Cause Analysis of Fruit Cracking of Sweet Cherry and Its Integrated
Control Measures
Qianqian Ma
*
, Wanyun Peng, Tao Huang, Zhengwei Xie, Zhide Wang, Peng Wu and Yexing Sun
Dazhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Dazhou, Sichuan, China
*
Keywords: Sweet Cherry, Integrated Control Measures.
Abstract:
The cracking of sweet cherry fruit after rain is one of the main causes of economic losses of the producers.
The cracking not only affects the appearance, but also reduces the quality and hardness of the fruit and directly
reduces the economic income of the fruit farmers, greatly shorten the sales period, and even have no time to
sell on the canker down, it is a pity, to the fruit farmers caused heavy economic losses. This paper analyzes
the reasons for the cracking of Sweet Cherry, and outlines the various measures taken by countries around the
world to solve the cracking after rain, including site selection, selection of Sweet Cherry varieties that are not
easy to crack, strengthening orchard management, foliar calcium supplementation, spraying with hydrophobic
or lipophilic properties materials and construction of rain shelters, in order to guide the production of fruit
farmers.
1 INTRODUCTION
Fruit cracking caused by rainfall before harvest is a
serious problem in the production of sweet cherry. In
some years, the rate of fruit cracking of sensitive
varieties can reach 90%, which is the main reason of
yield reduction in many cherry producing areas in the
world (Simon, 2006). The sweet cherry industry in
china is developing rapidly. In addition to the
traditional production area around bohai bay, the
cultivation area of new production areas such as
shanxi, sichuan and yunnan-guizhou plateau is
expanding rapidly, the appearance quality is affected,
and the leaching of water-soluble materials (including
water-soluble sugar) will reduce the taste quality and
hardness, while the fruit cracking is more vulnerable
to diseases and insects, resulting in post-harvest
decay, greatly reducing shelf life, it is an important
problem that affects fruit quality and economic
benefit. In order to solve the problem of fruit cracking
of sweet cherry before ripening, the main factors
affecting fruit cracking of sweet cherry were put
forward, and the methods of preventing and reducing
fruit cracking of sweet cherry were put forward.
Figure 1: Sweet Cherry Cracking.
Figure 2: Sweet Cherry Cracking.
Ma, Q., Peng, W., Huang, T., Xie, Z., Wang, Z., Wu, P. and Sun, Y.
Cause Analysis of Fruit Cracking of Sweet Cherry and Its Integrated Control Measures.
DOI: 10.5220/0012018900003633
In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Biotechnology and Biomedicine (ICBB 2022), pages 235-239
ISBN: 978-989-758-637-8
Copyright
c
 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
235

2 CAUSE ANALYSIS OF FRUIT
CRACKING OF SWEET
CHERRY
2.1 Poor Site Condition of Orchard
The fruit cracking of sweet cherry is related to site
condition and soil moisture. In low-lying orchards
and those with sticky soil, the irrigation is not
balanced, the drainage is not smooth, the soil
moisture content is high or the moisture distribution
is not uniform, the humidity change range in the
orchard is big, the orchard is easy to crack fruit.
2.2 Breed Characteristics
Cherry cracking is a natural phenomenon in the
ripening period of sweet cherry, because there is a
period of rapid expansion before the fruit ripens, and
the volume of the fruit increases rapidly, and it is
much larger than the first expansion, at this time the
skin cell division is not as fast as the flesh cell
division, the skin quickly thinning, can not withstand
the pulp expansion caused by the tremendous
pressure, the skin will naturally split. The number and
degree of fruit dehiscence varied with the variety
characteristics and rainfall. The varieties with strong
water absorption, large stomata on the fruit surface,
high stomata density, and good peel toughness (such
as Black tartarian, cerasus pseudocerasus, Black
Pearl, etc.) were not easy to crack fruit varieties with
poor pericarp toughness are liable to dehiscence, such
as Hongfeng, Juhong, etc. .
2.3 Cause of Age and Growth Period
Different tree age, the degree of fruit cracking is not
the same, such as the sun, early fruit trees on the fruit
cracking, fruit more light yield cracking. Different
fruit development stage, the ability of anti-cracking
fruit is also different, such as red light, cracking fruit
easy to occur in the fruit turn white to coloring period,
after completely coloring, cracking fruit light.
