Nowadays, growing cherries presents farmers with new challenges due to adverse and unpredictable weather conditions, new pests that alter fruit quality, and increasingly competitive market conditions.
In such a scenario, it is important to set up the orchard in the best possible way to obtain an abundant, high-quality harvest and protect it from all environmental threats, ensuring that farmers receive fair remuneration for their work.
For more than 60 years, Valente has been a partner that, with experience, professionalism, and top-quality products, supports farmers in achieving their goals, ensuring they receive fair remuneration for their work.
Achieving these results involves improving the yield of crops and protecting them from weather and environmental threats. In order to do this, every type of Valente complete system can be equipped with different covering systems, which can also be combined, called ValenteProtect©.
These are MULTIFUNCTIONAL covers, capable of performing several functions at the same time, but each with its own distinctive feature that makes it particularly effective and therefore suitable for special areas of use.
Let's start with rain, which is one of the main enemies of cherry cultivation, especially during the veraison period when the fruits, if exposed to rain, swell and crack, becoming unsuitable for consumption (this is known as cracking).
The most effective solution to counter this problem is to use anti-rain covers that protect the fruit and reduce surface moisture.
This protection is concentrated over a relatively short period (30–40 days max), and after harvesting, the cover must be easy to close again.
The ValenteProtect© Rain system was designed with this objective in mind and consists of a tensile structure made up of pre-stressed reinforced concrete poles connected to each other by steel wires and ropes, held in tension by special anchors fixed into the ground.
An anti-rain fim is installed on this structure, covering the entire cherry orchard and protecting it in case of bad weather.
The three-layer structure of the anti-rain film (weft, warp and plastic coating) also creates diffused light, which facilitates the gradual ripening of crops, with the benefit of prolonging the harvest period and thus obtaining a greater presence on the market.
The anti-rain films, made of waterproof and UV-resistant plastic mesh film, can be fixed or openable depending on the type of ValenteProtect© Rain system chosen: Rain or Multishield.
In the Multishield system, two mesh anti-rain films are spread separately over the top of each row to cover the plants and their fruits. The two films are then connected by rings to three longitudinal wires (one at the top and two in the middle), which allow them to slide for seasonal opening and closing of the system, making the work more practical, faster and safer.
The opening can be done manually or using a quick and automatic sliding system for anti-rain films that allows them to be opened and closed quickly, just like an umbrella.
This innovative technology, installed exclusively on the MultiShield system, offers significant advantages and provides farmers with a complete, effective, flexible, and safe solution for protecting their crops.
For this reason, both Rain and Multishield systems can be combined with the ValenteProtect© Hail system, through the combined use of both waterproof films and hail nets, which can be opened simultaneously, ensuring optimal protection throughout the growing season.
However, to achieve truly complete protection, we must defend our cherry orchards from one more threat: insects. They can compromise both the quantity and marketable quality of the harvest.
Cherry fruits are particularly delicate and vulnerable to insect attacks from both outside and inside, causing aesthetic damage, rot, and loss of value.
The ValenteProtect© Insect system was designed with the aim of effectively combating this problem and represents an addition to the superior coverage systems such as ValenteProtect© Hail, Rain, and Multishield.
It involves the addition of perimeter insect nets, both front and side, which allow the system to be completely closed. In this way, in addition to the protection from above provided by the hail or shade cover, effective defense against insects is also achieved on the sides, ensuring total protection for crops.
The combined use of ValenteProtect© protection systems therefore offers benefits on several fronts, allowing farmers to get the best out of their cherry orchards, acting promptly by opening or closing the covers when required and always sleeping peacefully.
Text and images: Valente Pali
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