A winemaker? Limburg school explains field with 280 poles to: Pupils learn all about maintenance and pruning of vines

Tongeren, The Provincial Institute of Bio-Technical Education (ORGANISATION) in Tongeren start with a private vineyard. Monday have students on a plot of 0.5 acres, the first 280 vines planted. “The purpose? We lead young people in the planting, pruning and maintenance of grape vines and the harvesting of the grapes”, says Koen Martens (48), a teacher of arboriculture.

The wine is teeming with character. The province now has some 25 wineries, including 10 larger. Because of this, there is now also a great demand for personnel that knows how to make a vineyard maintains. That question provides the Provincial Institute of Bio-Technical Education is the answer. “The traditional area for the cultivation of apples and pears has proven for years that there is a lot of potential to play for the grape in Haspengouw,” he says. “Since the vegetable sector in Haspengouw in crisis, this is a perfect time to put on viticulture. We the students will not, however, teach you how to wine.” There were Monday all 280 poles were planted, but in the long term should be that there to 1,200. The idea of a vineyard, was born about a year and a half ago.

Guidance

everything in the right jobs to lead, the school for advice Geurt van Rennes, son of Jaap (recently deceased) who in genoels-elderen, the wine castle (the domain of 24 acres, the largest in the province of Limburg), started and built. “Every time I at the school came by, I thought of the plot where the first poles are in the ground stopped,” says Geurt van Rennes. “The location is ideal. The vineyard extends at a slight slope. In addition, he is south-east oriented, so the sticks in the morning sun. The location is also good against the frost.”