Water more or water less?

I hear a variety of ideas on watering trees, particularly fruit trees. Some say fruit trees should be watered consisted and deeply, and others encourage using a bit of stress to develop stronger trees with better root systems.

What's your method? We've been dry here for a week or so, and I'm debating about how much I want to water. I'm generally a low-attention sort of gardener. But I'll put some extra effort in at the beginning to make sure a tree or plant has a good chance to thrive.

Of course I know different trees take different care, I'm just looking for a general rule if thumb for your average fruit tree with average water needs.

I water new trees for the first 2 years about every 2 weeks during our dry cycle. The third year about once a month during the dry cycle. After that I think the roots are  down deep enough to not need help from me.

I use one particular swale as a guide to start watering. If the bottom of swale is moist i think the watering is not needed. Once it is dry is when i start. If it rains again I'll revert back to the swale for the next watering.

My trees are so spread out over 17 acres. It's a "thing" to get them watered. I use a 270 gallon ibc tote dragged on a big wagon. I fill it from a 3,000 gallon rain collection tank.