2.4 Weather Conditions
If the development of long-term non-rainfall, lack of
water in the soil or fruit maturity, high temperature,
occasional rain. During the early period of fruit
growth, the soil was in a drought state for a long time.
During the near-mature period, if the continuous rain
or rainstorm happened, the water content in the soil
increased rapidly, the pulp cells would absorb water
and expand rapidly, and the swelling pressure of the
fruit would increase, causing the epidermis to swell
and crack.
2.5 Calcium Deficiency
Calcium is one of the most important elements to
determine the fruit quality of sweet cherry. The main
component of cell pectin is calcium. The results
showed that fruit cracking was lighter in orchards
which could supply calcium timely.
2.6 Soil Nutrient Imbalance
The content of K, Ca, B in soil is not enough or the
content of n is too high, the cracking of sweet cherry
fruit is intensified, and the n content in the flesh is
increased too quickly during the fruit expansion
period after the stone development stops, which will
aggravate the occurrence of fruit cracking, at the later
stage, obvious transverse cracks were formed.
2.7 Poor Soil Fertility
The soil fertility is good, the tree body absorbs the
nutrient adequately, the tree vigor is strong, the
resistance and the resistance are strong. If the soil
fertility is poor, the tree lacks nutrition, tree vigor is
weak, resistance, resistance, immunity is poor, crack
resistance is poor. Too little fertilizer or partial
application of chemical fertilizer, no organic
fertilizer, will also cause the tree Huwang, poor
resistance.
2.8 Poor Condition of Ventilation and
Light Transmission in Orchard
The canopy is closed, the ventilation and light are not
good, the water on the shady side of the fruit can not
be distributed quickly, and finally leads to the cork of
the wound at the crack, slight blackening of the fruit
spots, serious cracking of the fruit surface into strips
or transverse wounds, and the fruit wilts in the later
stage, and loses its commodity value.
ICBB 2022 - International Conference on Biotechnology and Biomedicine
236

3 COMPREHENSIVE CONTROL
MEASURES TO PREVENT
FRUIT CRACKING OF SWEET
CHERRY
3.1 Suitable Site
Choosing a suitable site for gardening is the most
economical and effective way to reduce fruit cracking
after rain. When building a garden, choose sunny
slopes with good ventilation to avoid low-lying areas.
When building a garden on sloping land, build a
simple fish-scale pit with energy storage row. In
addition, areas with little or no rain at or near maturity
are the best places to grow sweet cherries. It is now
available in countries such as Norway, Canada, the
US (Washington, Michigan and New York) and
Switzerland. With the development of the sweet
cherry industry and the expansion of its cultivation
area, the best area for sweet cherry cultivation will be
selected sound of the underground.
3.2 Select Non-Crackable Fruit
Varieties
First of all, we should choose the varieties with high
self-flowering and fruit-setting rate in the greenhouse.
Like pioneer, rabbins. The dehiscent fruit is generally
manifested in two aspects: one is determined by the
genetic characteristics of the variety itself, and the
other is that the ripening time can avoid the rainy
season. Brooksville crack rate is very high, see rain
crack, red light, the sun crack rate is higher, and
rabbins, pioneer and other strong ability to resist
cracking. At present, no one variety can completely
resist fruit cracking, therefore, breeding high-quality
variety and isolation resistance-related genes is the
focus of breeding work. However, it is difficult to
obtain objective anti-cracking fruit data because
many years field test and in vitro test are needed to
breed anti-cracking fruit varieties, and the results of
field test and laboratory test are not consistent. In the
production can choose the variety that does not crack
fruit to carry on planting (Balbontín, 2013).
3.3 Strengthening Orchard
Management
Strengthening soil, fertilizer and water management
is an important link to prevent fruit cracking. First,
increase the application of organic fertilizer, increase
the content of soil organic matter. Base fertilizer
should be applied in autumn, early rather than late,
mainly decomposed organic fertilizer, combined with
appropriate amount of phosphate, potassium fertilizer
and micronutrient fertilizer. Second, the orchard row
grass. Planting grass in orchard can provide green
manure for fruit trees, improve soil fertility, improve
soil structure, adjust the orchard microclimate and
save labor. Third, the orchard is covered with grass.
