I make a ring around each rose with multiple emitters that each drip a couple gallons an hour so if that I can get about five gallons when I run it for a half hour.

@pippacovalent How far out do you go from each rose?

The ring is about 9 inches away from the canes usually.

@pippacovalent Would you please share pics of your setup if you don't mind? Thanks. Helen

@Stephanie does Rachio require any special equipment other than the panel itself? You can attach to your existing valves and emitters? Do they have the ability to turn off irrigation entirely when it is raining?

It’s been on for 2 years and there were about 3 months last winter that it only watered my annual-beds/patio-pots and nothing else in the yard. It is an exceptional system with a very easy app. We have the panel installed in a very inaccessible place, which has never mattered. I personally have never looked at the panel since everything is controlled by the app. Rachio is just wired to the valves that turn on and off. That’s it. However, you can get fancier and add moisture detectors. I didn’t do the detectors. I did play around with soil type and told Rachio that the garden bed under the Sycamore tree is one notch sandier than it actually is. This tricked it to water there more often, but it also gives less water each session so roughly the same amount of water per month. It needs internet access for the weather so it needs to know your home WiFi password. We had to input that during setup. There is no monthly fee to use it that way.

Oh and to clarify, once we set it up for each zone’s soil type, plant type and slope of the ground, it just does everything automatically. It’s really a set it and forget it system. We also clicked the button in the lawn section for “cycle-soak“. The lawn loves it! Never been more perfectly green. Cycle-soak is where it will run for 10-12 minutes and rest for 10-12 minutes and do this 3 times for each lawn zone. It really does help penetrate the water very deeply. It has been giving each of my lawn zones 35 minutes of total water this way every 5 days in this late summer heat. We used to run each zone for 12 minutes 3 times a week with our previous “not-smart” system and the lawn was always slightly brown. I guess it never had deep roots before, but now it apparently does since the grass even looks better in its second year of letting Rachio decide. Rachio makes all the decisions about when to water and how often. It has been absolutely spot on! You can use the Rachio panel in a not-smart mode and just force it to water how you want, but that would defeat the purpose of paying for a smart system.

@Stephanie, which 5 gph emitter are you using?

@pippacovalent I wanted to clarify your setup. You indicated each emitter was set for about two gph, and that you were delivering five gallons in 30 minutes. That would imply a flow rate of around 10 gph, so you would need five 2 gph emitters per rose. Is that what you have? How many times a week are you delivering that five gallons?

Yes...sorry I still need to get photo of one for you. I use inline emitters for the first 4 and the last is just a button emitter and I have tubing in between each one long enough that when I wrap it around a rose it is the diameter I want. I leave the end open it is not a closed circle. Then in the rest of the bed around the various perennials I just jave the pre punched drip tubing.

@pippacovalent I am just trying to visualize five separate emitter loops around one rose. Why not just do two soaker hoses and put 5 gph emitters in front of both of those?

No its just one single piece that goes around the rose.. a single hose. I use quarter inch tube and cut pieces around 8 inches long and just put what are called inline emitters between them and a button emitter at the end and loop it around a rose. It's neat and tidy and puts out much more water than any pre made tubes like soaker hoses that way I don't have to run them very long or often so they get deep watering like they like.

Here is a photo of one...it isn't hooked up yet. In just this one little easy to hide under mulch tube o get 10 gallons an hour so I can deeply soak my roses just a couple of times a week easily .

I use the Rainbird brand 5gal/hr emitters that get plugged into the main 1/2 inch line. Then a 1/4 inc hose goes from other end of emitter to the plant. My experience with the Rainbird flag style emitters is that they clog. So I only use they button style ones.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rain-Bird-5-GPH-Spot-Watering-Emitters-5-Pack-SW50-05PS/202262498

@pippacovalent I am a bit confused by your photo. The 1/4 inch sections between each green connector have a single emitter on them? The start of the whole chain in the top right corner appears to be a 2 gph Antelco emitter. If that is the only connection to the 1/2 inch supply, then the whole length of tube is limited to 2 gph, regardless of how many emitters fall in between.

The other confusion for me is that Antelco emitters should attach the colored side into the 1/2 inch line. Your emitter appears reversed.

No I only have a button emitter at the end....the rest are called inline emitters they are totally different. The water goes right through them and they have a hole they drip from while allowing full flow of water through the tube...thats why they are called inline because they work differently and you can put them all in a line one after another and they each drip one after another whatever amount they state The one on the end is the button emitter which is the type you are thinking of that only lets a small amount go through it so it's at the end.

These are similar if it lets you watch the video. https://www.dripworks.com/mini-inline-emitters?gclid=CjwKCAjw2dD7BRASEiwAWCtCb-QrPEG-Cls9e-9thegozATPOfFvrQq4Y9Bxkx0aZS1g8erXEyFSSBoCSJ0QAvD_BwE

@pippacovalent Got it. So four 2 gph inline emitters and one 2 gph standard tip emitter at the end.

Yes that's what works best for me for most of my roses. I loop it around so it encircles the plant but it's not closed off so it's easy to adjust or move. I live in an arid climate in the summers and when it's really hot and dry I run them an hour a couple times a week but just a half hour during spring and fall.

Pippa, we are both giving our roses about 20 gallons per week in our hot arid climates :-)