Are your fruits prone to splitting?
By Satish Narula

HOW do you feel when you see that the fruits in trees, which you have tended to with care, have started splitting? When it is time to pluck the fruit do you find it split open — unfit for consumption? Has the splitting of fruits given a splitting headache to you? Find out the reasons and take precautions.

The fruits — lemon, anar, litchi — prone to splitting are commonly found in home gardens. Many a factor contributes towards the splitting of fruits. You may have noticed that most of the fruits that split open are ripe during the peak of summer or with the onset of rains. During summer, the side of the fruit (especially lemon) that is exposed to sun gets burnt, and is weakened. You can notice sunken skin and watery discoloration. With an abrupt uptake of water, the skin gives way and the fruit splits. Once the sap oozes out, it invites hordes of pests, thus rendering the fruit unfit for consumption.

Irregular watering speeds up the process of splitting in lemon. When copious watering is done after a dry period of 10 to 15 days, it causes flowers or immature fruit to drop or the developed fruits start splitting. Judicious use of water can reduce these problems if not altogether eliminate them. Give light but frequent irrigation. This can be achieved by wetting the upper surface every third day. Mulching with farmyard manure also conserve moisture. Keep adding a little manure every three to four months. This otherwise too is good for lemon which bears fruit throughout the year.

In case of litchi, the process to ‘salvage’ it is different. Litchi needs plenty of water. Dearth of water leads to irregular growth of aril (flesh) and covering (the hard brittle rind), leading to a split. Usually in home gardens, due to constraint of space, we make the basin too small and are contented by watering it. But the roots are spread as far in the ground as its canopy above. The watering requirement is thus not fully met and the fruits split. For litchi, the micro-climate also matters. Usually when we clip the lower branches, we expose the centre of the tree to hot winds. Let the canopy be as close as possible. Water heavily at least twice a week.

Dehra Dun is more prone to splitting as compared to Calcuttia.

Splitting in fruits could be due to external damage caused by certain pests. This is common in anar, kinnow etc. The usual pests responsible for this are pomegranate butterfly, fruit fly etc. One of the effective methods of controlling the damage in pomegranate is enclosing the fruit in small cloth bags or even in paper bags. No doubt the exercise is laborious, but it proves rewarding. Do not use polybags. The fruit enclosed in it will rot.

The shrivelling of fruits and poor fruit development are other common problems during this period. Yes, you have diagnosed it right. It is again due to shortage of water. It is mostly in case of peach, plum etc. that have a superficial root system. They need repeated watering — at least two full waterings a week. A shortage leads to hanging of leaves and also withdrawal of moisture from the developing fruit by the tree.