# Determining Zone Attribute Selection
> section classcalloutblue dashed h1 idwhySummaryh1 p idisPastedNow that you have your Rachio set you may need to set the zone
Source: https://support.rachio.com/en_us/determining-zone-attribute-selection-Sy01WuQlx
Last updated: 2026-04-16T14:27:20.003Z
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# Summary
If you’re configuring your zone settings and aren’t sure which attributes to choose, such as soil type, vegetation type, or sun exposure, this article will help guide you. We’ll explain what each attribute means and how to determine the best options for your yard. Setting these correctly is important, as they directly impact how your watering schedule is created and adjusted.
## Contents
1. [Figuring out your type of Soil](#section-1)
* [What is the "water tank"?](#section-1.a)
* [Soil Texture](#section-1.b)
* [Soil Classes](#section-1.c)
* [Soil infiltration and scheduling](#section-1.d)
* [How to test your soil](#section-1.e)
2. [Soil Types](#section-1.f)
3. [Spray Head types](#section-2)
4. [Vegetation types](#section-5)
5. [Slope types](#section-3)
6. [Sun Exposure or Shade](#section-4)
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## Figuring out your type of Soil
###
### What is the "water tank"?
The earth’s soil serves as a water storage for vegetation. If you think of this storage as being similar to a sponge, it helps illustrate why soil type is an important factor in Rachio’s scheduling decisions, in particular [Flex Daily](https://rachio.kustomer.help/en_us/adjust-watering-duration-frequency-of-flex-schedules-r10FDLkFw#section-1) and [Smart Cycle](https://rachio.kustomer.help/en_us/smart-cycle-and-manual-cycle-and-soak-features-r1_FwL1Kw) features.
### A Simple Illustration
#### Water & soil in action!
####
Similar to soil, a sponge can be too wet or too dry to use:
* When a sponge is "soaking wet", it's oversaturated and cannot absorb any additional water.
* When a sponge is "moist", it's perfect and works as expected.
* When a sponge is "dry", it becomes difficult to use and sometimes has trouble absorbing water.
In your yard, the soil can be too wet or too dry. Managing soil moisture is the key to a healthy yard.
* When your soil is too wet, it becomes **Saturated** and cannot absorb any additional water. Runoff is common when the soil is saturated.
* When your soil is moist, it is at **Field Capacity** and has just the right amount of water and air, which creates the perfect growing conditions for plants.
* When your soil is too dry, plants become stressed. If the soil becomes too dry and approaches the **Permanent Wilting Point,** plant cells rupture, and the plant will die.
For Rachio to properly calculate the size of the water tank for each zone, you must enter the proper soil type and vegetation type for each zone.
###
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###
### Soil Texture
Texture refers to the size of the particles that make up the soil. The terms sand, silt, and clay refer to relative sizes of the soil particles.
* **Sand**, made up of larger particles, feels gritty.
* **Silt**, made up of moderately sized particles, has a smooth or floury texture.
* **Clay**, made up of smaller particles, feels sticky.
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###
### Soil Classes
As mentioned earlier, there are three basic soil classes identified by Rachio: Clay, Sand, and Loam.
* **Clay soil** is generally heavy and compact in nature. Plants have a harder time developing roots in clay soil. Clay soil tends to retain water, but this is not always desirable. A clay or heavy clay soil will greatly benefit from the addition of organic material, and it’s almost impossible to add too much.
* **Sandy soils** are the opposite of clay and generally drain too fast, and so are unable to hold onto any nutrients long enough for a plant to use them. Organic matter helps to hold onto water and nutrients, and as with clay, it’s almost impossible to add too much.
