The following post was on the Cider digest. Do any of the list members
care to address Mark's question? How do researchers measure "drought
tolerance"?
Here in Southern Oz we are experiencing pretty much drought
conditions, and have for the last couple of years. Looks like our
farm will get only 1, maybe 2 irrigation runs this season so we
are not expecting much in the way of fruit this year unless it
buckets down a few times over the next month.
So I think as orchardists we need to be a bit proactive in
seeking to plant drought tolerant orchards in our drier areas. I
expect the situation might be similar in some south western US
areas as well.
The US National Germplasm Repository http://www.ars-grin.gov/gen/apple.html have done some interesting
work in sending teams to Kazakhstan (the wild apple birthplace)
and collecting seed and scions. Some apples they collected came
from rainfall as low as 300ml or 12"!!!
Does anyone have info, sources or links to good resources in this
regard?