*3.5. Spring Yield and Plant Biomass*

The yield in spring from the experimental sections was summed for six harvests (9 March to 5 May 2020), shown at the top two rows of Table 2. Fruits were picked from the E- and W-facing sides of each section separately and normalized to the number of plants present in each side. For E-facing plants, the yield in LED-D was 30% (kg/plant) and 27% (#/plant) higher as compared to the CR, although these did not pass the significance test. In contrast, the differences of yield in LED-N vs. CR sections for E-facing plants were quite small (~12%). The W-facing spring yield for LED-D was 26% (kg/plant) and 17% (#/plant) higher than CR (not significant). Notably, for LED-N, the W-facing spring yield was 43% higher than the CR both by weight and number of fruits. These results are in agreement with those obtained from the fruit survival quantification (Figure 5B), which show that a significantly higher number of fruits were obtained on the W-facing side.



† Spring yield included six fruit harvests from 9 March 2020 to 5 May 2020 and represent means <sup>±</sup> SD from 4 replicate sections. Values were normalized to the number of plants in each side (E, eastern- or W, western-facing) of each section. ‡ Plant biomass (fresh weight and height) were measured at the end of the experiment (7 May 2020) on the same plants assayed for fruit set during the season; means ± SD are shown for n = 20 plants (5 plants from the 4 replicate sections of each treatment in E- or W-facing plants). For each parameter, distinct letters denote statistically significant differences (*p* < 0.05) between the three groups facing the same side (lower- or upper-case letters for E- or W-facing, respectively). Asterisks denote *p* < 0.01.

At the end of the experiment, the plants followed for fruit set and survival were removed and their height and weight were recorded (Table 2). Interestingly, no significant differences were observed for the biomass of E-facing illuminated and CR plants. In contrast, the illumination resulted in considerably heavier and taller plants in the W-facing side. Plants from LED-D were 25% heavier and 12% taller than CR plants, and those from LED-N were 30% heavier and 13% taller than CR. These findings are in line with the fruit set and yield data and support the results of higher assimilation of W-facing plants.
