The researchers studied different traits in cucumber plants to see how they are related to fruit yield. They looked at things like when the first female flower appears, the length of the main vine, and the number of fruits produced. They found that the number of fruits per plant had the biggest positive impact on fruit yield, while the number of nodes on the main shoot had the biggest negative impact. This means that having more fruits per plant leads to higher fruit yield, while having more nodes on the main shoot leads to lower fruit yield.