Hail Damage

[Elayne]

My plants got hammered last night by hail. A lot of the leaves are stripped, and the green tomatoes have lots of dings in them. Should I trim off the damaged leaves and stems, and remove the damaged tomatoes?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Elayne

My plants got hammered last night by hail. A lot of the leaves are stripped, and the green tomatoes have lots of dings in them. Should I trim off the damaged leaves and stems, and remove the damaged tomatoes?

Over the years I've had more experience than I ever wanted with hail damage.

I would let the damaged leaves fall off normally so that you don't expose fresh wounds.

As for the fruits, it depends on what size the greenies are and how far the hail penetrated. If it's just small depressions or dings theyll go on to ripen up just fine. But if the hail penetrated the skin to go deeply into the fruits then yes, I'd remove them b'c they'll just start to rot.

[amideutch]

Elayne, Had the same thing happen to me last month. Since the root system of the plant is well established you should get new side shoots. The only problem is will the new fruit ripen in time. Ami