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The pruning book that time forgot... René Lafon’s classic, provocative work on the Poussard pruning methodology, Changes to be made to Vine Pruning - is now available for the first time in English (with the original French text included as well). It’s arguably the most important, historical work on vine pruning and this beautiful, hardcover edition is now available through Ex Vinum publishing. The translation is fully annotated, with 120 footnotes and over 60 retouched photographs and illustrations. There’s also a foreword by François Dal, and an extensive introduction by Robert Walters that seeks to put the work into both historical and modern context.
To quote François Dal, France’s most respected vine pruning consultant, “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.”
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 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.
Anyone with a genuine interest in vine pruning, viticulture, the challenges of wood disease in modern vineyards, or simply the history of viticulture, will want to read this enlightening, revolutionary, and thoroughly detailed text.