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Gianfranco Pilati: 'Now is the time to prepare'

Newly developed pellet heaters to protect against spring frost

Every year, many fruit and vegetable crops are damaged by late frosts. The Italian company Pilati conducted several tests and developed a pellet-fueled burner. "These burners," says Gianfranco Pilati, "were designed by us. They are suitable and we have used them for various crops such as vines, cherries, apricots, peaches, apples, small fruit, and horticultural crops in polytunnels."

The burner has an octagonal shape, is made of thick sheet metal, and stores heat by releasing it at a slow rate. It is fueled by pellets and each load of fuel lasts about 8-9 hours, which is enough to protect the crops every night.

"Preventing frost on crops," continues Pilati, "is proving to be a fundamental tool for farms to save their crops. Especially in the last few years, due to the climate changes we are now aware of, weather conditions can often present us with much more extreme and unpredictable events than in the past, with all that this implies, especially in agriculture. These heaters can be placed inside each other to facilitate transportation and storage, thus optimizing storage space."

"Once in place, they last forever. The number of heaters needed per hectare varies greatly. It depends on the exposure, the slope, how the crop is positioned, whether it is netted or not, and whether there are polytunnels. In short, there are many variables, but only one constant, which is that the average temperature at the height of production where we have used them has increased by about 3°C compared to the surrounding environment," he concludes.

For more information:
Pilati Gianfranco
Via Campo Sportivo, 32
38023 - Cles (TN)
+39 0463 625356
info@pilatigianfranco.it
www.pilatigianfranco.it