Effect of berry thinning and girdling on fruit quality in grapes

Investigations were carried out to study the response of berry thinning and girdling, alone or in combination on fruit quality improvement. Berry thinning of 40% from individual clusters was practised immediately after fruit set. The girdling on both control and berry thinned grapevines was done at 2 different times, i.e. at fruit set stage and 10 days after fruit set. Cluster weight was slightly depressed by berry thinning alone but increased significantly with berry thinning+girdling done at fruit set as well as 10 days later. However, the berry weight increased while shot berries decreased significantly with berry thinng+girdling treatments. Fruit quality in terms of TSS, reducing sugars and juice acidity improved significantly with all the treatments as compared with the control. In a nut-shell, 40% berry thinning+girdling at fruit set stage proved to be the best treatment, which advanced the fruit ripening by 7–8 days.