The orchard covered with grass can keep the soil
moisture well, keep the soil moisture in a relatively
stable state, and reduce the occurrence of fruit
cracking. At the same time, the orchard covered with
grass can obviously increase the content of organic
matter in the soil and activate the calcium in the soil,
to improve the state of soil compaction, wheat straw,
wheat bran, crushed corn straw, sawdust, mushroom
residue and so on can be used as mulching materials,
it can reduce the rate of fruit cracking; fifth, it is
reasonable pruning, improve the ventilation and light
permeability of the orchard, strengthen the tree power
and keep the soil moisture stable after anthesis, so that
the soil moisture content can be kept at 60% ~ 80%
of the maximum water holding capacity in the field,
and prevent the soil from being dry and wet, drought
when need watering, should be small water diligent
watering, forbidden big water flood irrigation, if the
orchard can carry out drip irrigation or micro-drip
irrigation is better.
Figures 3: Mulch under tree tray.
Cause Analysis of Fruit Cracking of Sweet Cherry and Its Integrated Control Measures
237

Figures 4: Mulch under tree tray.
3.4 Foliar Calcium
Calcium supplementation is the main way to
prevent fruit cracking of sweet cherry. At fruit
development stage, calcium fertilizer such as 300
times solution of golden angle, 1500 times solution
of sea green element, 800 times solution of rare
earth calcium, zinc, boron and magnesium, 1000
times solution of complex titanium and foliar
fertilizer of amino acid were applied at fruit
expansion stage Spraying 10 ~ 15 mg/kg
gibberellin 25 ~ 35 days before harvest or on rainy
day can increase fruit swelling, reduce fruit water
pressure and prevent fruit cracking. At present,
domestic and foreign take this method to prevent
fruit cracking. Experiments in poland and turkey
showed that spraying calcium chloride before
harvest reduced the rate of fruit cracking of the
sweet cherry variety "Brandt" (Wójcik, 2013). The
rate of fruit dehiscence of sato kam decreased from
14.59% to 3.74% when NAA was sprayed with
2mg/L alone 24 days before harvest. Spraying 1
mg/L NAA for 24 days before harvest and spraying
0.5% calcium nitrate for one week before harvest
reduced the
rate of fruit cracking of sato kam to
1.7%, and the rate of fruit cracking was only 1/3
(Takanori, 1992).
3.5 Sprayed with Hydrophobic or
Lipophilic Materials
The principle of spraying hydrophobic or lipophilic
material on the surface of fruit is to form a film on the
surface of fruit to keep away the contact between fruit
and rain water. In recent years, silicon-based
materials have been used to form films on fruit
surfaces (Sorrenti, 2008). Spraying 0.7% sodium
silicate once a week, up to one week before harvest,
3 times can significantly reduce the cracking of sweet
cherry fruit. The reason may be that in addition to
strengthening the cell wall and maintaining structural
stability, silicon also forms a film to prevent water
and fungal invasion. Using a hydrophobic agent
called Raingard
TM
, Torres was able to reduce the rate
of fruit cracking by 40.5%, 40% and 52% for benko,
sugar and pioneer, respectively (Torres, 2014).
3.6 Building Storm Shelters
Build sweet cherry simple awning, simple, and can be
used for many years. The cost per 667m
2
is only more
than 2000 yuan. The fruit cracking rate of sweet
cherry was controlled within 0.3% with low cost, and
the occurrence of bird damage of sweet cherry was
reduced. In the beginning of the fruit coloring, the
arrival of the rainy season, the use of rain shelter for
rain-proof cultivation, resulting in a small rain-free
environment, but also can effectively prevent fruit
cracking. In areas prone to frost damage in early
spring, if the early construction of awning, but also
play a role in anti-frost. It is recommended to use
polyethylene tarpaulin, shrink-type tarpaulin and
multi-span plastic fixed type rain-proof and frost-
proof facilities in large areas, which can reduce the
cost on the basis of guaranteed effect, four-wire
curtain type and three-wire curtain type rain-proof
and frost-proof facilities are recommended. The cost
of the shed is low and the operation is simple.
4 IN CONCLUSION
This paper outlines the various measures taken by
countries around the world to solve fruit cracking
after rain, including site selection of parks, selection
of Sweet Cherry varieties that are not easy to crack,
strengthening orchard management, foliar calcium
supplementation, spraying with hydrophobic or
lipophilic materials, and building rain shelters. Can
guide fruit grower production.
ICBB 2022 - International Conference on Biotechnology and Biomedicine
238

Figures 5: Rain shelter cultivation.
Figures 6: Rain shelter cultivation.
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