Fruit growers in the Northern Hemisphere have mixed feelings about the summer of 2025 – in Germany, many farms can look back on a reasonable to good year overall, but the mood varies across Europe and the rest of the world. While storms with hail affected yields in Catalonia, the stone fruit season was quite successful in many parts of the United States despite increased drought, according to the team at renowned fruit-growing supplier VOEN Vöhringer Überdachungssysteme.
The southern German company has been supporting fruit growers in Germany and abroad for many years with advanced roofing solutions to protect fruit crops. Customers rate VOEN's protective technology as very practical - Zip and Hibernation 2.0, for example, saved a lot of time and prevented some workers from having too much to do and others too little, confirms Toni Waldkirch, owner of the fruit farm of the same name, which primarily produces cherries and prunes on approximately 120 hectares of cultivated land in Müllheim (Feldberg). Fifty hectares of these are sweet cherries, twelve of which are covered. Toni Waldkirch has been a VOEN customer since 2024 and has already realized two projects covering two and four hectares.
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Stone fruit producer Toni Waldkirch
"The microclimate under the roof is very beneficial, even with a slight breeze, and is also better than other systems. The plants are doing well, and the foliage is healthy. At the same time, VOEN is the only system that I can open with a clear conscience in March or early April to protect against frost. I don't have to worry about violent spring storms and stability, because the strips can open in the wind and don't offer any surface area for attack", explains the fruit grower.
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View of the covered stone fruit orchard at Obsthof Waldkirch
Optimized hibernation process
The family business will be exhibiting at expoSE in Karlsruhe again this year. Among other things, the focus will be on the topic of 'integrated hibernation', confirms Leo Vöhringer on request. "We have set ourselves the task of making the simple even simpler and integrating the hibernation film into the film system for regions where there is a lot of sunshine or for crops that are less sensitive to shade, such as berries. The gray protective film is inserted directly into the VOEN film as the first solid strip, which provides additional shade for the crop and makes it possible to simply tuck the film strips under the ridge and secure them with the profile hooks attached to the rope."
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Covered cherry orchard
The system is a cost-effective solution for row spacings of up to 3.60 meters and can be combined with insect netting in the eaves area and the VOEN Zip.
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Leo Vöhringer and Rainer Weiß at last year's expoSE in Karlsruhe.
Visit the company at expoSE 2025: Hall 1 / B03.
For more information:
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Leo Vöhringer
VOEN Vöhringer
Tel: +49 7502 977950
[email protected]
www.voen.de
