We built TurfPulse for homeowners who like their lawn but don't want it to take over their life. This page walks you through everything you need to know — calmly, in order, with a clear "you don't need this yet" line at every step.
~5 minutes to read · You won't be asked for a credit card.
Email + password. We never sell your data, never email you marketing fluff, and you keep the free tier forever. The free tier is not a trial — there's no clock running, no card required.
Zip code (so we know your local weather), grass type (bermuda, St. Augustine, zoysia, etc.), and roughly how much lawn you have. That's it. No survey, no email funnel.
You can change any of this later. We don't lock you in.
The dashboard shows you, in plain English, what your lawn is up against this week: temperature, soil temp estimate, GDD progress, dewpoint band, dollar-spot pressure, and the next pre-emergent or PGR window.
Don't try to act on everything. Just read it. Within a week you'll start to recognize the pattern: oh, dewpoint went up Wednesday and now disease pressure climbed. That's the whole point.
When you're ready to read more: see the methodology · see our citations
When you're comfortable with the dashboard and want TurfPulse to actually run your sprinklers — connect a Rachio. We never touch your password; you paste a Rachio API key from the Rachio app, and we use that to fire and pause zones.
Don't have a Rachio? You can keep running TurfPulse for the advisory tiles forever. The controller-integration is optional.
The endgame: bury 1–3 Ecowitt soil probes (one in your driest zone, one in your wettest, optional one in average) about 4″ deep in the active root zone. TurfPulse polls them every 15 min and uses the readings to fire only when the soil actually needs water — not when the forecast says it might.
You do not need a weather station. Your local NWS feed already covers forecast, ET₀, and dewpoint inputs. The probes are the only Ecowitt sensors you actually need — and they're the piece your Rachio can't read on its own. We're the bridge.
This is the closed-loop probe-driven setup our methodology page describes. Optional, but if you've ever watered a lawn that didn't need it (or skipped one that did), this is the fix.
You'll see these terms around the app. Here's what they actually mean.
No. We translate GDD into plain English on every screen — 'pre-emergent window opens in 8 days,' 'PGR re-application now,' 'water-budget says skip Tuesday.' GDD is the math under the hood. You read the recommendation. We show our work in the methodology page if you ever want to look under the hood.
No. The free tier works on weather data alone. Soil probes (Ecowitt) and a smart controller (Rachio) unlock the closed-loop probe-driven irrigation engine, but you can run TurfPulse for years on the free tier without spending a dollar on hardware.
Day one: you see the dashboard, weather, GDD, dewpoint, dollar-spot pressure, and pre-emergent window. Week one: you start logging applications and seeing the calendar fill in. Month one: you have a documented spray history and you're treating only when the math says to. Year one: full-season comparisons across years, and you know exactly what your lawn responded to.
TurfPulse works anywhere with weather data — which is everywhere. The Texas-specific extras (rebate finder, watering ordinance) are bonus content. The engine is universal and pulls from your local NWS station.
Rachio WI skips a fire when it's about to rain — that's it. TurfPulse adds: a per-zone soil-probe override, the TAMU 12% drought-floor override, a sensor-gated skip stack (rain + freeze + wind + dewpoint + MAD + city blackout), Smart-Split scheduling, application-aware auto-pause, and activity-feed receipts on every fire. Rachio is the controller. TurfPulse is the brain on top.
Email hello@turfpulse.app. We answer every email personally — there's no support tier or ticketing system. We're a small team and we'd rather talk to you for ten minutes today than convert you cold next month.
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