as they received out at the golf course. My gauge registered 1/2" which is just about what we needed this week to sustain the lawn and plants. I've seen some lawns shoot up new growth around town so some places definitely had some good rainfall.  Based on your rain gauge reading and the 20-50% chance of rain this weekend, you may choose to SKIP watering this week.  Skipping irrigation when unnecessary, not only saves potable water, it also allows the natural bacteria, fungi, and biological processes to take over after a good "feeding" from natural RAINFALL. Wonder why the grass responds so well to RAINFALL and just limps along on CHLORINATED CITY WATER? RAINFALL contains Nitric acid ( aka fixed nitrogen ) and some dissolved oxygen which can "aerate" the soil and feed bacteria. CITY WATER contains, chlorine which can kill bacteria and fluoride. Now you know why grass never gets cavities. The best water for plants and lawn in order of BEST to WORST. RAINFALL LAKEWATER ( untreated, lots of dissolved nitorgen great for plants ) RECLAIMED WATER ( limited access in Austin, typically commercial sites and golf courses.) RAIN WATER ( harvested in barrels, use within 1 week or it will become oxygen deprived.) WELL WATER ( may contain high mineral content, sulfur,etc. )  POTABLE CITY WATER ( chlorine, fluoride, etc ) I dumped all my rain barrels in anticipation of a good rain this weekend. Best place to store your excess water is in the soil profile. Free up that barrel space for the next rain and "pre-charge" the soil before the next rain and don't let that water go anaerobic.

Watering recommendation for "CougarCare Central Austin" for the past 7 days:0.48 inches* Date ETo Max Temperature Min Temperature Min Humidity Total Rainfall 09-03-2014 0.22 95 76 32 0 09-04-2014 0.16 92 76 43 0.75 09-05-2014 0.19 94 75 38 0.22 09-06-2014 0.2 94 74 39 1.25 09-07-2014 0.15 86 73 59 0.15 09-08-2014 0.19 92 72 42 0 09-09-2014 0.22 93 75 40 0 NOTE: These reported values are hourly averages, not absolute highs and lows. *Recommendations based on the following parameters (assuming no rainfall): Adjust this watering recommendation for any rainfall that you have received during this time period. TexasET Weather Station : Austin (Morris Williams) Plant Coefficient : Warm Season Adjustment factor : Normal

This information is provided by the "Irrigation Technology Program" under the direction of Dr. Guy Fipps. If you would like to discontinue service please click on the link above to log into your TexasET profile. To discontinue service for only this station select "modify" from your site list and delete the site. To discontinue all TexasET emails select "Modify your user profile" and uncheck "Receive watering recommendations by email".

This email was sent to cougar.irrigation@gmail.com by Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension

Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension 600 John Kimbrough BLVD, Suite 509 7101 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-7101

Heavy Rain last night 2.5-3.2" in the Highlanhills to Lamar Middle School areas.

Rain came down hard last night. Some of the weather stations in the area mesured 2.5-3.2". Here is a great resource for anyone wanting to track rainfall , etc. There are over 150 personal weather stations on this network.  http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/hdfForecast?query=78759

Another good site is http://hydromet.lcra.org/full.aspx

The only caveat is that these are rainfall totals, versus effective rainfall. Effective rainfall is a lot harder number to calculate since if depends on the rate at which the rain comes down and is absorbed by the soil.

My rainbird ESP-SMT smart controller with tipping bucket calculated 2.62 inches. This bucket is pretty accurate as it measures in 0.01 inches for every tip. The power of onsite realtime measurement that is information is feed back into the controller. I have some super low water plant areas that it is estimating will not need watered till Sept 9th ( for almost 7 weeks) My vegetable garden, on the other hand, will probably water tomorrow or the next day if it starts to warm up and we don't get any more rain in the next few days.

Happy Rain Day.

Another 1" of rain today, no need to water.

Not sure which rabbit hole I fell through, but it's June 25th. 2014 , I believe I am in Austin, Texas but the high temperature is supposed to only hit 89 degrees today. Another cold front blew threw around 9am this morning cooling things off and bringing 3/4 to 1.5" around the Austin area today We are somewhere in the 3-4" or rain over the last 2 weeks and with temperatures hovering in the low 90s all week, this is the mildest start to the summer I've seen in the past 20 years in Austin.

The Highland lakes sit at 40% which is better than 2 months ago when we were at 38%. Now we just need some of these rains to land in the Upper Basin area and run off into the Highland Lakes.

