The effect of berry thinning, shoot topping and basal leaves removal on productivity of Ruby and Thompson seedless grapevines during 2008 and 2009 seasons were studied.  All grapevines were 12 year old, grown at the Experimental Orchard, Faculty of Agriculture, AssiutUniversity.  Berry thinning was performed after berry set, whereas pinching and leaves removal were carried out at two weeks of berry set and at verasion phase respectively. The experiment was set up as complete randomized block (CRB) with four replicates, one vine per each.
The obtained results could be summarized as follow
Berry thinning as removing either 25% of apical cluster or 25% of shoulders significant decreases the berries number per cluster and consequently unsignificantly decreased the cluster weight and yield/vine compared to untreated one. Such berry thinning methods significantly increased berry weight and the chemical constituents of juice compared to untreated ones. In addition, removing 25% of apical cluster significantly decreased the compactness coefficient of   clusters.
Shoot pinching alone or along with defoliation significantly increased the berry weight and consequently significantly increased the cluster weight and yield/vine as well as improved the berry chemical quality compared to untreated one (control).  Whereas, the defoliation at verasion phase significantly improved juice chemical constituents, but the effect was unsignificant on the berry weight, cluster weight and yield/vine compared with undefoliation ones.
From this study, it is clear that to improve cluster and berries quality we can make berry thinning as alternatively about 25% of shoulders or combined pinching plus defoliation