Alexandro Bock at the IPM Essen in Germany.
Two weeks ago, Italy had to deal with cold temperatures and snowfall in the southern part of the country. "Here in Latina, we did not have any snowfall, only the cold. Fortunately our greenhouse is equipped with a good heating installation and we therefore could easily maintain 25 Degrees Celcius in the greenhouse when it was minus 7 or 8 outside."
However, the greenhouses of many growers in the southern region of the country are not equipped with such an advanced heating installation as they usually do not experience such cold temperatures. Several growers lost their crop and some even partly lost their greenhouse, as they had to deal with heavy snowfall as well. "The structure could not support the quantity of snow on the roof and collapsed."
A photo of a destroyed greenhouse in Apulia that was published by a local online magazine; Lecce Prima three weeks ago.
According to Bock, the weather improved over the last 10 days in Italy. "An African wind is increasing the temperatures, we are now heading to the 16-17 Degrees Celcius."
In a couple of weeks, the end of February and beginning of March, the season will start again. For the growers with damaged greenhouses and crops, it will probably take longer to be able to ship their flowers again and they all hope to be on time. Bock has good hopes that about 80 percent of the production will be ready or will have a delay of about 10 days.
For more information
DIEM SRL
Alexandro Bock
Email: diemsrl@gmail.com
www.diemhibiscus.it