Wind Engine....whut?

[Sailor37]

I saw this while goofing around on google earth.

It's radial engine at one of the vineyards in Napa valley.

At first I thought it was just kind of a joke piece of art, but looking closer, I think it's actually functional.

What would be the purpose/benefit of this?

Maybe some of you bay area guys may know.

[CarsSuck]

i bet it spreads chemicals

[Pac1373]

i bet it spreads chemicals

that is my first assumption as well, would be messy though...yech.

[Pantless Spency]

ive seen them in the valley,
not like this though!
i forget what they are used for,
but that looks super dope, that vineyard has the ratrod of vineyard fans ahha.
but there grape vines look like shit, looks to be off season but they seem very unorganized.

[slammin.e28]

I thought they were to circulate the air to keep it as close to optimal humidity/temp, etc as possible.

There was something on Dirty Jobs (IIRC) about a peach farm with devices like this to serve the above purpose. Also had boom tubes that would help protect them from hail damage.

[Cabriolet]

grapes mildew very easily, hence why they usually plant then on hills. the flow of air keeps the vines healthy. the roots must also be pretty dry, but that's another story. but also in napa it freezes. if you release water into the air it warms the air, thus keeping the vines from freezing.

[DRTSRFR]

Here...

Frost protection
Many areas of the county experience frost during the early spring. The emerging buds that form the first leaves are very susceptible to freezing. If they are killed by frost, they will not bear fruit this year. Bud break occurs sometime in March to April and the risk of frost usually ends around May 10th. 2001 and 2008 were very, very bad years for frost and many of my neighbors lost significant percentages of their crop to frost (30% to 50%).
So most growers that have the risk of frost protect their vines using one of three systems. The system that's most obvious are the large vineyard fans that disturb the very cold air at the ground and hopefully mix it with warmer air above 20'. These work down to about 28 or 29 degrees. Below that there is no warmer air to mix. Their other major drawback is that they are incredibly noisy and therefore not very popular among neighbors. They are said to sound like a 747 parked and running just down the road.

[CarsSuck]

i bet it sounds more like a dc-3 than a 747. harhar.

Thanks for letting us know though, on our side of the country the problem is mostly late season rains and birds.

[02stu]

Typical of a vineyard to use a radial engine, I wonder where you even find those

[dannyyisntt]

To move their property forward in time to harvest

[Pantless Spency]

Typical of a vineyard to use a radial engine, I wonder where you even find those

in a small town north of napa, St. helena, theres an airplane engine specialist type shop.
i wonder if he did them/worked on them lol.

[Sailor37]

Thanks for the explanation! Makes sense.

Frost protection
Many areas of the county experience frost during the early spring. The emerging buds that form the first leaves are very susceptible to freezing. If they are killed by frost, they will not bear fruit this year. Bud break occurs sometime in March to April and the risk of frost usually ends around May 10th. 2001 and 2008 were very, very bad years for frost and many of my neighbors lost significant percentages of their crop to frost (30% to 50%).
So most growers that have the risk of frost protect their vines using one of three systems. The system that's most obvious are the large vineyard fans that disturb the very cold air at the ground and hopefully mix it with warmer air above 20'. These work down to about 28 or 29 degrees. Below that there is no warmer air to mix. Their other major drawback is that they are incredibly noisy and therefore not very popular among neighbors. They are said to sound like a 747 parked and running just down the road.