Researchers have long been aware that too much water, either within cherries or cherry trees, result in cracking. Yet, little was known about the exact mechanism causing it, until three German researchers shed light on the process a few months ago.
Moritz Knoche, Max Ossenbrink and Andreas Winkler of the Institute for Horticultural Production Systems at Leibniz-University, Hannover, believe that malic acid is a crucial link in the chain reaction leading to cracking.
Malic acid is a naturally occurring compound imparting tartness to such fruit and vegetables as apples, rhubarb, grapes and cherries.
“We observe a surprising and dramatic increase in cracking when sweet cherry fruit are brought into direct contact with the expressed juice of sweet cherries,” they wrote in an article published in the July 2015 issue of the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science.
Sweet cherry juice caused rapid fruit cracking when water intake was limited.
Cracking also occurred when cherries were placed in an artificial juice made of the majority of compounds normally passing through its cell walls as the fruit matures.
Proof came when cracking occurred at a very high rate when cherries were placed in a solution made only of malic acid.
