🌞 Sunburn in Tropical/Subtropical Fruits: Understanding the problem and strategies to manage it🌱
Sunburn is a common challenge for growers of fruits like mangoes and citrus in conducive environments. Caused by excessive sunlight, high temperatures, and UV radiation, it leads to fruit discoloration, tissue damage and reduced marketability. Following are a few ways to manage the problem.
Understanding the Problem:
The sunburn process involves thermal stress, UV-induced oxidative damage, and water loss, all of which can compromise fruit quality and shelf life. When temperatures exceed the tolerance limit of the specific crop, stomata close to reduce water loss, surface temperatures continue to rise, leading to denaturing of proteins, disruption of enzymatic activity, perforating cell walls, tissue collapse and water loss, as pictured here.
Possible solutions:
1. Canopy Management: Prune trees strategically to balance sunlight exposure and shade. The ideal tree shape should allow fruit to hang into the canopy.
2a. Foliar sprays: Apply agricultural products including protective coatings, such as kaolin-based (eg. ScreenDuo) or lipid based (eg. Raynox Plus) sprays to reflect heat and UV radiation.
2b. Foliar sprays of anti-stress agents like calcium carbonate (eg. DECCO Shield) or silicone-based sprays (eg. Ekosil) strengthen cell walls and enhance tolerance to heat and light.
3. Shade Nets: Use 20-40% shade nets to reduce radiation, especially UV. Although expensive, a 10-20% increase in marketable fruit and additional benefits of protection against hail and wind, and reduce water use, could justify the cost. I would love to discuss shade-netting further, perhaps in another post, but more information can be found in the following publication. https://lnkd.in/dKFvEqBg
4. Irrigation and Mulching: Keep plants hydrated and soil cool to minimize heat stress. Be careful not to over irrigate as this would exacerbate the problem.
5. Fruit Bagging: Shield fruits with protective covers to reduce direct exposure. Although this is not always practical, it is common practice in some crops like banana production.
6. Varietal Selection: If available, opt for sunburn-resistant cultivars suited to your region.
By combining these strategies, growers can mitigate sunburn impacts and deliver high-quality produce to markets.
👉 Have you faced challenges with sunburn in your orchard? Share your tips and experiences in the comments!
#Agriculture #FruitFarming #SubtropicalFruits #Mangoes #Citrus #SustainableFarming #CropManagement
