The Hail net we install is a synthetic material which has high levels of UV protection built in. The net is stretched over engineered wooden structures to enable the protection from hail, birds, bats and other animals.
Hail netting is a long term investment –Modern hail netting will last between 10 and 20 years and the wooden structures used can last longer than 25 years.
Hailnet is primarily designed to protect your crops from the devastating effects of hail. Secondary benefits are protection from wind, birds, bats and other animals.
While early season hail can be addressed to some extent by hand thinning and of course on the grading belt, the best way to protect your fruit is to install hail net protection.
Hail net will reduce sunburn and wind rub on apple varieties, which can enhance packout rates and hence returns as well as enables sprays to be applied in a more timely manner where it may be too windy to spray outside of the net.
Growers who have installed hailnet have seen some reduction in the level of frost damage in light to moderate frost events. Under radiation frosts, the net canopy acts as a blanket and holds re-radiated heat around the crop providing some observable rise in temperature hence some protection relative to un-netted crops.
Hail net offers considerable protection against bird and bat populations in particular the larger birds like crows and sulfer crested cockatoos. Hail nets can be readily modified to provide full protection by exclusion i.e. nets are draped to the ground in a full enclosure.
