## 3 Results  
As shown in Figure 2, girdling exhibited a significant effect on carbon assimilation efficiency. During September, photosynthetic efficiency was higher in the control vines compared to the GA ones (Figure 2a). At harvest, once again, the control vines exhibited the highest photosynthesis, with significant differences from GS and GAS treatments. The intercellular CO\({}_{2}\) did not differ significantly among the treatments during the entire experimental period (Figure 2b). On the contrary, stomatal conductance and transpiration rates were higher under the control treatment in September compared to GA (Figure 2c,e), while no significant differences were observed among treatments at harvest. The photosynthesis versus stomatal conductance ratio was found to be higher in control vines compared to other treatments both in September (against GA) and at harvest (against all other treatments) (Figure 2d). Additionally, no significant differences were determined concerning the SPAD index in September, while at harvest, the GS treatment exhibited the highest SPAD index value (with a significant difference from the GAS treatment, which exhibited the lowest value) (Figure 2f). The dry matter percentage of the fruit increased from August (13%) until harvest (approximately 17%) and decreased slightly post-storage (16% on average) (Figure 3a). Additionally, it was found that girdling in August led to a significant increase of fruit dry matter (17.2%) within the next 30 days (in September's assessment) compared to control, a value that remained almost the same until harvest. At harvest, no significant differences were detected among the treatments, while post-storage, the control fruits exhibited the lowest dry matter (15.3%) compared to the girdling treatments (16.4% on average). It is also interesting that in August, the dry matter per fruit accounted for 10 g of the total weight of the whole fruit (70 g) (Figure 3b). In September, the fruits from the vines girdled in August had a significantly higher dry matter per fruit (15.9 g) compared to the control (14.9 g). At harvest and post-storage, the control fruits exhibited a decrease in dry matter compared to the girdled ones. Furthermore, the dry matter of control fruits increased by approximately 4.7% during the period from September until post-storage, while in the girdled vines, this increase was calculated to be around 9%. There were no significant differences concerning the mean fruit weight between the control and GA treatment in September (Figure 3c). However, at harvest, the mean fruit weight produced under the control treatment was 102.60 g. In contrast, the other treatments resulted in slightly higher mean fruit weights, ranging from 104.20 g to 109.14 g, achieved under GS treatment, with a significant difference from the control. It can also be observed that over the 3-month experimental period (August until harvest), the mean fruit weight of GA-treated vines increased from 74.73 g to 108.0 g and from 74.73 g to 109.0 g after GS treatment. This represents an approximately 45% and 46% increase, respectively, compared to only a 37% increase observed under control conditions. Figure 2: Cane girdling impact on kiwifruits’ (**a**) photosynthesis, (**b**) intercellular CO\({}_{2}\), (**c**) stomatal conductance, (**d**) ratio of photosynthesis to stomatal conductance, (**e**) transpiration rate and (**f**) SPAD index during August, September, and at harvest (October). Abbreviations: GA, kiwifruit cane girdling conducted in August; GS, kiwifruit cane girdling conducted both in August and September. Different letters above columns, separately in September and at harvest, indicate statistically significant differences based on [PERSON]’s HSD test at \(\alpha=0.05\). Bars on the columns indicate the standard deviation.