Frolight: Revolutionary Frost Protection
Written by Malcolm Triggs, Vineyard Magazine
Charles Martin used to have a pretty straightforward answer to growers’ questions about dealing with the threat of frost.
“I used to tell them to pour themselves a good whisky and accept the fact that frost was just one of those things that happened,” said Charles, senior viticulturist with VineWorks, one of the UK’s leading viticulture services companies.
That, though, was before Charles discovered Frolight, a revolutionary frost protection system that has racked up some 650 satisfied customers right around the world in just four years.
The environmentally-friendly electrical system, invented in Belgium, uses infrared radiation to warm the shoots on the vine, protecting them at temperatures down to minus six degrees Celsius and switching itself on and off automatically as required.
“At VineWorks we have seen and investigated many different frost protection ideas over the years, but this one makes sense to me from a technical perspective,” explained Charles. He and James Dodson, CEO and founder of VineWorks, were so impressed with the system that VineWorks is now the sole UK distributor for Frolight.
The team from VineWorks has been demonstrating the innovative system across the south east of the country, hosting a number of open events at which growers have been able to see how it works.
At Yotes Court Vineyard near Maidstone in Kent, vineyard manager Tony Purdie welcomed the VineWorks team and co-founder and inventor Laurens De Vos, who explained the benefits of the easy to install, hassle-free and relatively sustainable system.
The infrared lights are encased in a clear plastic tube that is simply unrolled and laid along the vines during the frost season. While it can be left permanently in place, storing it elsewhere when the risk is passed will extend its working life to an expected ten years. The radiation is effective in a 15cm radius around the tube.
“One of the great things about Frolight is that it will turn itself on when the temperature drops, so the grower doesn’t need to lay awake at night worrying about how cold it is getting and then leap out of bed at two in the morning to try to do something about it,” explained Charles.
Because the system uses infrared radiation, the warmth it generates is transmitted straight to the shoots and doesn’t warm the air. “It means that it is unaffected by wind or rain and provides peace of mind in any weather,” explained Laurens, who began working on the idea with co-founder Alexander Schmidt in 2019 and launched Frolight in 2021.
It is a measure of the system’s success that it is now used by more than 650 vineyards, not just across Europe but in Canada and the US, South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. “That’s more than 700 kilometres of Frolight,” Laurens pointed out proudly.
The system is easy to set up and Laurens believes it has considerable advantages over more traditional methods involving helicopters, sprinklers, fans or candles, not least in being less energy, resource and time hungry.
“It’s real ‘plug and play’ technology,” said Laurens, “and it can be run from a three-phase mains supply or a generator, which means it could be run using biofuel.” While the upfront cost of purchasing Frolight is similar to other frost protection methods, its ongoing running costs are lower, and Charles stressed another big advantage. “It works,” he said.
Frolight comes in at between £5 and £6 per linear metre, including the control boxes that connect it to the power supply. Working out a price per hectare is trickier, since it depends on factors such as row spacing, but VineWorks can provide an accurate quote based on the vineyard's specific configuration and frost risk conditions.
Laurens said Frolight had chosen to work with VineWorks because of the company’s knowledge of the industry and its well-established customer base. “We also spoke to some of their customers and received very good feedback,” he added.
Charles is currently busy responding to questions from interested vineyards. “Frolight’s modular design means vineyards can easily trial the system in a small area before expanding it as needed,” he said.
One grower already benefiting from Frolight is All Angels Vineyard in Berkshire. Founder and owner Mark Darley said: "Installing the tubes was incredibly easy - it took just a couple of us about half a day to clip them onto the fruiting wire.
“As for the system itself and the results, the one word I’d use is ‘transformative.’ It made my life so much easier. You always know when the system is on, it’s fully automated, and it provided absolute protection on the two or three nights when we did have frost."
