Cracking Fruits

ARE YOUR FRUITS CRACKING UP JUST BEFORE HARVEST?

In soil-grown plants, it’s important to maintain a balanced irrigation regime. In high-water stress situations, the plant will increase its water-soluble solids content in order to pull water harder. That’s why rain or moving from a water-stressed situation to large irrigation can create a fast influx of water that may crack open fruits that are in their sensitive ripening stage. With that in mind, maybe you shouldn’t skip irrigations before the rain in the late-ripening stages when you are worried about cracking.

In addition, at night, plant roots create “water pressure” by pushing water up to the plant. This pressure can also affect fruits that are near ripening, especially if they are large and full of sugar. It may be wise to avoid night irrigations in sensitive near-ripening fruits.

Fruit cracking is influenced by many other factors as well, but irrigation is in your hands, so do it wisely.