Fire & Water
How Apple Buds Survive the Cold Frosty Nights
Fire & Water

Fire & Water

How the apple blossoms survive the cold frost nights

How Farmers in Naturns Battle the frosty nights with fire and water. A glimpse into what our local farmers are up to while the rest of us sleep – and what a drunk farmer has to do with it.

Early April, 6:30 a.m.
I step outside with the dog for our morning walk and am instantly struck by the cold. Frost creeps up the blades of grass in the meadow.
Spring frost nights are infamous around here, with temperatures often dropping well below zero during the night. Across the valley, as far as the eye can see, frost protection sprinklers are spinning – a method farmers use to shield their blossoming fruit trees from the bitter cold.
If left unprotected, the delicate blossoms would “burn” – meaning they’d die – resulting in severe damage and major crop losses.

"Without frost irrigation, apple cultivation as we know it here would be almost unimaginable. The risk of frost damage would simply be too great," explains farmer Josef Götsch. And indeed: of the 9,000 hectares of apple orchards in Vinschgau and the Merano area, 5,400 hectares are now equipped with frost sprinkling systems. Many farmers still shudder at the memory of April 21, 2017: for three nights, the frost marched heavily through the land, reaching its peak on the 21st. In areas where frost irrigation wasn't possible, farmers suffered up to 100% crop loss.
With Fire and Water: How Farmers in Naturns Battle the Frosty Nights
When another frost period looms, farmers are already studying weather forecasts and temperature predictions the evening before, allowing them to estimate whether a frost night is approaching. Orchards in low-lying areas – such as those along the Adige River – are more prone to frost than those on the slopes, as even a few meters in elevation can make the crucial difference between freezing and non-freezing temperatures.

A tightly woven network of 119 weather stations provides farmers with real-time data on local temperature, humidity, and wind direction. When temperatures approach critical thresholds (around -5°C during early vegetative growth and 0°C during blossom phase), a frost alarm is triggered – sometimes at midnight, sometimes as early as 4 a.m. In the past, so-called frost wardens would rush from thermometer to thermometer and sound the warning with a long siren blast. These days, farmers still alert one another by phone, but many now rely on automated notifications sent directly to their smartphones, including through various app providers.

As soon as the alarm goes off, farmers leap out of bed and rush to their orchards to activate the frost irrigation. Using tractors or motors, they start the pumps that draw groundwater and spray it evenly over the trees and blossoms using circular sprinkler systems. The water forms a thin layer of ice around the flowers. As it freezes, a physical reaction occurs: the process of crystallization releases heat (known as latent heat of fusion), which paradoxically protects the blossoms from the extreme cold.
Once morning temperatures have stabilized a few degrees above zero, the system is shut off and the water seeps back into the groundwater supply.

A beautiful side effect of frost irrigation: when the morning sun hits the icy coating, the entire valley sparkles and shimmers like something out of a fairy tale.
"Blossoms After a Frosty Night
In areas where frost irrigation isn’t possible, such as on even slightly sloped terrain where water can’t be pumped, farmers turn to “candles” to get their blossoms safely through the frosty night.This method dates back to ancient Rome and was first adopted in South Tyrol mainly in vineyards. Today, it has also proven effective in apple orchards. Small fires, placed at regular intervals between the rows of trees, gently warm the surrounding air by about 2 to 3 degrees Celsius, just enough to make a difference. The smoke created also helps by causing slight air movement and turbulence, which disrupts the settling of cold air.
The Apple Orchards in the Early Morning
South Tyrol was a pioneer in frost irrigation: In 1949, a farmer from Terlano built the first frost irrigation system using old pipes and war materials, which was put into operation in 1950 and later served as a model.

But since we’re in South Tyrol, of course there’s also a legend about how frost irrigation was really invented: One evening, a farmer set out to switch off the irrigation in his orchard but met some friends along the way and was persuaded to have a glass of wine. Naturally, one glass led to another, and soon the entire night was spent celebrating and drinking in the inn. Meanwhile, the temperature dropped sharply, and on his way home, the farmer was shocked to see icicles hanging from his apple trees. It wasn’t until harvest time that he noticed his trees were full of apples, while those of the other farmers were nearly empty. That’s when it occurred to him that it must have been that fateful frost night that made the difference, and so frost irrigation was born.
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