Frost and Crops

Description:

This book is a comprehensive reference on frost prediction and the protection of crops from frost damage, written by a scientist with more than twenty-five years of practical and research experience in frost protection. Developed from laboratory and field work carried out in New Zealand, it brings together scattered scientific literature into a single, accessible volume for horticulturalists, technical advisers, and engineers. The book explains how frost occurs, its relationship to climate and geography, and the ways plants are damaged by or adapt to freezing conditions. It bridges the gap between theory and practice by combining refereed scientific studies, published experiments, and the author’s own experience. A particular emphasis is placed on practical frost prediction, including a simple on-site overnight temperature prediction method based on Newton’s law of cooling, using measurements from a single thermometer. The first part of the book provides a general treatment of frost formation, prediction, and protection principles, while the later chapters analyze and evaluate the results of specific frost protection experiments reported in the literature. Rather than focusing on economic comparisons or yield loss, the book quantifies the level of frost protection achieved by commonly used methods, using clear physical models of heat transfer between soil, air, and crops. Overall, it serves as a practical and scientifically grounded guide to understanding and mitigating frost damage in agriculture.

subjects: frost protection,  frost prediction,  agricultural meteorology,  crop frost damage,  horticulture,  orchard management,  cold injury in plants,  radiation frost,  microclimate,  heat transfer in agriculture,  Newton’s law of cooling,  plant cold adaptation,  climate and agriculture,  frost fighting methods,  environmental physics

Places: New Zealand