We (Cal Poly Pomona) have an irrigation controller that adjusts for ET rates through CALSENSE. There is a station in our horse pastures so it's very accurate for our location.

Knowing that most California natives don't like warm wet rootzones I've been thinking about how the CALSENSE system's adjustments could be detrimental to any natives in our planted landscapes since it applies more water when it's warm and dry. That's the exact opposite from the plant's preferences. I can see some evidence of this issue with the Ceanothus and manzanitas. They tend to die mid-summer to early fall.

I want to use more natives in our landscapes, but our irrigation practices seem counterproductive. There doesn't seem to be any point in using them if they're doomed.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Can't you have more than one irrigation controller or valve that you could have on a different watering schedule more conducive to the natives?

Yes, we set the times for different plants in different areas. The issue is that the controller adds time to each cycle automatically. Getting it completely off of the ET adjustments is the real problem.