Apple Growers Invest In Wind Turbines

Last year, Golden Harvest Farms in Kinderhook, NY, lost nearly 95% of its apple crop when an unseasonably warm March encouraged apple trees to bloom early, and a late April frost killed off the fragile blossoms. Orchards across the state suffered the same; apple production declined more than 40%.
 
Wind machines, though, might have saved some of those crops.

After last year’s crippling frost, dozens of orchards around the state started investing in the machines. Terence Robinson, an applied fruit crop physiologist at Cornell University, estimated that the number of wind machines in the state likely doubled between 2012 and 2013.
 
The 2012 frost prompted Cornell to conduct a study of the machines’ effectiveness. The study found that farms that already utilized the machines fared much better during the frost.

To read more, go to www.timesunion.com/local/article/Farmers-harnessing-wind-to-save-apples-4381001.php#ixzz2PE0X3ovG.