## 4 Discussion
Throughout the overwintering period, the soil temperatures at depths of 20 and 40 cm decreased across all the treatments. To evaluate the heat preservation performance, the treatments were compared based on their temperature decline rates. The sandwiched striped cloth, heat-insulating striped cloth, heat-insulating sandwich striped cloth, and double-layer striped cloth treatments exhibited better heat preservation than the striped cloth treatment at both 20 and 40 cm depths. However, the differences between treatments narrowed at greater depths, with the temperature decline rates approximately 11% to 9% lower than those of the striped cloth treatment. Soil moisture during overwintering is influenced by solar radiation, snowmelt, rainfall, and irrigation [32]. The moisturizing ability, assessed using the rate of moisture decline, demonstrated that all the treatments (except soil-covered striped cloth) performed better than the striped cloth treatment at a depth of 20 cm. However, at 40 cm below the ground, all the treatments, except for the heat-insulating sandwich striped cloth treatment, exhibited a lower moisturizing ability than the striped cloth treatment. This study compared the effectiveness of various overwintering treatments and suggested that the sandwiched striped cloth, double-layer striped cloth, and heat-insulating striped cloth treatments provided superior performance compared to the striped cloth treatment. Based on a low-temperature hazard zone analysis, the most effective treatments were the sandwiched striped cloth and double-layer striped cloth. Notably, the conclusions drawn from this single-year investigation carry inherent limitations. Future studies should implement 3-5 consecutive annual monitoring cycles to validate result stability under interannual climatic variability. Striped cloth is widely used as a thermal insulation material in agricultural production [33], particularly for winter protection of wine grapes in the northern foothills of the Tianshan region. Pearl cotton, with its loose structure and internal voids, offers excellent thermal insulation properties, further enhancing its suitability for overwintering applications [34]. This study proposed a novel thermal insulation quilt featuring pearl cotton as the middle layer, sandwiched between double layers of striped cloth, and combining the waterproof and thermal insulation properties of the striped cloth with the insulating features of the pearl cotton. The application of insulation quilts for overwintering wine grapes represents a new direction in the development of overwintering techniques avoiding burial, with newly developed quilts combining the advantages of different materials and demonstrating exceptional heat preservation and moisture retention capabilities [35]. However, the economic feasibility of implementing the sandwiched striped cloth treatment for superior overwintering performance requires further evaluation. Currently reliant on manual production, this treatment faces challenges in terms of cost and capacity, necessitating collaboration with manufacturers to industrialize production,reduce costs, and enable broader adoption in the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountain region. Compared to single-layer membrane structures, double-layer membranes offer enhanced thermal insulation owing to a static air layer that regulates temperature fluctuations, reduces evaporation, and provides a stable growth environment for crops [36]. The experimental comparisons in this study confirmed that the double-layer striped cloth outperformed its single-layer counterpart in terms of thermal insulation and moisture retention, making it more suitable for ensuring the safe overwintering of wine grapes and recommended for utilization in northern China's wine grape-producing areas.