Our Innovation and European Projects team organized, within the framework of the European IPMWorks project, a demonstration event on February 14 at Bodegas Martín Códax, in which more than 40 winegrowers from the area participated. The event, entitled “Pruning, a key task in caring for the vineyard“, consisted of a practical master class on pruning techniques in the vineyard to extend the life of the vines and keep them healthy, given by Julián Palacios, agricultural engineer, viticulturist expert and founder of Viticultura viva. The day began at 8:30 am at the winery’s facilities in Cambados and ended at 2:30 pm at its experimental vineyard in Pé Redondo.

During the 6-hour demonstration event, the IPMworks project was presented, and a theoretical pruning session was given, in which Julián Palacios explained to the attendees the nature of the vine, the principles of pruning, its evolution and its practical applications, in a talk that sought the interaction and participation of the audience.

In the experimental vineyard of Bodegas Martín Códax took place the practical pruning session, taught by Julián in collaboration with part of the winery’s technical team. The interaction among all the attendees was predominant, building a collective learning process to share different ways of doing things. Between vigor, sense of sap, buds, shoots, thumbs, rods and suckers, the session served to demonstrate the best strategies with the vine according to what you want to get from it when dry pruning is done during these months. Julián, the pruners and the assistants resolved, with great attention to detail and encouraging discussion, the pruning of two vines, one trellis and one vineyard.

Promote the longevity of the vines, with care and attention to their care

Julián Palacios and his Viticultura Viva platform propose to treat the vines with care and attention, observing them closely and learning from the past to find the most valuable and appropriate techniques. Extending the life of the vines, improving their balance and reducing their diseases through pruning is their hallmark. This is how they manage several vineyards in various wine-growing regions, making theory and practice inseparable. He professes a vision always aligned with respect for the environment, the rural world and tradition, which he was able to present at this conference. He can also be followed in the podcast of “casual viticulture” Phylloxera and through the documentary The forgotten pruning, “a story about romantic and unyielding winegrowers“.

Peer-to-peer learning days

The event is articulated in the framework of the IPMworks project, in which we are responsible for the dynamization of a viticulture group. IPMworks, funded by the European program H2020 and translated as ‘Integrated Pest Management Works’, aims to promote the use of alternative techniques to chemical pesticides in agriculture, through demonstrations in practice and dissemination of results. The project, in which 31 entities from 16 different countries participate, seeks the creation of a European agricultural network for the promotion and demonstration of integrated pest management strategies. To this end, we have already organized three demonstration events in the past: on the prevention of fungal diseases in the vineyard, on the use of pheromones and bats to combat grapevine moth, and on the integration of new technologies in viticulture.