Tropical and subtropical vegetables (2+1)

Fruit cracking

• Two types of fruit cracking are seen. Radial cracking, where surface of the mostly full ripe fruits cracks radially from the stem end of the fruit and concentric cracking, where surface of mostly mature green fruits cracks concentrically around the shoulder of the fruit. Radial cracking is more common and causes greater loss than concentric cracking. Cracking may occur due to

  i) Irrigation or rainfall after long dry spell
  ii) Exposure of fruits to sun due to pruning and staking
  iii) Boron deficiency
  iv) Genetic factor which is reported to be inherited polygenically

Control
1) Irrigation at regular intervals
2) Pruning and staking during summer season should be avoided
3) Picking of fruits before fully ripe stage which reduces radial cracking
4) Spraying seedlings before transplanting with 0.3-0.4% borax solution and repeating the sprays at the time of fruiting, 15 days after second spray and at fruit ripening stage
5) Growing resistant varieties like Sioux, Roma, Punjab chuhara, pusa ruby, Arka saurabh, Pant T1 etc.