St Augustine grass needs at least 1” of water per week. You really need to put cups out in your lawn to measure irrigation.
I’m thinking you misread the instructions from the Villages, it’s twice per week, not once. (i.e, your watering days are Tuesdays and Fridays). St Augustine can’t go that long without water. Sometimes it stresses out (grass blades folded in half) and needs water more than twice per week.
7 AM is a bit late to start watering. The sticker (instructions) tell me (at my house over in Fenney) that I can start watering at 4 AM. The later you start watering, the more water will be lost to evaporation. Best not to water after sunset as all that moisture sitting on grass blades will cause fungal growth.
Without knowing your lawn size and you being away, I’d recommend at least a 30 minute run on each zone with two runs on each zone per your allowed watering day (Tue and Fri). This way the total lawn zones will get watered for 60 minutes. I recommend breaking up your watering so that the water has time to permeate into the soil/roots vs running into the gutter.
That’s a good start, measure your irrigation at your earliest opportunity. Hopefully your Ranchio will measure rainfall and you won’t drown the grass.
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