Baseline Systems BaseStation 3200 - Manual (Page 9)

I n t r o d u c t i o n
Page 7
Baseline 3200
How to Irrigate Efficiently
This section covers some key concepts essential to better and more efficient irrigation.
The BaseStation 3200 is specifically designed to help you irrigate more efficiently than any other
commercial irrigation controller. The 3200 supports multiple smart watering strategies, including
Historical ET, and smart watering with Soil Moisture Sensors.
All other considerations being equal, Soil Moisture Sensors provide the best watering results of
any currently available technology. This is because the watering system can become “closed
loop” – in other words, the system can directly measure and adjust for exactly what the desired
result is: moisture in the root zone.
Irrigating properly typically results in the elimination of water waste, and a subsequent
improvement in plant health.

Water Deeply & Infrequently. Studies show that watering deeply and infrequently
promotes deeper root growth and more drought tolerant plants.
Watering Deeply means that the soil should be wetted down to a depth of 6”
or deeper for grasses, 12” or deeper for trees and shrubs.
Watering Infrequently means that the next irrigation event (or start time)
should be delayed as long as possible without stressing the plants.

Deeper Roots = More Efficient Plants. Plants with deeper roots are able to draw
more nutrients from a larger area of soil, making fertilizers and soil treatments more
effective.

Avoid Runoff. Matching the application rate of irrigation to the infiltration rate of the
soil is critical to avoid runoff.

Only apply the amount of water needed. Optimum irrigation should account for
actual effective rainfall, and avoid applying more water than required at the root zone
of the plants
Irrigation water is a supplement to natural rainfall – only the amount of water
needed to return the soil to optimum moisture is needed.
Irrigation water applied above the field capacity of the soil is wasted – water
will gravitationally sink through the soil below the root zone of the plants
Unlike other irrigation controllers, the 3200 is specifically designed to make efficient irrigation
easy.
To see how the BaseStation 3200 accomplishes this, there are several key concepts the irrigation
programmer should understand:

Soil Moisture Content

Watering Strategies

Root Depth & Plant Water Efficiency

Schedule Groups

Distribution Uniformity
The remainder of this section covers these key concepts in more detail.