Area Steaming

In practice steaming has been continuously refined since the end of the 19th century. Certainly the invention of heat resistant sheets was a significant advancement in the application of hot steam in horticulture. Until then only fixed installed steaming pipes, harrows or hoods could be used to induce steam into the soil. Heat resistant sheets made it possible to steam bigger areas in one step without the heavy use of labor to constantly relocate hoods and harrows.

For area steaming in green houses or on open fields several different steaming methods get applied such as sheet steaming, hood steaming, Sandwich-Steaming, depth steaming with drainage pipes, plough or harrow.

Since the 1990s, systems were developed to efficiently steam huge areas of several hectares in size. The development of steaming automats was initiated. Until today, methods are scientifically researched to further optimize steaming results such as integrated and partial steaming.