Travailler en respectant l’environnement

The end of winter every year sees member winegrower Hubert Gerber direct seeding¹ a mix of legumes and grains. At mid-flowering, the resulting groundcover is rolled with a Rolofaca®, providing a canopy all summer long. Hubert Gerber does a second direct seeding during the summer that will guarantee the canopy lives all winter long, too.

It has now been 10 years since this winegrower from Nothalten first adopted the techniques of conservation agriculture, and he still preaches the advantages it offers. Hubert was one of the first to go for conservation agriculture. Learning from his own experiments, self-taught in the study of agronomy and soil use, Hubert Gerber also explored in books and large-scale cultivation.

“I knew nothing about conservation agriculture, direct seeding and all those ideas. It was a real revelation…And right off I said to myself, ‘This is what I have to do with my vines.’”

 

Still, no one in the vineyards was using this type of cultivation method; material and tools were non-existent. And so Hubert began making the necessary tools with his brother, crowned Best Metalworker in France. The Rolofaca® (for which the Gerber brothers have a patent pending) appeared in 2005, along with the first seeders specially adapted for direct seeding in vineyards.

Today, the plant canopy does a good part of the work for our member winegrower. The vines are proving stronger and more durable; there is no yellowing of the leaves, nor lack of magnesium, no compacting of the soil. The vines also seem to better weather the dry spells or droughts.

“Conservation agriculture is the proof that we can work quickly and well while respecting Mother Nature.”

¹ Direct seeding is a technique of cultivating defined by the total absence of tilling as well as planting the seeds directly into the ground, eventually forming a plant canopy.