Changes to be Made to Vine Pruning

REGION: FR / Hardcover Edition

It’s arguably the most important historical work on vine pruning, and particularly, the Poussard methodology. Anyone with a keen interest in the history of viticulture, vine pruning and the challenges of wood disease in modern vineyards, will find this enlightening, revolutionary, and thoroughly detailed text a fascinating read.

This is the first time that Lafon’s work has been made available in English (the original French is also included). There are 120 footnotes and over 60 retouched photographs and illustrations. Then there’s a foreword by France’s most respected vine pruning consultant, François Dal, and an extensive introduction (by our own Rob Walters) that seeks to put the work into both historical and modern contexts.

To quote François Dal, “This English translation by Robert Walters is a real gift, offered to all English speakers passionate about viticulture. By reading this book you will not only benefit from the beautiful and important knowledge that it has to offer, but you will also live through a moment in history and admire how, with the limited means of the time, brilliant growers and scientists used their instinct and insight to understand the functioning of our world.”

First published in 1921, Lafon’s work was lost for the best part of 100 years until it was rediscovered in recent decades, subsequently playing a key role in the pruning revolution we are witnessing today. Remarkably, Lafon’s thought-provoking text—the only one written whilst Eugène Poussard was alive—remains as fresh and valid as it was when it was first written. It also remains controversial, completely undermining much modern thinking on wood disease. It’s a work that points to a new way of thinking about our interactions with the vine, and with nature in general.