Hi all,

I recently completely replumbed my drip/sprinkler system, and have upped the number of zones from 4 to 7. I'm trying to determine whether or not I need to upgrade my controller(s); right now I have a Hunter EC400 (zones 1-4, 3 programs) and a tiny crappy Rain-Bird (zones 5-7, 2 programs. Here's what the zones are:

Sprinklers:

1. very small (~250 sqft) bermuda lawn

Drip:

2. Trees (1x shoestring acacia, 2x texas mountain laurel)

3. semi-drought-tolerant plants (Yucca recurvifolia, Puya alpestris, Nandina domestica)

4. desert plants (various Agave, cactus, Dasylirion, Hesperaloe)

5. Aloe ferox (2x) - winter growers, right?

6. Hibiscus in large pots

7. Euphorbias and iceplants in large pots

My tentative plan is to leave the lawn on its own program, run zones 2 and 3 on the same schedule with the appropriate dripper sizes, and leave the desert plants on their own program. That covers the zones controlled by the Hunter.

For the other three, I think the aloes would get their own program, and all the pots run together with the appropriate drippers. I could also replace this controller with a 3-program model and run them all independently.

I'm also considering replacing both controllers with one that can control nine zones, but the largest number of programs any reasonably priced model has is four.

I hope that makes sense! I appreciate any comments.