Blood Orange Fruit Splitting

Readers blood orange

Q. My blood orange tree is looking healthy but my oranges
are splitting as evidenced by the attached photo.  What if anything can I do to stop this?

A. To begin with we have to mention a couple facts about
citrus in general and Pigmented (Blood) Oranges in particular . . !. Citrus set fruits right after blooming and the small
fruits grow to a certain size and stay at that size all summer before beginning
their ‘sizing’ phase in September  . . .
All summer the small fruits have to hang on the branches exposed to the sun,
wind, low humidity and heat potentially causing the rind on the more exposed
fuits to get sun scalded . . .Then during the sizing phase the sun scalded
areas of the rind have lost much of the suppleness and elasticity to expand and
they often split . .. One early symptom can be the area that is sun scalded
will color up earlier. . . (As can be seen by the yellowing around the split.)

Of all the oranges, the Pigmented are notorious for
having the least densely foliaged canopy; and of the Pigmented Oranges the Moro
variety is the most notorious for sporting the least dense canopy . . That said
the fruits during the summer may be more vulnerable to sun scald simply from
the fewer leaves . . .With maturity the tree gets fuller and fuller and the sun
scald drops off appreciable . . .

So, this is sunscald from earlier in the summer
expressing itself during the sizing phase . . . Now I know some will want to
lay a guilt trip on you about poor watering or poor fertilizing or something
else but that is rarely the case . . And with your description of the tree
looking healthy that probably isn’t the case at all and just the sunscald
showing up . .

If, however you are into self blame and want to feel bad
then: ‘It’s all your fault.” . .Just kidding .

It will happen once in a while and the best thing you can
do is keep the tree as healthy and well foliaged as possible to help shade
and  thus mitigating the potential for
sun scald . . .

Terry Mikel