* **Loamy soil** is a rich, dark, and crumbly soil that will allow drainage but still retain enough moisture to be beneficial. Loam is a good balance of sand, clay, silt, and organic matter. If you grab a handful of loamy soil, it should not form a compact ball. It should remain loose and crumbly. Loam is the best type of soil for growing almost everything!
There is a wide spectrum of soil types in the United States, as illustrated below.
###
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### Soil Infiltration and Scheduling
The type of soil helps Rachio to understand how quickly the soil will absorb water. If your nozzles apply water faster than the soil can absorb it, Rachio's Smart Cycle feature will automate cycle soak within the schedule, eliminating runoff by filling up your zone's Water Tank slowly, over an extended time period.
####
#### Consider yourself a Lawn Geek?
Below are a few resources & interactive maps that can help ID your soil type:
1. [USDA Web Soil Survey](http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/WebSoilSurvey.aspx ) - pick an Area of Interest (AOI), search available data
2. [USDA Soil Surveys by State](http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/soilsurvey/soils/survey/state/ ) - available surveys by State & Area/County (Tables / listed data)
3. [UCDavis SoilWeb App](http://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/ ) - zoom to Location, select a region within boundary lines
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###
### How to test your soil
The first step to understanding your lawn lies in knowing what soil consists of - particles, water, & air. The ratios between these three help determine the Soil Type you need to enter into the Rachio App. The three basic types of soil are Clay, Loam, and Sand. The most reliable way to figure out your specific soil type is to perform one of the following tests. These require you to get your hands dirty.
###
### The "Mason Jar Test"
1. Spread soil on a newspaper to dry
* Remove all rocks, trash, roots, etc.
* Crush lumps and clods.
* Finely pulverize the soil.
2. Fill a tall, slender jar (like a quart canning jar) _one-quarter full_ of soil.
* Add water until the jar is _three-quarters full_
* Add non-foaming dishwasher detergent, _about a teaspoon._
3. Put on a tight-fitting lid and shake hard for 10 to 15 minutes.
* This shaking breaks apart the soil aggregates and separates the soil into individual mineral particles.
4. Set the jar where it will not be disturbed for 2-3 days.
1. Soil particles will settle out according to size.
* After 1 minute, mark on the jar the depth of the sand.
* After 2 hours, mark on the jar the depth of the silt.
* When the water clears, mark on the jar the clay level.
* This typically takes 1 to 3 days, but some soils may take weeks.
2. Measure the thickness of the sand, silt, and clay layers.
* Thickness of sand deposit \_\_\_\_
* Thickness of silt deposit \_\_\_\_
* Thickness of clay deposit \_\_\_\_
* Thickness of total deposit \_\_\_\_
3. Calculate the percentage of sand, silt, and clay.
* \[clay thickness\] / \[total thickness\] = \_\_\_ percent clay
* \[silt thickness\] / \[total thickness\] = \_\_\_ percent silt
* \[sand thickness\] / \[total thickness\] = \_\_\_ percent sand
4. Turn to the Soil Texture Triangle and look up the soil texture class.
### The "Hands-On Test"
Ribbon test – Squeeze a moistened ball of soil out between thumb and fingers.
1. Ribbons less than 1”
* Feels gritty = coarse texture (sandy) soil
* Not gritty feeling = medium texture soil high in silt
2. Ribbons 1-2”
* Feels gritty = medium texture soil
* Not gritty feeling = fine-textured soil
3. Ribbons greater than 2” = fine-textured (clayey) soil
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###
## Soil Types
The following soil types are supported in the Rachio App:
 
