20, 2002. Flowering peak was determined by taking the total flowering time in days, dividing that time span into quarters, and assigning a number accordingly: i.e. the trees with a flowering peak in the first quarter of the total flowering time were assigned a value of 1; trees with a flowering peak in the last quarter of the total flowering time were assigned a value of 4. Flower densities were determined by dividing the total number of flowers by the tree's TCSA.

A heavy frost occurred in the orchards on May 20, 2002. For an initial cluster count, the number of fruit clusters per tree was counted on May 24 since frost-damaged clusters had not yet dropped from trees. Additional cluster counts were conducted on June 3 and July 24. Fruit clusters were counted by recording the number of fruit per cluster, so as to obtain a total number of clusters, an average number of fruit per cluster, and total number of fruit per tree. To determine harvest peak, the number of ripe fruit per tree was recorded on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from August 19 until September 23, 2002. Harvest peak was calculated in the same manner as that for determining flowering peak. Average fruit weight was determined by selecting 15 fruit at random from each tree and weighing the fruit. Yield efficiency (YE) was calculated by dividing tree yield in kg. by TCSA. Growing degree days (GDDs) were calculated using a base temperature of 10circC, which is the base temperature used in calculating GDDs in apple (Stanley et al., 2001) and beginning degree day accumulation at May 15, which was approximately the end of flowering (University of Kentucky Agricultural Weather Center calculator, http://wwwagwx.ca.uk).edu/calculators.html).

2003 study Trunk diameters were measured on March 24, 2003 to obtain trunk cross-sectional area values. The number of maroon flowers on trees was recorded every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from April 14 to June 11. Cluster counts were performed on June 10 and July 10. A heavy frost had occurred on April 22, causing many flowers to be destroyed, however, many trees later re-bloomed, and attempts were made during the cluster counts to distinguish between fruit that had set before and after the frost, using size. The number of fruit harvested was recorded on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from August 20 until October 10. Methods of data collection and calculations were as described above.