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To improve our understanding of fruit growth responses to temperature, it is important to analyze temperature effects on underlying fruit cellular processes. This study aimed at analyzing the response of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit size to heating as affected by changes in cell number and cell expansion in different directions. Individual trusses were enclosed into cuvettes and heating was applied either only during the first 7 days after anthesis (DAA), from 7 DAA until fruit maturity (breaker stage), or both. Fruit size and histological characteristics in the pericarp were measured. Heating fruit shortened fruit growth period and reduced final fruit size. Reduction in final fruit size of early-heated fruit was mainly associated with reduction in final pericarp cell volume. Early heating increased the number of cell layers in the pericarp but did not affect the total number of pericarp cells. These results indicate that in the tomato pericarp, periclinal cell divisions respond differently to temperature than anticlinal or randomly oriented cell divisions. Late heating only decreased pericarp thickness significantly. Continuously heating fruit reduced anticlinal cell expansion (direction perpendicular to fruit skin) more than periclinal cell expansion (direction parallel to fruit skin). This study emphasizes the need to measure cell expansion in more than one dimension in histological studies of fruit.

Quantifying fruit growth can be desirable for several purposes (e.g., prediction of fruit yield and size, or for the use in crop simulation models). The goal of this article was to determine the best sigmoid function to describe fruit growth of pepper (Capsicum annuum) from nondestructive fruit growth measurements. The Richards, Gompertz, logistic, and beta growth functions were tested. Fruit growth of sweet pepper was measured nondestructively in an experiment with three different average daily temperatures (18, 21, and 24 °C) and in an experiment with six cultivars with different fruit sizes (20 to 205 g fresh weight). Measurements of fruit length and fruit diameter or circumference were performed twice per week. From these, fruit volume was estimated. A linear relationship related fruit fresh weight to estimated fruit volume, and a Ricker or polynomial function related fruit dry matter content to fruit age. These relations were used to convert estimated fruit volume into fruit fresh and dry weights. As dry weight increased until harvest, fitting the sigmoid function to the dry weight data was less suitable: it would create uncertainty in the estimated asymptote. Therefore, the sigmoid functions were fitted to fresh weight growth of the fruit. The Richards function was the best function in each data set, closely followed by the Gompertz function. The fruit dry weight growth is obtained by multiplication of the sigmoid function and the function relating fruit dry matter content to fruit age.

When flower-bearing shoots in cut rose (Rosa ×hybrida) are harvested, a varying number of repressed axillary buds on the shoot remainder start to grow into new shoots (budbreak). Earlier experiments indicated that light reaching the bud affected the number of budbreaks. In all these studies, whole plants were illuminated with different light intensities or light spectra. The aim of this article is to disentangle the effects of light intensity and light spectrum, in this case red:far-red ratio, at the level of the buds on budbreak in a rose crop. Three experiments were conducted in which light intensity and red:far-red ratio at the level of the buds were independently varied, whereas intensity and red:far-red ratio of incident light on the crop were not changed. Light intensity and red:far-red ratio at the position of the buds were quantified and related to budbreak on the shoot remainders. Removal of vertical shoots increased light intensity and red:far-red ratio as well as budbreak (1.9 budbreaks per shoot remainder compared with 0.4 budbreaks when five vertical shoots were present). No vertical shoots and red light-absorbing shading paper over the plant base mimicked the effect of vertical shoots with respect to light intensity and red:far-red ratio, but budbreak (1.0 budbreaks) was intermediate compared with treatments with and without shoots. This suggested that the presence of shoots exerts an inhibiting effect on budbreak through both effects on light at the bud and correlative inhibition. When plants had no vertical shoots and light intensity and red:far-red ratio at bud level were changed by neutral and red light-absorbing shading paper, there was a positive effect of light intensity on budbreak (0.3 more budbreaks per shoot remainder) and no effect of red:far-red ratio. Combinations of high and low light intensity with high and low red:far-red ratio on axillary buds showed that there was a positive effect of light intensity on budbreak (0.5 more budbreaks per shoot remainder) and no effect of red:far-red ratio. Our study reveals that when light intensity and red:far-red ratio received by the plant are similar but differ at bud level, budbreak was affected by light intensity and not by red:far-red ratio.

When flower-bearing shoots in cut-rose (Rosa ×hybrida) are harvested (removed), a varying number of repressed axillary buds on the shoot remainder start to grow into new shoots (budbreak). Besides removing within-shoot correlative inhibition, it is hypothesized that shoot removal leads to 1) increased light intensity lower in the crop canopy; 2) changes in the light spectrum (particularly red:far-red ratio); and 3) changed source:sink ratio (i.e., the ratio between supply and demand of assimilates). As a fourth hypothesis it is proposed that the degree of budbreak on a shoot remainder is also influenced by the correlative inhibition exerted by other shoots on the plant. It is the goal of this work to determine which of these four hypotheses is most important for budbreak in a cut-rose crop. Four experiments were conducted, in which these factors were varied by leaf removal, removal of mature shoots, varying the number of young shoots, shading of the crop, and application of direct light on the buds. Increase in source:sink ratio was not consistently associated with higher budbreak. If source:sink ratio was decreased by removal of leaves or a mature shoot, budbreak showed even a tendency to increase. Budbreak was subject to correlative inhibition exerted by other shoots on the plant. Treatments where more light reached the bud (as a result of less shoots, no shading of the crop, application of local light) increased budbreak. Increased red:far-red ratio had the same result as more light reaching the bud but was often interrelated with light intensity. It was concluded that after removal of the flower-bearing shoot, among the factors tested, light intensity on the buds was an important and consistent factor explaining budbreak on the shoot remainder, whereas the effect of light spectrum should be further investigated.