Could green pruning be done by a machine? Given the level of interest at a presentation of a defoliating machine in Aiguamúrcia last week, it's obviously not one of the farmers' favourite jobs, and it was well worth losing a morning to see what a machine could do. This is hardly surprising given that summer pruning is a long manual job in the hot sun. This machine sucks the leaves into a cutting mechanism, cuts them off, and expels them shredded back onto the ground.

It is important to regulate the height of the machine correctly to defoliate at the height of the grapes. The grapes need to be approaching pea-size, or they would be sucked into the cutters too. Sensors on the extendible arms keep the cutting faces next to the vines even if they are slightly uneven. Unfortunately it is only viable for trellised vines - and most vines locally are in a "goblet" or bush form. What the machine can't do is remove suckers or excess shoots, but the consensus among the farmers was that this was one of the quicker jobs that could be done when the shoots were smaller.