How water storage can serve anti-frost measurements
Cold spring nights with temperatures subzero lead to exciting days for (fruit) growers. Overnight frost can cause significant damage to fruit blossoms, threathening the harvest of entire fruit orchards with failure. Therefore, in recent years many fruit growers have adopted frost protection measures, including misting of buds.
Frost protection irrigation techniques
NPI assists growers in preparing for these frost protection measures, lining water basins. To explain, growers use excavated basins to store water for misting tree buds, since irrigation techniques prove highly effective in the protection of fruit, trees or crops from frost damage. The water sprayed on buds from water sprinkler systems forms a protective film around the plant. It cools down the plant and it keeps the buds above its critical damage temperature. Moreover, this misting irrigation technique has a few big plusses: it is one of the most economical, least time-consuming and relatively non-polluting frost control options.
Basins
Growers opt for the installation of excavated basins or metal water tanks to store water that can feed the sprinkler systems. In fact, we lined many basins and silo for (fruit) nurseries at home and abroad. Why basins? Basins have several advantages:
Applications and benefits of basins
There are many applications for excavated water basins, from agriculture and horticulture to civil engineering projects, environmental and leisure projects. However, the same benefit applies to all excavated basin applications: the capacity to store large volumes of water. A summary of the benefits:
- We prefabricate the basin liner in our production facility, welded inside under perfect circumstances
- Basins can be installed in any shape or size
- The cost per square meter for basins is relatively low in terms of investment
- Installation on site is quick and easy
Read more about our excavated basins here.
Continuity is key in frost protection
Important in this frost protection method is that permanent sprinkling with water must be maintainted as long as there is a risk of the plant freezing due to frost. If the sprinkling of water would be interrupted, the water film would freeze completely and the plant would freeze to death. However, with a basin installed, growers don’t have to worry about the continuity of their water supply.
Read about a few of our frost protection systems in Serbia, Poland and the Netherlands.
