Well-armed in the battle against night frost, thanks to Bosta
Night frost and heat: A harmful combination when cultivating blueberries. Wouter Aerts’ company, Hayberries, also had to deal with the issue. The company has 45 hectares of blueberries, of which almost 15% failed during the 2020 picking season. This prompted Wouter to switch to night frost irrigation and to enlist the help of Bosta.
Sharing knowledge and network
Wouter’s fertiliser supplier, Vlamings, introduced him to Bosta. “My supplier, who had already been doing business with Bosta for some time, suggested I should give them a call. My initial meeting with sprinkler specialist Ton de Kort and account manager Marijn van Lieshout convinced me of Bosta’s expertise straight away.
You quickly realise that they have both knowledge of products and a good network. I just happened to mention that, from a sustainability point of view, I would prefer an electric pump to supply the water for the night frost sprinklers. Bosta directly informed me it had a suitable supplier.
- Wouter Aerts
Water saving advise
Irrigation technician, Ton, calculated the system required for Hayberries’ plots, from the length of the main pipeline to the diameter of the secondary lines.
Bosta also thought along with Wouter in other areas, however. For example, Ton proposed to fit water-saving flippers for night frost spraying. He explained that this system consumes less than half the amount of water that traditional sprinkler systems do. Wouter ultimately opted not to fit this system. The flippers suspended above the crops obscure the view. Therefore, he chose a classic model with brass sprinklers.
Tight scheduling
It took a couple of weeks to lay the system. Wouter: “It was nip and tuck whether installation would be complete before the frost period. The delivery of certain parts suffered a slight delay.
The system to be installed comprised some 30 sprinklers per hectare, which were laid with an 18-metre spacing. They jointly provide 30 cubic metres of water per hour, per hectare. “In view of the costs, we opted to first run a pilot on a quarter of the plot. That’s no small operation. Fortunately, scheduling was tight and it was completed just before the first snap of frost, towards the close of March.”
Trying out night frost sprinklers
A month and a half after installation, it is still too early to say anything about results. Wouter nevertheless admits that ‘something splendid has been created’. “The system’s night frost detector transmits the temperature, which is plotted on a graph that can be viewed at any time. The alarm warns me if it drops too low. Then I know that I need to turn the night frost sprinklers on.