Sunscald

What you see

Pale, papery, sunken patches on the side of fruit facing the afternoon sun, which later dry white or tan and often go mouldy. On trunks, a vertical strip of bark on the south-west side cracks and dies.

Conditions

Intense sun on tissue that was previously shaded - so it follows hard pruning, sudden leaf loss to disease or pests, or moving a plant from shade into full sun without hardening it off.

Treatment

Nothing repairs scalded tissue. Shade the plant with mesh through the worst of the afternoon, keep it watered, and let the canopy regrow. Cut out mouldy fruit.

Prevention

Do not strip tomato and pepper leaves for ripening in high summer - the leaves are the sunshade. Paint young trunks with diluted white latex or wrap them. Harden off transplants properly.

Months: June, July, August, September

Plants

Tomato, Sweet pepper, Chilli, Apple, Grape, Melon, Orange, Lemon, Tangerine

Remedies

Kaolin clay film, Mulch

The thing people get wrong

Sunscald on tomatoes and peppers is usually caused by the gardener, stripping leaves to help the fruit ripen. In an Iberian July those leaves are the only thing standing between the fruit and 40 degrees of direct sun, and fruit does not need light to ripen - it needs warmth, which it has in abundance. Leaf-stripping is a northern European technique that does real harm here.