## 3 Results
### Fruit Growth and Productivity  
#### 3.4.1 Season 2015  
At the end of the fruit cell division stage (38-77 DAFB), no differences for fruit volume were recorded among the four treatments while the average AGR values observed in M and S were lower than those measured on T and F (Table 2; Figure 6). During the pit hardening stage (77-105 DAFB), the fruit volume was similar among the treatments (Table 2), and the absolute growth rate was higher in T, M and F (\(\sim\)0.59 cm\({}^{3}\) day\({}^{-1}\)) than in S with an AGR value of 0.43 cm\({}^{3}\) day\({}^{-1}\) (Table 2). The reduced AGR in S was observed starting from 94 DAFB (Figure 6B). In the full fruit cell expansion stage  
Figure 5: Cumulative leaf net photosynthesis (\(\Sigma\)Pn) (**A**), transpiration (\(\Sigma\)Tr) (**B**) and water stress integral (\(\varsigma_{\Psi}\)) (**C**) calculated for T (black bars), M (grey bars), F (dashed bars) and S (dotted bars) during the time of measure (9:00–17:00 h) of each day of measurement in 2016. Within the same date different letters indicate a statistical difference at \(p\leq 0.05\). (105-125 DAFB), T, M and F continued to have fruits bigger than S (Table 2) with a difference between S and the remaining treatments growing progressively (Figure 6A). The average AGR recorded between 105 and 125 DAFB was higher in M, T and F (\(\sim\)1.07 cm\({}^{3}\) day\({}^{-1}\)) than in S with an AGR of 0.73 cm\({}^{3}\) day\({}^{-1}\) (Table 2). F maintained an AGR similar to M and T till 115 DAFB; afterwards it decreased, reaching values closer to S (Figure 6B). During the last days before the harvest (125-148 DAFB), M and T showed an average fruit volume (\(\sim\)105.8 cm\({}^{3}\)) higher than F and S with a value of about 88 cm\({}^{3}\) (Table 2). The same behavior was observed for the absolute growth rate with values of about 2.34 cm\({}^{3}\) day\({}^{-1}\), for M and T and 1.86 cm\({}^{3}\) day\({}^{-1}\) for S and F (Table 2). Figure 6: Fruit growth (**A**) and absolute growth rate (**B**) pattern recorded in 2015 for T, M, F and S treatments. In 2015, the third leaf season for the peach orchard, the harvest was performed in two picks: on 3 and 7 September, 149 and 153 DAFB, respectively. A late fruit drop occurred during the season modifying the initial crop load imposed. The ANCOVA revealed the significative effect of the number of fruit as the covariate variable for the yield (F = 63.26; \(p\) < 0.001), fruit weight (F = 19.98; \(p\) = 0.001) and water productivity (F = 30.98; \(p\) < 0.001), whose values have been adjusted accordingly. The yield was similar among the treatments (-11.00 t ha\({}^{-1}\)), while the fruit fresh weight was higher in M and T (166.9 and 149.4 g, respectively) than in F and S with values of 112.9 and 93.6 g, respectively (Table 3). Water productivity was higher in M and S (average of 12.01 kg m\({}^{-3}\)) than in T and F with an average value of 6.93 kg m\({}^{-3}\) (Table 3). No differences for the total soluble solid content was observed, recording an average value of about 18 \({}^{\circ}\)Brix. The percentage of fruit skin over color was higher in M (-92.3%) than in the remaining treatments (-56.7%) while the flesh firmness was higher in F, followed by T, S and M with values of 3.7, 3.0, 2.8, and 2.2 kg cm\({}^{-2}\), respectively (Table 3).