Fruit growth and development
Floral abortion per plant was more than 50% higher in DI than in PRD and CI (Table 1). Total fruit number per plant, including BER fruit, in CI was 23% higher than PRD and 40% higher than DI. There was no difference in fruit growth among the treatments (Fig. 3). Similarly, mean fresh mass of fruit at final harvest was not affected by the treatments (Table 1). Although BER incidence was two folds higher in DI and PRD fruit than in the CI fruit, differences among the treatments were not statistically significant (Table 1) due to variation within the data.