Definition: Ploughing

Plowing, or tilling the soil between vine rows, had long been on the decline in favor of chemical weed control, which is faster and less labor-intensive. However, this trend has reversed since the 2010s: the gradual restriction of glyphosate—whose use in viticulture is now banned between rows and capped at 450 g/ha/year on the cavaillon alone, with a few exemptions for plots that cannot be mechanized—has pushed most vineyards toward mechanical or biological solutions.

The debate is no longer limited to a “chemicals versus tillage” dichotomy. Three approaches coexist today: mechanical soil cultivation (scratching, stone removal), grass cover—whether natural or seeded, permanent or controlled between rows—and, more marginally, alternatives such as thermal weed control or certain bioherbicides, which are still costly and of varying effectiveness.

The agronomic benefits historically associated with plowing remain valid: improved water infiltration, mineralization, and incorporation of organic matter. But the discussion has been enriched by issues that were hardly central thirty years ago: soil structure and biological activity, carbon sequestration, erosion control, and above all, adaptation to more frequent droughts—repeated plowing can dry out and disrupt soils already weakened by climate change, which, in certain regions, argues in favor of cover cropping rather than a systematic return to the plow.

The choice between plowing, cover cropping, and residual weed control therefore now depends less on a fundamental dichotomy than on soil type, local climate, slope, and the farm’s resources—with each management strategy being determined on a case-by-case basis rather than dictated by a single doctrine.