Orchard canopy coverage has been shown to correlate with yield. As canopy size increases, more sunlight is intercepted by the leaves. This leads to the production of more energy that can be directed to the tree, leading to more growth, and therefore more crop. Correlation of intercepted light at mid-day (PAR) and kernel yield per acre. Research conducted by Lampinen, et al. What is often forgotten is the most critical to canopy development: water. Without access to water, tree canopy growth will slow or stop due to the reduction of gas exchange and photosynthesis, leading to smaller canopy size. Water is generally limited within an orchard system by either supply (e.g. reduced access to irrigation water) or delivery issues (e.g. irrigation engineering or water infiltration issues). To complicate this even further, water availability is not necessarily simply the amount of irrigation water available per area of orchard. It also takes into account rainfall that has been stored within the soil, general water availability, system engineering and distribution uniformity, and water infiltration rates. Limitations in any of these will lead to a reduction of the tree’s available water. Work by researchers in California has shown the correlations of canopy coverage with yield. This research was performed by gathering the amount of light intercepted at mid-day and comparing it to measured yields within orchards in California. This work has identified that high-producing orchards tend to alternate around 50 kernel lbs for every 1% of light intercepted, giving a theoretical maximum yield of 5000 lbs/acre.  Since it takes water to develop the canopy, this correlation can be also be extrapolated to water use: every percent of the tree’s water needs met will provide roughly 50 kernel lbs of crop in California’s growing conditions. An orchard with >80% light interception requires full irrigation to