Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 24 ISSUE 4
Written by Anton SOTIROV, Anita STOEVA

Present study concerns one of the basic causes for cracking of sweet cherry fruits as a result of increased rainfall, and this amount is different for different soils. The study was done for the soils at the experimental orachard of the Institute of Agriculture – Kyustendil, Bulgaria, which are Chromic Luvisolssoils with acidity pH = 4.5-6.0. This soil is rich of the clay mineral montmorrilonite. As a result of extreme rainfalls the soil in the studied experimental field, the clay mineral montmorillonite starts to separate sodium Na, The area is rich also of chloritized slates which enriched the soil of chlorite Cl as the result is - salinization of the soil, enriching of NaCl.The amounts of precipitation needed for soil salinization, which causes damages - ckracking of cherry fruits. As a result of the present study, the critical amount of precipitations, causing damages – cracking on sweet cherry fruits is estimated on about 28 l/m². With these amounts of precipitation, a deterioration in the quality of the crop can be expected and even with forecast amounts of precipitation, it can be counteracted by adding of agricultural gypsum(the mineral gypsum) to the soil, according to the cited reference. In 2024, because of the high precipitations level, the salinity of the soil was very high in NaCl and this was the cause for which the harvest of sweet cherries was lost as many cherry trees died.

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