Jonathon spot – Three factors related to incidence, fruit size, breakdown, and seed numbers

Abstract

Observations are reported which show that: (1) There is an interaction between the disorders Jonathan spot and breakdown. There is a negative correlation between them, but the same fruits tend to be susceptible to both disorders. (2) In the absence of other disorders there is a positive intercorrelation between percentage Jonathan spot, mean fruit size, and mean seed number both within and between trees. (3) In the one fruit size group on a tree, fruits with Jonathan spot have a higher mean seed number per fruit than sound fruit, and the seeds have a greater tendency to germinate. (4) Within trees, a thinning treatment which produces fruit of differing sizes but with the same seed number does not alter the percentage Jonathan spot. Between trees, a thinning treatment which produces fruit of the same size but a differing seed number results in differing levels of Jonathan spot.