The Irrigation Association has published "7 Steps to Better Irrigation Scheduling" (https://tinyurl.com/y6gjxhmy) by Peter Robinson, PE, stressing that it is important to plan your irrigation schedule and know how to make basic irrigation decisions. In brief, you should: 1) review the plant-soil-water basics, 2) measure your water with a high-quality, well-maintained flow meter, 3) select a method of monitoring the water in your crop's root zone, 4) choose a data recording system that can be used for the total growing season, 5) determine the trigger point to start an irrigation system, 6) decide how to "ground truth" your irrigation decisions and 7) ease into it.