How should I setup Flexible Monthly Schedules?

Summary

This article will help you identify some of the best practices for when you are creating a Flex Monthly Schedule, such as how to group zones of similar vegetation types together, how Weather Intelligence + works with this type of schedule or why some restrictions aren't compatible with this type of schedule. 

Best Practices for Flexible Monthly Schedules

• Flexible Monthly Schedules group zones and recommend watering times and intervals for all of the zones on the schedule. As such,  the most sensitive zone (i.e. annuals) will impact the schedule interval; causing more frequent waterings. An easy solution is to group similar vegetation zones together (i.e. all grass zones)  and avoid mixing zone vegetation types (i.e. grass + annuals).
• Flexible Monthly Schedules leverage 30-year historical data to determine the watering interval, which allows for smooth transitions month over month. Saturation Skip uses real-time ET data to skip watering events, but will not delay to reschedule the skipped watering event; think of it like your car telling you that you can keep driving as long as you have "x" miles left in the tank.
• Smart Cycle might appear to work differently on Flexible Monthly Schedules pending the zones you have on the schedule. Unlike Flex schedules, which could run any combination of zones on a given allowed watering day, As Needed Schedules run ALL zones in the schedule in the same watering event. Remember,  Smart Cycle does not work on ANY zones that have drip nozzles.
• Flexible Monthly Schedules will check the weather to see if the schedule can be skipped roughly 1 hour before the scheduled watering time. Unlike Flexible Daily Schedules, the calendar will not dynamically adjust with the weather. Think of the raindrop icon on the calendar as a watering appointment that can be skipped if weather conditions allow.
• You cannot add zones to Flexible Monthly Schedules after the schedule has been created. To do this, please create a new schedule. Don't be afraid to delete and play around.  Zone durations can be set to zero to "disable" a zone in an As Needed Schedule.
•  Restrictions are not allowed on Flexible Monthly Schedules. There is a workaround using IFTTT to trigger a rain delay if you wish to hack it.

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