The afternoon thunderstorms that watered Central Florida lawns all summer taper off in October. Temperatures drop, St. Augustine slows its growth, and the grass needs far less water than it did in July. Your sprinkler controller knows none of this. It keeps running the summer schedule until someone changes it.
There is also a legal deadline. Daylight saving time ends Sunday, November 1, 2026, and on that day the St. Johns River Water Management District schedule drops from two watering days a week to one.
The Schedule That Starts November 1
From the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March, homes with an address ending in an odd number water on Saturday. Homes with an address ending in an even number water on Sunday. Nonresidential properties water on Tuesday. No watering is allowed between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., and each zone is limited to one hour and three-quarters of an inch of water on your day.
These rules cover private wells, pumps, lake water, and city water alike. Owning your own well does not exempt you.
Parts of Lake County are under a stricter Phase III water shortage order as of early October. Those areas are already limited to one day a week, with no watering between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. If you live in Lake County, check the District's watering restrictions page at sjrwmd.com before you set your start times.
How to Reprogram the Controller
Most residential controllers store more than one program, usually labeled A, B, and C. Your summer schedule probably lives in program A with two watering days selected. Remove the second day so only your assigned day remains.
Keep the zone run times where they are. Dropping from two days to one already cuts your water use in half, and each watering still needs to soak the root zone.
Then check programs B and C. A forgotten second program is one of the most common reasons a system waters on days nobody remembers setting. If B or C has days and start times you did not intend, clear them.
If you have a Wi-Fi controller that adjusts to the weather, open its app and confirm the allowed watering days match your address. Weather adjustment changes how much the system waters. The allowed days are a separate setting.
Check the Rain Sensor While You Are There
District rules require a working rain sensor on automatic systems installed after May 1991. The sensor shuts the system off after enough rain falls. Sensors fail without any warning. The absorbent disks inside wear out, a weed trimmer cuts the wire, or someone bypasses the sensor at the controller and forgets to switch it back. Look at the controller for a sensor switch or setting and make sure it is set to active.
When the Controller Is the Problem
Some controllers will not cooperate. The display is blank or flickers. The program will not save. Zones skip, or one zone runs and never shuts off. Some controllers lost their settings during a summer power outage and were never reset. Others took a lightning surge and have been failing slowly since.
Those are repair calls, and we work on controllers of every make. Call 407-774-6648.