Irrigation in autumn: does every zone still need the same programme?

During the end-of-season visit, it is good practice to maintain the system by adapting the programming set in summer. The lawn slows its growth and needs less water, evergreens maintain more constant activity, and flower beds with autumn blooms may still have different rhythms. If the system keeps irrigating all zones with the same logic set in previous months, the result is waste in some zones and, potentially, water stress in others.

In autumn, temperatures and rainfall change, but this does not mean it is enough to reduce the run times of all zones by the same amount. Exposure, soil, vegetation and irrigation type may call for a different adjustment for each zone. This is where the installer’s visit becomes an opportunity to reprogramme the irrigation zone by zone.

Before opening the app, observe the garden

Programming starts with what is happening on site. During the site visit, check which areas are irrigated by each solenoid valve, look at the exposure and observe the soil conditions. Then compare this information with the run times and frequency set on the controller.

A shaded flower bed, a sun-exposed lawn and an area of evergreens may each require a different assessment. The plant category alone does not determine how many minutes to irrigate: the conditions of the zone and the amount of water delivered by the system also count. For this reason, applying the same change to all zones risks leaving some areas too wet and others under-irrigated.

What Vision’s One-by-One lets you do

The One-by-One programming mode of the Vision system lets you manage each solenoid valve independently, setting the start time and irrigation frequency for each zone. The duration can be configured per zone and, when needed, a single zone can be deactivated without switching off the entire system.

For the installer, this means being able to translate the observations from the site visit into more precise programming. If one zone still needs irrigating while another can be temporarily suspended, the setting can be changed. And if conditions change over the following weeks, the programming can be reviewed from the Rain Vision app: the controller’s programming mode can be changed at any time, adapting the device’s performance to the garden.

One-by-One is available on the Ionic Vision Indoor controllers (also in the version with Nuvola Wifi), Ionic Vision Outdoor (also in the version with Nuvola Wifi), Zenit Vision and Pure Vision BLD.

How it works on site

With SENS SETUP and METEO SETUP customisable zone by zone, you can, for example, set the lawn to behave differently from the flower beds when the rain sensor or weather synchronisation kicks in, instead of applying the same threshold to the entire system. The duration per zone (0–480 minutes) and the independent frequency for each station let you extend the intervals where needed and shorten them where water demand is still high, without having to manage several overlapping general programmes.

For the customer, the practical benefit is a system that truly follows how the garden changes at this stage, instead of carrying on irrigating as it did in July. For you as an installer, it is also a job that is easier to justify on the invoice: you are not selling a generic software update, but a configuration targeted at a real seasonal problem.

How to present it to the customer during the end-of-season visit

The simplest way to explain One-by-One is to start from the garden. Show the customer which zones the system irrigates and what differences you have found: a more exposed zone, a flower bed that retains more moisture, a zone that no longer needs the summer frequency.

At that point you can show in the app how the frequency, start time and duration of the individual zone are updated. The benefit is tangible: the programming follows the characteristics of the different areas, instead of treating the whole garden as a single zone.

A programme to review, not to forget

The autumn setting is a starting point. After the first few weeks, check with the customer whether the soil and plants confirm the choices made, and correct the zones that need it. Then, before the cold sets in, consider the shutdown operations appropriate for the area and the installation.

The end-of-season visit can thus become more than a check-up: a job that adapts the system to the real conditions of the garden and shows the customer the value of professional management.

Discover the One-by-One mode and how to integrate it into Vision programming.