For now, I'll just enjoy the cool weather....while it lasts.. oh and turn OFF your sprinklers this week.  No need to supplemental water established landscapes.... HAPPY MOWING THIS WEEKEND!

Don't Let your dog drive your car.....smart control of irrigation.....after you fix the TOP 3.

Storms, Robert and I met yesterday and went over the new sensors coming out and that are currently available from our manufacturer partners.  I wanted to put this out there to the rest of the Cougar world. The future of or water conservation is in smart control and sensors so we are going to see more and more of them on our systems and other systems that we service. In addtion, lots of people have SMART PHONES and SMART THERMOSTATS ( NEST, HoneyWell) and SMART DOOR locks even, so it is inevitable that people want SMART IRRIGATION CONTROLLERS. The problems is smart controllers do no good if the irrigation system is not designed, installed and maintained properly. Programming the controller is also very subjective and cumbersome for someone who does not program controllers on a daily basis,

Some background and how each sensor collects data and uses it to calculate how much to water.

Here is a link to the closest commercial WeatherStation in Austin ( William morris Golf Course)

http://texaset.tamu.edu/date.php?stn=48&spread=7

You can see all the data they collect that gets pulled into the smart control system that then calculates how much water to apply to different areas of the golf course. These are $5,000 weather stations that are monitored and calibrated regularly to keep golf courses perfect.  This is laboratory grade equipment designed for perfection and is overkill for all residential and commercial property we typically service.

Rainbird's WeatherStation is a fraction of that cost and does basically the same thing, using your zip codes historical data, daily temperature readings and effective rainfall (minus the wind and solar coeffients) to calculate ETo.  When the soil reaches MAD ( max allowable depletion that we program aka trigger point ), the controller initiates watering and calculates runtimes and cycle soaks automatically. When there are no restrictions, this controller will water at the correct time and place on random days (good for drip in Austin )

Rainbird has all kinds of videos showing how to use and program this controller.

http://www.rainbird.com/landscape/products/controllers/ESP-SMTe.htm

Hunter Solar Sync ( http://www.hunterindustries.com/irrigation-product/sensors/solar-sync ) 

uses a rainsensor (WET/DRY), Solar Coefficient, temperature and historical data based on regional geographic US watering zones ( 1,2,3,4) to adjust SEASONAL WATERING PERCENTAGES.

Hunter Soil Clik ( http://www.hunterindustries.com/irrigation-product/sensors/soil-cliktm ) 

The soil moisture sensors pretty much throw all this calculations out the window and just measures the soil moisture in one spot and provides an INTERRUPT ( WET/DRY) signal to allow or disallow watering.   Location of the sensor and calibration is paramount to effectiveness.

Using the Solar Sync and the Soil-Click Moisture sensor IN CONJUNCTION,  we can construct a CYCLE SOAK routine using multiple start times with each start applying 1/4" of water, up to 4 starts a day and allowing the Soil moisture sensor to INTERRRUPT any of the starts once the soil reaches our target set pointpoint.

This is similar to how you fill up your gas tank, you can not overfill, due to the pressure switch in the pump handle. It doesn't matter if your gas tank is on E, 1/4,1/2, or 3/4. A multistart cycle routine will run mulitiple times until it reaches "F" just like a gas pump.

In closing, none of these "SMART" controllers are going to fix the basics of poor irrigation design, bad hydrozoning ( Turf and shrubs on same zone) , poorly matched zones ( sun/shade mixed) and poor maintenance ( heads too low. raise to grade, clogged nozzles )

For LEGACY Systems, we still need to focus primarily on the TOP 3 issues as seen daily in the field

1. OVER-PRESSURE ( Installing PRVs or PRS heads)

2. DISTRIBUTION UNIFORMITY( MP rotators upgrades to replace fixed spray nozzles )

3. EFFICIENCY in BEDS ( Drip conversions )

Once we fix the top 3 items, then we can have  real conversations with our clients about smart control.

On brand new systems that we design,  straight out of the box, these TOP 3 issues are not present, so we can install and be confident that smart control will work properly and effectively.

Thanks for your time.

How full are the lakes 39%

How full are the lakes?

39%

 

Lakes Travis and Buchanan are our region’s water supply reservoirs and currently hold about 788,455 acre-feet of water.

Still hoping for more rain, lakes moving up from 35% to now @ 39% is promising. LCRA should let us water at least till the 1st of August even with no more rain between now and then. Let's hope for El Nino and a wet summer.