Fruit Cracking
Risk near you, next 48h
See whether your local forecast favours this disease right now.
When it strikes
Fix the cause, not the leaf
No spray will help here. The trigger is soil, water supply, nutrition or temperature, so change the growing condition and judge the result on new growth, not on damaged leaves.
Not contagious
Nothing spreads from plant to plant here. Neighbouring plants showing the same signs are reacting to the same soil, water or weather, so fix the cause rather than isolating plants.
Safe to compost
No pathogen carries over on this material, so it can go on an ordinary heap with the rest of the garden waste.
When and where to look
Scout the planting after rain or heavy dew, while the leaves are still wet.
The signs that lead here
Full problem lists for these crops
About
Fruit cracking is a physiological disorder of tomatoes, cherries, plums and melons caused by rapid water uptake after dry spells, especially when heavy rain follows drought near ripening.
Symptoms
Concentric or radial splits in the skin around the stem or across the fruit, which then invite rot and insects; most common after rain on ripening fruit.
Organic Treatment
Keep soil moisture steady with mulch and regular watering, harvest ripening fruit before forecast rain, and remove cracked fruit promptly.
Chemical Treatment
Not applicable — cracking is corrected by consistent watering, not chemicals.
Prevention
Water evenly and mulch to buffer swings, choose crack-resistant varieties, harvest promptly, and avoid letting plants dry out then flood.
Crops at risk
Related problems
Fruit Cracking risk by location
Each location has a month-by-month profile computed from the weather archive: how many hours a year actually meet this disease’s thresholds.