Haspengouw (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Fruit farmers in Haspengouw like Nicolai and Hannosset use heat guns, fire pits, and sprinklers to protect 170 hectares of trees, preventing damage to cherry, plum, pear, and apple crops.
Fruit farmers in Haspengouw, Province of Limburg, Belgium, are working hard to protect their fruit trees from the cold weather. For 2 nights, they had to get up early in the morning to keep their trees from freezing. Farmers mentioned that the cherry and plum trees are in bloom, and the cold weather could affect the fruit that will grow on them.
To protect the trees, many farmers are using heat guns and fire pits to warm the air around the trees. One farmer said that his alarm went off at 3:30 in the morning because the temperature was too cold, and he had to take action right away.
How are Haspengouw farmers protecting their fruit trees from the cold?
The farmers first tried using heat guns to warm the trees, but they didn’t get hot enough. So, they also used fire pits, which are like small fires that make a lot of heat. The fire pits were put in the places where the trees were most likely to freeze. Officials mentioned that they didn’t need to protect every tree because the cold wasn’t the same everywhere.
According to the farmers, the heat guns and fire pits are important because the flowers on the trees are very fragile and can be damaged by the cold. If the flowers get damaged, the farmers won’t get as much fruit, and they will lose money.
“If we hadn’t intervened now, I’m not sure we would have made it to the finish, but it looks good. When you walk between the trees, you can smell the blossoms, and that’s a good sign because then you know for sure that the flower is not damaged. After these 2 nights, I still have no damage,”
Says Hannosset
Kristof Hannosset used an app to check the temperature and make sure the trees were warm enough. But not all farmers use fire pits. Some also use sprinklers to spray water on the trees. The water freezes around the flowers and acts like a blanket to keep them warm. This works for pear and apple trees, but not for cherry trees because the ice could affect them.
Hannosset mentioned that while sprinklers are a good way to protect trees, they are not the only way. Some farmers use a combination of methods, like fire pits and sprinklers, to make sure their trees are safe from the cold.
Bart Nicolai, a fruit grower from Zepperen, uses sprinklers to protect his pear and apple trees from freezing. He thinks sprinklers are better than fire pits. He has sprinklers on 42 hectares of his land, and he says they are worth the money because they keep his trees safe even when the weather is bad.
Nicolai has 170 hectares of fruit trees, but not all of them have sprinklers. For the trees that don’t have sprinklers, he uses fire pits. He has 10,500 fire pits across his land. Nicolai uses both sprinklers and fire pits to keep his trees safe from freezing temperatures.
“It takes a lot of work to get them all lit on time,”
Says Nicolai.
“With 30 helpers, you still have to count on an hour and a half each time to light and extinguish them. After these 2 nights, I only have damage on the plots without irrigation or fire pots.”
