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FROST PROTECTION
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The nature of protection
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The 2023 growing season got off to a good start in most areas of the UK, with spring frosts hitting at just the right time for most, before the buds had begun to burst. However, the risk frost poses to a crop is severe, and is often relatively unpredictable in the medium term. Just because Lady Luck was mainly with us last year, it doesn’t mean the same will hold true in the coming season. What are the vineyard managers' options for guarding against frost damage? And how do we address the risk in a sustainable and affordable way? Generally, frost protection methods are active or passive. An active method modifies the temperature of the vineyard to mitigate against the frost during a specific weather event. They might include heaters and bougies, sprinklers or wind machines. Passive methods are the holistic decisions made as part of the wider management of the land that give the vines the best chance of being protected, or at least withstanding, the ravages of frost. These decisions start with the establishment of the vineyard – choosing the variety of vine to be planted and selecting the best site where pockets of frost will not gather. They also include optimising the soil’s capacity for water retention, use of cover crops and management of natural barriers to divert frost away from the vines.
Monitoring your vineyard
Precision monitoring is an important way of staying ahead of the game, because frost can be such a localised risk – varying from field to field. A weather station that is connected to an app can really help maintain an accurate picture across the property.
Sencrop
Sencrop recently talked me through their range of monitoring solutions. They offer precision weather stations connected to a collaborative weather application that enables farmers to monitor the weather conditions in their plots and simplify the day-to-day management of their farming operations, with indicators tailored to their plots. <<
Leafcrop
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