Orchard Net Covers Improve Resistance to Cherry Cracking Disorder

Area of Science:

• Horticulture
• Plant Physiology
• Agricultural Engineering

Background:

• Natural cherry cracking (NCC) is a significant physiological disorder affecting fruit quality.
• Rainfall events near harvest exacerbate NCC, linked to fruit osmotic potential and water permeability.
• Orchard net covers are a crop technology used to mitigate NCC and improve fruit characteristics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effect of orchard net covers on sweet cherry (cv. Early Bigi) in relation to natural cracking.
• To quantify the impact of net covers on cracking incidence, fruit quality, and physiological parameters.
• To assess the correlation between cracking index, fruit properties, and wax content.

Main Methods:

• Field study on sweet cherry trees (cv. Early Bigi) over two harvest seasons (2019, 2021).
• Determination of natural cracking index (NCC), induced cracking index (CI), and cracking type incidence.
• Evaluation of epicuticular and intra-cuticular wax content, biometric, and physicochemical parameters.

Main Results:

• Orchard net cover reduced the natural cracking index by 40%.
• Covered trees showed significantly higher fruit weight (45% in 2019, 13% in 2021) compared to controls.
• A positive correlation was found between cracking index and total soluble solids, and a negative correlation with wax content.

Conclusions:

• Orchard net covers effectively reduce natural cherry cracking and improve fruit weight.
• Netting enhances fruit resistance to cracking, particularly important with increasing heavy precipitation events.
• This crop technology provides a viable strategy for protecting sweet cherries from rainfall damage near harvest.