**Sand** - Grainy to the point that it will slip through your fingers if you pick up a handful.
0.6 in./hour intake rate
 
**Loamy Sand** - Loamy sand contains 70 to 90 percent sand, 0 to 30 percent silt, and 0 to 15 percent clay.
0.5 in./hour intake rate
 
**Sandy Loam** - A mixture of sand and loam. It isn't as loose as sand, but it isn't quite as dense as pure loam.
0.4 in./hour intake rate
 
**Loam (top soil)** - Dense soil type that will clump together if you pick up a handful of it, but break apart if you grip it tightly.
0.35 in./hour intake rate
 
**Clay Loam** - A mixture of clay and loam. It's a bit harder to break apart with your hands than pure loam, but not as tough as clay.
0.2 in./hour intake rate
 
**Silty Clay** - Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay. Silty clay soils may be composed of 40 to 60 percent silt.
0.15 in./hour intake rate
 
**Clay** - Densest of all the soil types. If you pick up a handful, it will feel more like a rock than dirt.
0.1 in./hour intake rate
##
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## Vegetation Types
Vegetation is used initially to determine watering minutes for your zones. Each vegetation or plant has a different [crop coefficient](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_coefficient), which is used in determining [evapotranspiration](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evapotranspiration). There may be several crop coefficients used for a single crop throughout an irrigation season, depending on the crop’s stage of development. The higher the coefficient number, the more water the plant uses.
### Cool Season Grass
Coefficient: 0.70
These grasses grow best when temperatures are between 65-80 degrees Fahrenheit, which is why they do most of their growing in the spring and fall. The most common grasses in this category are Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, tall fescue, and fine fescue.
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###
### Warm Season Grass
### 
Coefficient: 0.65
These grasses are originally from sub-tropical regions, which is why they thrive in the hot temperatures of the Southern US. The major grasses in this category are Bermuda grass, centipede grass, St. Augustine grass, bahia grass, and zoysia grass.
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###
### Shrubs
Coefficient: 0.50
Shrubs are generally medium-sized bushes that stay less than 20 inches tall. Examples include Azalea, Wintergreen, Hydrangea, Roses, Arborvitae, etc.
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###
### Trees
Coefficient: 0.75
This is a catch-all for trees that require significant watering. These could be fruit trees, palm trees, aspen trees, etc.
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###
### Flower Beds (formerly Perennial)
Coefficient: 0.70
Flowers and decorative plants grow best with consistent watering. We’ll support these gardens with regular watering to keep them lush. For succulent gardens, you can save water by selecting “Desert Adapted” instead.
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###
### Desert Adapted (formerly Xeriscape)
Coefficient: 0.30
These hearty plants, native to the desert and steppe, are very water-efficient. These plants include flowering succulents, iceplant, cacti, agaves and yuccas, shortgrass prairie species, and arid shrubs like rabbit brush and mesquite. They need to be watered about once a week or every two weeks in most conditions.
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###
### Vegetable Garden
Coefficient: 0.85
This is a general category for fruit and vegetable gardens. Plant examples include tomatoes, carrots, watermelon, beans, and other tasty vegetables.
#### Note
The " Vegetable Garden" vegetation type works best in fixed schedules
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## Spray Head types
#### Note
The default settings are based on industry averages. For the most accurate Nozzle Inches Per Hour, you can follow our [Catch Cup Test](https://support.rachio.com/en_us/how-do-i-perform-a-catch-cup-test-BJi9vLkYD) guide to calculate your actual precipitation rate into the Zone Advanced Settings. The more accurate your zone settings, the more water savings you will achieve!
### Pop-up Spray Heads
**Nozzle Name**
**Precip Rate**
**App Icon**
**Example Photo**
Fixed Spray Head
1.5 in/hr
Rotor Head
1.0 in/hr
###
### Pop-up Rotary Nozzles
**Nozzle Name**
**Precip Rate**
**App Icon**
**Example Photo**
Hunter MP Rotator
0.5 in/hr
K-Rain Nozzle
0.54 in/hr
Generic rotary Nozzle
0.7 in/hr
###
### Drip Nozzles
**Nozzle Name**
**Precip Rate**
**App Icon**
**Example Photo**
Emitter
(Inline Tubing)
0.5 in/hr
Bubbler
(Adjustable)
1.0 in/hr
Mister
(Micro Sprayers)
2.0 in/hr
Drip Line\* (Foundation zones)
\*This works best in Fixed schedules
0.5 in/hr
##
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## Slope types
Slope affects the maximum allowable zone run-time within [Smart Cycle](https://rachio.kustomer.help/en_us/smart-cycle-and-manual-cycle-and-soak-features-r1_FwL1Kwoak-features-r1_FwL1Kw). As the slope gets steeper, the maximum allowed watering time decreases. For steep terrain, runoff will occur at a much faster rate.
Flat (0%-3%)
Slight (4%-6%)
Moderate (7%-12%)
Steep (Over 13%)
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## Sun Exposure or Shade
Each zone may have a singular exposure to the sun in your yard. Shade and exposure affect the initial zone watering time. The less shade (and a greater amount of sun exposure), the higher the watering time.
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## **Do you still need help?**
We have a chat support team ready to assist you! You can submit a support request by selecting the chat icon in the bottom right of this page and a member of the support team will contact you live.
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### **Winter Hours (October-March)**
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[Go to Top ^](#top)
[What is the "water tank"?](#section-1.a)