A field study was conducted with 38 F6 lines to investigate abscission patterns and their relationship with yield. The rate of abscission increased with the progression of floral nodal position and time after first flowering implying that genotypes with fewer inflorescence nodes and a shorter, synchronous flowering period might have lower abscission rates and be useful for high intensity production. Abscission rate was found to be negatively correlated with yield suggesting that abscission is an important yield limiting factor and genotypic differences in abscission rate were found which could be utilized in breeding a high yielding cultivar. A green house study using rooting boxes demonstrated variations in both canopy and rooting patterns. The results showed that increased number of branches and low branch angle contributed to an erect and compact canopy in ICPH 8 which had also the highest shoot/root ratio. These results suggest that selection of genotypes similar to ICPH 8 might increase productivity at higher planting density. The physiological implications of some of the variation demonstrated are discussed.