The team that developed “Frost Armour” spray-on foam
to protect crops from frost has won a $25,000 innovation prize in Kitchener.
Erin Laidley, co-founder of Protein Technologies”,
said the start-up company is looking for partners to participate in trials.
So far they have a deal with the Ontario Ginseng
Growers Association.
The spray is a non-toxic, protein-based product that
is sprayed on when there’s danger of frost, then when it warms up, they spray
it again so it dissolves into fertilizer.
This is not a new idea. Dr. David Siminovitch, a
researcher with the federal agriculture department, developed a spray-on foam
in 1972 that effectively protected strawberries from frost.
It was also protein based and it dissolved without
requiring a second spraying.
It was never a commercial success because farmers preferred
to accept the risk of frost damage rather than investing time and money to
spray their fields.
I know about Dr. Siminovitch's research because I was a science writer for the federal agriculture department at the time, and wrote an article about his foam frost protection.
