Projects: Technology

Partially mechanised installation of hail netting

Hail netting is increasingly being used in pome and stone fruit production in order to safeguard fruit quality. The costs of this quality assurance measure are very high. They are composed of the costs for the necessary material (posts, netting and wiring) and the installation costs.

The manufacturers/vendors of hail protection systems also offer the installation of their respective system as a service. This service can account for a great part of the costs because the installation of hail nets and their support structures is characterised by varying degrees of mechanisation. It ranges from manual work to the use of mobile cranes with grippers.

The aim of this project is to develop an implement for the partially mechanised installation of hail netting in fruit orchards, with the following sub-goals:
a) reduction of the amount of manual work required,
b) good manoeuvrability in the fruit plantation,
c) use of tractors commonly available on fruit-growing farms, and
d) low investment and maintenance costs.

The main characteristics of the newly developed implement are that the netting is fed out from a vertical net roll by forward motion and centred on the ridge wire by means of a jib. If necessary, another person subsequently adjusts the position of the net on the ridge wire. Thus, the manpower requirement is reduced to one tractor-driver and another worker, and the only machine required is a standard or horticultural tractor. Due to the vertical position of the net roll, the axle spacing between the tractor and the trailed implement is small, and the turning radius of the tractor-trailer combination increases only marginally.
The investment costs are lower than EUR 3,500.

Bearbeitung
    Dr.-Ing. Lutz Damerow and Dr. agr. Michael Blanke
Partner
    Komptenzzentrum Gartenbau (KoGa)
    Obstversuchsgut Klein Altendorf of the University of Bonn
Kontakt
    Dr.-Ing. Lutz Damerow (damerow@uni-bonn.de), Dr. agr. Michael Blanke (mmblanke@uni-bonn.de)
Publikationen
    Damerow, L.(2009): Teilmechanische Verlegung von Hagelschutznetzen. - Besseres Obst. 54(2009)1, 10-11;
    Damerow, L.(2007): Hagelschutznetze - Teilmechanisierte Verlegung. - Obst und Garten. 126(2007)7, 254;
    Damerow, L.(2007): Verlegung von Hagelschutznetzen. - Monatsschrift-Magazin für den Gartenbau. 95(2007)6, 357.