Prevention of Sweet Cherry Fruit Cracking Using SureSeal, An Elastic Hydrophobic Biofilm

Rain-induced fruit cracking in sweet cherries can be a major problem. In the Pacific Northwest, due to high labor costs, when fruit cracking exceeds 25% at harvest, fruit are not picked. OSU Horticulture and Pharmacy Faculty have collaborated in producing and patenting SureSeal, a novel, hydrophobic, elastic, biofilm, which significantly reduces fruit cracking in sweet cherries. SureSeal is 99% hydrophobic and consists of a copolymer of stearic acid, cellulose and calcium. Collaborative research undertaken over three years throughout the Pacific Northwest and overseas found that two applications of 0.5% SureSeal applied just prior to straw color and again ten days later, and again 2 days before harvest reduces fruit cracking consistently when compared to untreated control fruit. Indeed, in Norway, fruit cracking was reduced from 24.6% to 9.8% when trees were treated with SureSeal in combination with plastic ground covers. Furthermore, all except one of these studies found that, SureSeal resulted in significantly (P<0.001) higher TSS and increased stem pull force (g) (retention force between the pedicel and the fruit) than untreated control fruit. Furthermore, in 2008/9/10, ‘Bing’ fruit had higher total soluble solids both before and after two weeks of regular atmosphere storage at 2˚C than untreated control fruit. Results from 2011 will be presented.