Feixue Pan^1,2

1 Yongjia Feixue Family Farm, Yongjia, 325100, Zhejiang, China
2 Zhejiang Agronomist College, Hangzhou, 310021, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
Plant Gene and Trait, 2026, Vol. 17, No. 4   
Received: 25 Jul., 2026    Accepted: 22 Aug., 2026    Published: 31 Aug., 2026

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Canopy structure plays an important role in regulating plant growth, fruit development, and yield stability during fresh table grape production. Appropriate canopy management can improve fruit quality and production stability by regulating light distribution, microenvironmental conditions, source-sink relationships, and nutrient allocation. However, grape cultivars, cultivation systems, and ecological environments show different responses to canopy management practices, and the establishment of suitable precision management systems remains an important challenge in current production. This review used ‘Shine Muscat’ (Vitis vinifera ‘Shine Muscat’) as a representative case to synthesize the mechanisms by which canopy optimization management affects growth, fruit development, and yield formation in fresh table grapes. The effects of canopy structure regulation, light environment optimization, and microenvironment improvement on vegetative growth, photosynthetic efficiency, and fruit quality formation were summarized. Based on the production practice of ‘Shine Muscat’ grape, the effects of shoot control, trellis optimization, inflorescence thinning, cluster regulation, and light environment management on plant growth, berry enlargement, fruit maturation, and marketable fruit rate were analyzed. Furthermore, the regulatory roles of canopy management in source-sink balance, nutrient allocation, and yield stability under different environmental conditions were discussed. It is suggested that canopy management in fresh table grapes should shift from single-factor regulation toward an integrated management system based on cultivar characteristics, water-fertilizer supply, and crop load optimization. In addition, the integration of remote sensing, intelligent sensing, and artificial intelligence technologies will promote the development of precision canopy management. This review provides theoretical references and practical approaches for high-quality, efficient, and stable production of fresh table grapes.

Canopy management; Fresh table grapes; ‘Shine Muscat’; Fruit development; Yield stability