barnetmill

During our local get together of gulf coast people from NWFL to Al and points futher west Darkman was telling me his thoughts on moisture tolerance of fruits. He thought that periods of dought followed by periods of heavy rain were harder on the fruit being borne on the trees than continued wet conditions. I have had pears that have split during periods of heavy rain after doughts. His thought was to give water when there were dry conditions to prevent splitting. My trees do not absolutely need to have water during most doughts since there is a clay hard plan underlying my place so most trees will always have some moisture if there roots get down to the shallow hard pan. But when it rains the topsoil can really get saturated for a few days until the subsurface water works its way down the hill to the creek.
I do not think this was exactly what you were asking, but it is related. He has recently put in a nice well to always have water available at an economical price.
The thought is to provide constant conditions of moisture even if it is not possible to provide optimal moisture amounts.