Insulating Organic Material as a Protection System against Late Frost Damages on the Vine Shoots

Alessia Di Giuseppe, Alberto Maria Gambelli, Federico Rossi, Andrea Nicolini, Nicola Ceccarelli and Alberto Palliotti
Additional contact information
Alessia Di Giuseppe: CIRIAF, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Via G. Duranti n. 63, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Alberto Maria Gambelli: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Via G. Duranti n. 67, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Federico Rossi: CIRIAF, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Via G. Duranti n. 63, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Andrea Nicolini: CIRIAF, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Via G. Duranti n. 63, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Nicola Ceccarelli: Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie Alimentari e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno n. 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy
Alberto Palliotti: Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie Alimentari e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno n. 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 15, 1-20

Abstract: Late frosts are one of the major impact factors on agriculture worldwide with large economic losses for agricultural crops, with a significant impact also in wine production. Given the importance of the wine sector in the world, more and more efforts are being made to identify innovative techniques capable of creating a low-cost and effective protection for vine shoots, as well as reducing energy consumption. In a previous work, cotton candy was identified as an insulating material to solve the problems related to late frosts on vineyards and limit its damages as much as possible. From the results of the previous research, it has proved that cotton candy is an excellent thermal insulator, but it degrades quickly in windy conditions. Thus, climatic tests carried out in windy condition showed that straw can greatly slow down the degradation of cotton candy over time, giving an indirect contribution to the protective effectiveness of cotton candy. In addition, several tests were conducted with different amounts of sugar and straw without wind to evaluate whether the straw can itself make a contribution in terms of thermal insulation, as well as contribute to the protective effectiveness of cotton candy, minimizing energy use as well.

Keywords: late frosts; wine sector; cotton candy; straw; thermal insulation system; thermal energy saving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/15/6279/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/15/6279/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:15:p:6279-:d:394356

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().