Quote:
Originally Posted by 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. .
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for most fruit trees I can think of spitting skins indicates uneven watering. They do without water until it rains then the inside pulp swells faster than the skin can expand to support it. You should keep the soil moist to slightly dry but not soaking wet. Stick your finger into the soil as deep as you can and if it feels damp you are probably ok. rule of thumb for fruit trees is about an inch of water a week.