Irrigation and splitting citrus

My citrus crop is colouring nicely and probably 2-3 weeks from harvest. Just over two weeks ago we had 8.5" rain in a day and a half. Very little fruit split. Since then I have not irrigated at all.
In general terms, once there is a change in colour, should irrigation cease to avoid splitting?

Mick

We gets rains in California right when my Washington Navels start ripening. I’ve managed to split them with erratic irrigation before they changed color. But they never split after they changed color. But we don’t get that much rain either.

8.5" of rain in a couple of days and it’s getting cooler there right? I wouldn’t water any in ground citrus till the soil gets really dry.

That’s interesting Bleedingdirt. I had some splitting about a month ago on my WN and also my Navelina but not since they started to colour which is contrary to my thinking. I thought that the skin would have been elastic enough to stretch as the fruit was growing and as additional water came available but perhaps that’s not right. As the fruit ripens does the whole fruit soften as it changes colour?

Interesting, that my Imperial mandarin didn’t split.

Mick