Gardentalk – Exploders

It's way too late to eat or use these split and cracked pie cherries. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)
It’s way too late to eat or use these split and cracked pie cherries. (Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO)

Juneau gardeners have reported cracking, splitting, and exploding fruits and vegetables over the last week. Master Gardener Ed Buyarski says it’s because of the heavy rain showers that fell in the area recently. The extra rainfall has saturated the ground and has been taken in by fruit trees and vegetable plants.

Buyarski recommends harvesting quickly to salvage some of the fruit and vegetables. He also suggests that a careful cut of a few roots with a shovel or a quarter turn of a cabbage head may slow the maturing process and water intake.

“You are wrenching some of the roots loose so it cannot take up so much moisture,” Buyarski says in this week’s edition of Gardentalk on KTOO’s Morning Edition. “I don’t know how long that will delay the inevitable.”

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