My Caracara navel orange has really had split fruit over the past 3-4 weeks. The tree is 4 years old and has not had this level of splitting before. Here in Orange County, CA we’ve had cool weather with spells of 90+ dry weather. I’ve tried to do deep water on tree before this weather starts, but … This article covers topic well: http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/8038.pdf . Anyone have tips to prevent or lessen splitting?
Keep your watering as regular as possible. It is the additional deep watering after our heat spells that are causing the splitting. Cara Cara is notorious (most navel oranges are prone to splitting). As is Page mandarin. Especially this time of year, and oranges are sizing up rapidly prior to their ripening time here in a month or 3. Sometimes, with these real extremes in temperatures, there is not a lot we can do here to prevent the splitting. What commercial growers do, is select navel orange cultivars that are less prone to splitting, and try to keep their watering as regular as possible, even permitting a bit of wilt/water deficit to save the fruit. The advice provided in this UC publication is really what we need to try to follow. And even in following it to the letter, certain navel cultivars will still split.
Patty S.
1 Like
split open by excess water, you need less watering in August and September.
the water makes the pulp grow faster than the skin and this ends chickening