Fruitnut as always you make a truthful and excellent point. Water cannot leach minerals out of soil it has not fell on. Drought stricken land is rich typically, as is the case with parts of Texas. Rainwater in combination with rich dessert land surely would be the best of both worlds. Well water / pond water I’ve found to be similar to rainwater. In Kansas there are times when rain actually falls enough to leach our ground so like everything moderation is best. I have found it to be true As Fruitnut mentioned if to much rain falls apples may be as big as basketballs but taste is undesirable. Once I had about 100 cantaloupes ruined by to much rain when they were close to ripe. The chickens would not hardly eat those melons.
My melons grow like weeds if I apply plenty of well water and nitrogen. And watermelons need lots of leaves to produce sweet fruit. But just like many fruit trees too much water and nitrogen reduces watermelon sweetness. I’ve figured out the sweet spot for mine which gives 25-30 lb Star Brite with 12-14 brix.
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Yeah, but that’s for a lot of different reasons and none of them are because natural rainfall is necessarily bad for plants…or trees for that matter.
I’m with fruitnut on this. The worst seasons here are the wettest ones. I would be interested in data about the actual benefits of rain compared to irrigation, but where I live, drought years produce the best fruit. Only severe drought creates problems for fruit trees, if they aren’t irrigated.
I agree that after a stretch of dry weather, nothing stimulates plants more than a nice soaking summer thunderstorm, but my experience is that irrigated east coast nurseries produce larger trees on drier, sunnier growing seasons.
I would live in a Mediterranean climate if everyone else didn’t want to. I’d need millions of dollars to live in coastal CA the way I do in the northeast.
Alan,
Fireblight is the problem we usually run into with rain. This time of year I’m nervous because it’s warm , it’s the rainy season, trees are in bloom. Those conditions are a recipe for problems.
I read much of the responses but probably missed something. Outside of natural addition from rain and snow, is there good information about the best time to apply nitrogen?
I researched last winter, many websites. The info was all over the place. Some recommended apply nitrogen in the fall after leaf drop, so the trees can absorb it during the winter for early effect. Some recommended apply during the winter, and some recommended wait until spring. Granted, this info was for shade trees, not fruit trees.
I avoid adding to pears and apples before spring is done, because the rapid flush of growth is susceptible to fire blight. If I wait until dry season, the growth response is good and there is no fire blight. That is also true for my sourwood tree.
For plums and cherries, fire blight is not an issue, so I applied already to the smaller trees. Same for the little pawpaws and persimmons. For my larger plum and cherry and fig trees, and my one mulberry tree, they are at the top size I want, so I did not apply nitrogen this year.
For the young fig starts, I apply after risk of last frost. The reason for that is if they grow too soon, the frost can kill all of the new growth. If too late, the growth is poorly lignified and a hard freeze can kill a season of growth.
For persimmons, I read there is risk for dropping fruit if they have too much nitrogen. So I expect once the trees stop bearing, I will stop giving them any added nitrogen. I’m hoping for one, Saijo, that will be this year. Another is a bit down hill a ways from my septic tank drainage field. It might get too much nitrogen via that route, although I am not sure how that will work out. The grass grows really green there so I suspect the nitrogen is high.
Those are my humble amateur thoughts. 
When to apply N is not answered by a single formula. With bearing apple trees that have about reached mature size I want to juice the spur leaves but not encourage vegetative growth so fall or early spring apps are the best. The spur leaves and buds come out first and won’t share what reaches them early. Ample early N can increase fruit set and encourage annual cropping, but N that feeds the vegetative sprouts will have quite the opposite affect by shading the spur leaves form light.
Peaches need more N throughout the season to assure adequate growth of fresh shoots for next years crop.
Pears you have to be cautious with because more than moderate growth can encourage fireblight- this is true of apples to some extent as well.
What the trees actually need can be read a great deal by the growth of the trees. Sustaining moderated vigor is always the pursuit ;in managing bearing fruit trees. If trees are mulched and in decent soil, mature trees may not benefit at all from supplemental N.
Alan, I wondered about peaches. They grow so fast. I’m not sure how my curl-resistant varieties will do this year. Last year they grew more than 3 foot with a grass clipping mulch. I realize that is probably high nitrogen. I was thinking this year if I can’t find enough wood chips, I will use straw. I have been wondering if fast growth this year is more lush and therefore encourages curl next Spring, or if it grows beyond the older infected twigs and is therefore a good thing.
I hadn’t thought about apple spurs needing earlier feeding. I have a 1-year Jonagold on M27 that I kept in a container, and basically fertigated all summer last year. It grew about 3 foot from the graft, in one year. I planted it in the ground late winter. It is covered with flowers. Since I want to keep it as a cordon, I am thinking about letting it bear fruit. Jonagold is vigorous, anyway.
I already gave my young apple trees a nitrogen boost - liquid urea source, as you probably guess - but since it’s a small amount, they may need more.
I haven’s observed a connection between vigor and peach leaf curl. The problem varies from site to site but there may be some connection to the drainage of the soil with heavier soils encouraging it. Light and air exposure is important, but because the problem occurs before the tree shades itself with vigorous growth the amount of N may not much matter.
Here in the northeast, eastern exposure is important to help control other fungus issues and it may be important for PLC as well. The longer the dew is on the leaves the longer the fungus can multiply.
I don’t have a problem with PLC at most sites- at the couple I do I apply a copper dormant spray that seems to eliminate the issue. At one of the sites the trees are amazingly vigorous and there is good peach soil and the other is too wet for peaches and less vigorous trees at this site are as likely to be infected.