When we first moved to TVs, I attended one of the UF's seminars on irrigation system. The advice they gave was in the spring and summer, run your rotor sprinklers twice a week for 45 minutes, and pop-ups for 20 minutes. With each watering cycle, you want to deliver 3/4" of water to the roots. You can check the efficiency of the sprinklers by placing clean tuna fish tins in various locations within a zone, and then measuring how much water was delivered to the spots. I used 4-5 tuna fish tins in each zone. Once I knew how much water was provided to the roots, I could increase or decrease the timing for the zone on the controller. I would repeat the process for successive zones.
In the late fall and winter, you can run rotors for 30 minutes and pop-ups for 15 minutes. Or, you can water only once a week. There are other combinations to reduce the amount of water you deliver to the grass each week in the late fall and winter. In the rainy season, be sure your rain sensor is activated (and works) to preclude watering following a heavy rain.
In addition, start your cycle about 4:30 or 5:00 AM. Starting it after sunset, causes the water to remain on the blades of grass which contributes to growing fungus that can destroy your lawn. Running the sprinklers during the daytime will cause a high rate of evaporation, doing little to help your lawn. Running the system a few hours prior to sunrise allows the water to soak into the root system and the excess water evaporates after sunrise.
Hope this helps.
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