The use of netting in table grape vineyards is a widely used technique. Usually, two types of netting are used in these installations: anti-hail netting on the roof and mosquito netting on the sides of the vineyard.
What is the purpose of using anti-hail netting?
- Protection against hail, strong winds and birds.
- Increased resource use efficiency: less evapotranspiration and therefore less water consumption.
- Better skin quality (less damage due to burning, stalks, etc.) and larger fruit size.
- Accelerate or delay ripening.
- Better post-harvest quality.
The fraction of light passing through the netting holes remains unchanged, whereas the light hitting the yarns is spectrally modified and diffused at the exit. Thus, depending on yarn pigmentation, design and density, the netting provides mixtures of unmodified light and spectrally modified, diffused light, which promotes physiological responses in plants.
Diffusion improves the spectrum penetration, allowing it to reach the interior of the plant.
Depending on the color, the netting can be:
Colored: blue, green, yellow, red, purple. These favor diffusion and spectral modification.
Neutral color: white, gray, pearl. Light colors favor diffusion. Dark colors do not diffuse.
Earlier ripening is due to the increase in sugar content, because of the higher photosynthetic rate that is promoted by light diffusion, which allows light to reach a larger surface area of the crop.
The choice of mesh color will depend on the table grape variety (early or late) and the objective sought, i.e., whether the grower seeks to accelerate or delay ripening:
- By accelerating the optimal harvesting time, the farmer can enter the market earlier with his product and thus obtain better prices.
- By delaying the harvest, the farmer can keep the table grapes on the plant for a longer period of time, thus avoiding periods of higher concentration of supply in the market and obtaining better prices.
Early table grapes
Generally speaking, with light-diffusing mesh colors (pearl, white, red, yellow), better fruit size and quality are observed, and with pearl and white, earlier ripening is also observed.
On the other hand, with black mesh, smaller fruit size and delayed ripening tend to be observed.
Late table grapes
With white mesh, ripening is faster and fruit quality and size are better. With red mesh, ripening is delayed and fruit quality and size are improved.
In GreenNets we have 13 Mesh anti-hail netting [5×4 yarns/cm2] that provide greater protection to your crops and helps you to yield excellent results in your productions.
