I’ve never seen lightning damage in an apple orchard but have seen it happen several times in grape vineyards. It usually damages the entire row and can even cause trellis poles to explode. Vines recover in a couple of years. My feeling is about the same would happen with apples, if any trees actually died it would only be in the vicinity of the strike. Almost all of the new orchards I’ve seen use metal screw in anchors and/or metal conduit to support trees which should ground the lightning out and limit damage.
It would take some very hefty monofilament to compare to high tensile trellis wire. Bill Fleming Montana State University Western Ag Research Center Corvallis, MT 59828 406-961-3025 From: apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net [mailto:apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net] On Behalf Of Arthur Kelly Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 9:10 AM To: Apple-crop discussion list Subject: Re: [apple-crop] lightning I am not aware of lightning strikes on any wire trellis systems in our area but that was always one of the selling points for using monofilament instead of wire. Art Kelly Kelly Orchards Acton, ME On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 10:39 AM, Steven Bibula <sbib...@maine.rr.com<mailto:sbib...@maine.rr.com>> wrote: Anyone know of lightning strikes on wire trellised systems, and the effects on the trees? Has anyone studied the attractiveness of these systems to lightning strikes, and whether grounding and foliage has much to do with it? Steven Bibula Plowshares Community Farm Gorham ME _______________________________________________ apple-crop mailing list apple-crop@virtualorchard.net<mailto:apple-crop@virtualorchard.net> http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop -- Art Kelly Kelly Orchards Acton, ME
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