How come one cherry can taste incredibly sweet and another from the same tree can taste incredibly sour ?

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This is actually a question from my 6 year old that I realised I didnt know how to answer

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s the different ripeness of the individual fruit, since fruit become sweeter as they ripen.

Ripening is the process of breaking down starch into sugars. This happens at the same time other stuff inside the fruit is breaking down, like the cellulose that makes them firm, so they get squishier as they ripen.

Fruit on the same tree do not ripen at the exact same rate, so when a cherry is very sour it is typically unripe. It depends on factors like exposure to sunlight, position on the tree, how many other fruit are near it, when it first started forming, etc. Fruit may also first become ripe at a smaller size compared to each other.

Fruit ripen because softer, sweeter fruit are more attractive to the animals that will eat and spread the seeds of the plant.

[https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2018.00016](https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2018.00016) is a pretty in-depth article if you want to know more!

Anonymous 0 Comments

They develop from the same system, like your toenails, and probably develop at different rates, like your toenails.

Source: familiar with cherries and toenails and 6 year olds.