Seine-et-Marne: candles, freezing cold and short nights… in the orchards, it's the race against the frost

Once again the alarm went off so early that neophytes would say we shouldn't have gone to bed.

Once again, we had to spend the night outside, in negative temperatures, to “pamper” the 5 hectares of fruit trees, well wrapped up but caught in the sickening smell of 8-liter candles.

Once again, the arrival of the bright red sun on this Monday morning seemed interminable for the farmers plagued by frost, for yet another night this year.

As for Luc and Isabelle Signolle, fifty-year-olds who use techniques close to organic farming 170 hectares of crops including 40 hectares of Servigny picking, landlocked between the A5, the Carré Sénart shopping center and the Lieusaint pavilions.

Torch in one hand, thermal probe in the other and headlamp on their heads, Luc and Isabelle Signolle chase danger minute by minute.

That night, the temperatures are negative… LP / OC  

"We must be on the fifteenth night out in five weeks."

Each year, we go out two to four times, especially on late night frosts, short and without too much damage.

But this is a record.

Once, it rang twenty minutes after we went to bed.

I was in the fourth dimension, Isabelle sighs, her face and hands full of soot when she finally warms up in front of a steaming coffee after five hours of walking the orchard.

“Each new night jeopardizes the work of all the previous nights.

If we mess up, we did it all for nothing, ”she sums up.

This is what Luc felt a week ago, after seeing a large part of the future fruit production burned by the cold, assailed by -5 ° C.

The Servigny harvest trees are beset by the freezing cold./LP/OC  

To save the rest, the nights of anguish are still on the program this week.

Alerted by a probe placed among the cherry trees connected to their phone, these parents of five children got up around half past midnight on Monday to start the watering which protects the apple blossoms by forming a protective ice shell around them.

Watering protects apple blossoms by forming a protective ice shell around them./LP/OC  

Then, around 2:30 in the morning, after having dozed for a few moments, this time to light hundreds of candles for hours between the fruit trees.

An operation also unfortunately very aesthetic which takes hours despite the support of friends and family and where vigilance is required.

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Torch in one hand, thermal probe in the other and headlamp on her head, Isabelle chases danger minute by minute, aided by a table which gives the temperatures at which future fruits are in danger, depending on the progress of flowering.

Isabelle Signolle, operator of the Cueillette de Servigny, gives her instructions to her relatives scattered in the orchard to fight against the frost with candles.

LP / OC  

“The probe tells me - 1.8 ° C, with 93% humidity, it comes down to -2.2 ° C.

Quick, we must rush.

I call the troop to light under the peach trees.

Every other row, every other candle, for the moment.

We will come back if it gets worse, ”Isabelle analyzes around 4 am, while the grass crunches under your feet.

About a hundred meters away, the paths of cherry trees are already blazing with these flames which allow you to gain one or two precious degrees.

All flowers outside, well overprotected by climatic nets, they are already suffering at - 1 ° C.

“The apricot trees are the ones that flowered first.

They already had the beginnings of fruit appearing, they all burned down last week, ”laments Luc, who employs about fifteen people.

With a heavy air mass at -5 ° C that fell overnight from Monday to Tuesday, Luc was unable to fight this time.

This time, the fight against frost has been won, but operators are spending 10,000 euros on candles per year.

LP / OC  

“Each time, we make a bet, by lighting more or less candles, in certain places or not depending on the wind.

But I didn't think it would drop below -3 ° C.

My spray device was not ready, I got trapped, he regrets.

We lost at least half of the production of apples, pears, plums and cherries, 95% of peaches.

Even under greenhouses, part of the strawberries froze.

"

Tonight, the fight was won.

"We checked", he welcomes, finally relieved, but more and more certain of abandoning the 10,000 euros of annual candles for more reliable and more ecological investments of 50,000 euros in portable wind turbines, to brew air, and in the sprinkling of water droplets.

These long nights are therefore also synonymous with hope and Luc is counting on nature for a little comfort.

"We hope that there will be a few apples on the younger branches," he remotivates, while drought and wild boars are also to be feared.

Luc and Isabelle Signolle are still planning a few very cold nights until the famous “Ice Saints” on May 11, 12 and 13.

LP / OC  

“We start with a disability from the start of the year.

We hope to learn from other cultures.

At best, I won't earn any money this year, ”says Luc.

Last year, he lost 100,000 euros because of aphid attacks on his beets.

“We are wondering about the future.

Will the climate allow us to make a living from our cultures?

»Asks Luc, the third generation to work these lands.

This may require increasing the prices a bit.

“They will be, as always, fair.

And with an unbeatable value for money, ”defends Isabelle.

For that, we will have to watch over the crops for a few more nights.

With in mind, a frost on May 6 two years ago.