How much drought can an orchard tolerate in midsummer? The answer will vary from orchard to orchard, depending mainly on soil type, and from season to season, depending on the temperature. Experiments done in the 1970s by Dr. Ed Proebsting, former Washington State University (WSU) horticulturist at Prosser, showed that when trees were deprived of water all season long, the only ones to die were old peach trees already in poor vigor because of winter injury. However, the soil at the Prosser station had good water-holding capacity, and it took two months after the water was shut off for the […]