Handbook for Irrigation of Wine Grapes in South Africa

Foreword

relevant international work. The work is up to date, relevant and fluently written in a very readable style. This new book covers the entire continuum from climate and soil through to the grapevine and finally to the wine in the bottle. It is a comprehensive work that addresses all the aspects that wine growers, advisors and planners would like to know. At an academic level, lecturers can use this handbook with confidence as study material for students. Over and above the chapters on irrigation systems and irrigation scheduling, the chapter on irrigation water quality deserves special mentioning. Waste water use for irrigation is becoming a reality to relieve the pressure on other water resources. Philip Myburgh gives us guidelines based on experimental data on how to use such water without harm to the grapevine, the wine or the environment. Although the author never loses sight of his end goal namely, practical recommendations, useful and interesting background information is given in all chapters. The reader will enjoy reading more about terms such as water potential, deficit irrigation, anisohydric water stress; terms often used, but not well-understood by us all. The astonishing ability of grapevines to adapt to a changing environment by varying the number of stomata that it forms, should amaze us all and is one of the unique findings in the book. It is not difficult to foresee that “Handbook for irrigation of wine grapes in South Africa” will become a standard reference book and a landmark in the often muddy waters of irrigation recommendations and practices. I wish to congratulate Philip on an excellent and valuable product. In my opinion this book is a must for everyone involved in some aspect of the irrigation of wine grapes.

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