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Photo by Tom Walker
Hail covers at a Davison property northwest of Vernon.
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Photo by Tom Walker
Close up of the netting
Summerland company Farm Solutions.net are working with Vernon-based Davison Orchards on a trial installation of hail covers at a Davison property just northwest of Vernon. With the assistance of a $128,000 Canadian Agriculture Partnership (CAP) grant, Farm Solutions has just completed installing hail netting to cover10 acres of Honeycrisp, Ambrosia and Galas. An adjacent 10-acre block will serve as control.
“I’ve seen the covers being used in France, New Zealand and Washington state,” says Tom Davison. “They are useful for hail protection, but it also improves the growing conditions for the apples.” The open weave polymer nets might allow some small hail stones through, but they minimize the impact damage.
“Honeycrisp are a difficult apple to grow well,” says Davison. “But they are a favourite with our customers.” The high value apple is a winner for the agri- tourism farm and protecting them makes good business sense.
Honeycrisps get stressed in really high heat, Davison explains, and the hail nets will give them some shade and lower soil temperatures. “It will also help protect them from sunburn and help reduce water use,” he adds. “We are really trying to be as leading edge as we can in trying to figure the best way to grow these apples.”
Joel Carter of Farm Solutions says the company imports the covers from New Zealand and has about 400 acres installed in Washington state. This is their first site in BC. His quote for the installation was $16,500 Cdn per acre.
The covers reduce sun penetration by about 17 per cent, Carter explains, and that can reduce the amount of sunburn damage in an orchard, something that Honeycrisp is particularly susceptible to. “I’ve seen over 20 per cent sunburn loss in Washington,” says Carter. “Growers can use protective coating sprays, but they are expensive and a problem to remove at the packing house.”
“If you have that 20 per cent loss in Honeys, the structures pay themselves off in two to three years,” says Carter. “And they pay for themselves twice over if you ever get hail.”
The covers also slow down the swings in temperature. “The maximum temperature could be 32 instead of 34 and it could take a few more hours to reach that peak in the day time,” explains Carter. “That could give the tree a longer period of ideal growing conditions,”
Other advantages could be reduced spray drift as well as reducing the need for overhead watering for cooling. Carter says workers prefer to be under the shade. “Two years ago in Washington they had over 100 days with temps over 38C!”
The covers remain on the post and wire system year-round. Carter says an experienced two-person crew can roll up and wrap the 10 acres in two days in the fall and take about the same time to spread them out in the spring after blossoming