If you wonder why exactly they put fires in the vineyards: it's to create smoke so the sun doesn't burn the buds that are frosted. They usually put haystacks and start burning it at the end of the night, before the sun rises. It's actually the less expensive way to protect a vineyard from frost.
Source: report yesterday on a French TV channel (France 2).
Edit: for the people saying I'm wrong, I'm not an agronomist. I'm just repeating what the report said, which is that the sun can burn the buds because the frost has a magnifying glass effect.
Of course, the heat created by the fires can also help, but they purposefully use wet haystack to create maximum smoke.
Daafda on April 15th, 2019 at 10:39 UTC »
Build me an army worthy of Mordor.
LittleShiningLuma on April 15th, 2019 at 11:11 UTC »
If you wonder why exactly they put fires in the vineyards: it's to create smoke so the sun doesn't burn the buds that are frosted. They usually put haystacks and start burning it at the end of the night, before the sun rises. It's actually the less expensive way to protect a vineyard from frost.
Source: report yesterday on a French TV channel (France 2).
Edit: for the people saying I'm wrong, I'm not an agronomist. I'm just repeating what the report said, which is that the sun can burn the buds because the frost has a magnifying glass effect.
Of course, the heat created by the fires can also help, but they purposefully use wet haystack to create maximum smoke.
Edit (2): the most expensive way to prevent frost might be the use of helicopters (I'm not kidding) to whirle cold and warm air : https://www.decanter.com/learn/winemakers-prevent-frost-ask-decanter-367606/
249ba36000029bbe9749 on April 15th, 2019 at 12:11 UTC »
"You can't heat the outdoors."
"Hold my Merlot."