Bearing in mind that more than 50% of the land used for agriculture in Mexico is under semiarid and arid conditions, water availability and nutrition are among the main handicaps for crops to produce, particularly if they are fruit species. From the total area cultivated with apple, 36% is grown under rainfed conditions with a 4.2 t ha(-1) yield. Therefore, technology for improving nutrition with a more efficient use of available water is now being considered, in order to increase fruit yield and quality. This could lead to obtaining higher profits, and to being able to access more specialized systems in addition to ensuring a sustainable development. Growth, production, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn, Cu, Fe, and Zn foliar concentration were determined in 'Agua Nueva II' apple trees, a low chilling mutant of 'Golden Delicious', grown in semiarid condition. Mulching (manure, grass residues, and bare soil as control), irrigation (flood irrigation and rainfall as control), and foliar fertilization (2.0 kg free biuret urea + 2.0 L Bayfolan + 200 mL surfactant ha(-1) sprayed twice a month, and control) treatments were studied. A split plot design with three randomized blocks was used for statistical analysis. Before applying the treatments in August 1997, the nutritional condition of the apple plants was established; Cu and Zn foliar concentration were deficient. Results in 1998 showed a general plant growth, production and nutritional condition improvement with some of the treatments. Flood irrigation significantly affected plant growth, as N, P, K, and Mn concentrations in leaves. Manure mulching also affected significantly plant growth and K concentration and caused the highest yields per tree. Zn concentration reached sufficiency levels, while Cu remained deficient.

Farmlands have gradually been replaced by apple orchards in Shaanxi province, China, and there will be a risk of severe soil-water-storage deficit with the increasing age of the apple trees. To provide a theoretical basis for the sustainable development of agriculture and forestry in the Loess Plateau, soil water content in a 19-year-old apple orchard, a 9-year-old apple orchard, a cornfield and a wheat field in the Changwu Tableland was investigated at different depths from January to October 2014. The results showed that: (1) the soil moisture content is different across the soil profile—for the four plots, the soil moisture of the cornfield is the highest, followed by the 9-year-old apple orchard and the wheat field, and the 19-year-old apple orchard has the lowest soil moisture. (2) There are varying degrees of soil desiccation in the four plots: the most serious degree of desiccation is in the 19-year-old apple orchard, followed by the wheat field and the cornfield, with the least severe desiccation occurring in the 9-year-old apple orchard. Farmland should replace apple orchards for an indefinite period while there is an extremely desiccated soil layer in the apple orchard so as to achieve the purpose of sustainable development. It will be necessary to reduce tree densities, and to carry out other research, if development of the economy and ecology of Changwu is to be sustainable.