The Columbia River and Snake River are mined heavily for this purpose, and there are many orchards near these rivers. Apples, grapes, pears, cherries and other fruit do well along their banks. For orchard crops , irrigation is usually done with rotating sprinklers. High capacity pumps pull water from the river and feed it into smaller pipes that lead to strategically placed sprinkler heads. Below is a typical sprinkler setup, however, some orchards have sprinklers located near the ground.
Possible solution Watering from below exposes less water to wind and water enters the soil faster.
Proper water scheduling can reduce the amount of water used, and increase plant uptake efficiency. Water scheduling is simply when and how much to water. Of course, it's not really that simple. There are computer programs that will take information such as crop type, location of crop, method of irrigation etc., and return a water schedule. For orchard crops like apples, too much watering in the fall and spring can lead to poor root depth and increase the risk of some root diseases.