Why do cherries split? Dr. Moritz Knoche of the University of Hannover, in north Germany, explained his theory at the International Fruit Tree Association’s conference in Tasmania. The skin of a cherry has an extremely thin cuticular membrane that transports substances into and out of the fruit. The surface of the cherry has stomata that are functional during the first two or three weeks of fruit development, but not during the major part of fruit development, when some are open and some are closed. Different cultivars have different stomata densities. The surface also has microscopic cracks that are not visible […]