Quote:
Originally Posted by PR-Giants
Your goal should be to have sufficient root mass and leaf area to provide proper fruit filling.
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That's not the only goal.
You're ignoring the fact that nutritional deficiencies during early stages of development have lingering effects on initial fruit production.
The fact that water suckers start off with vastly inferior root systems means that they're more likely to have nutritional deficiencies during early development, which in turn means that water suckers should tend to have smaller initial bunches.
You might counter that sword suckers start off with fewer leaves, which is a detriment, and that this should counteract the advantage that sword suckers have with their superior roots. The detriment of lacking leaves, however, is more easily overcome than the detriment of having a puny weak root system. It's pretty easy for a sword sucker with a huge root system to quickly push out some leaves, whereas it's a tougher and longer job for a water sucker to generate a massive root system.