Hail Damage on potato leaf dwarfs

[ABlindHog]

One thing you can count on in this part of Texas is a hail storm or two every spring. The damage in the garden can be serious but tomatoes usually come through it OK. Tomato foliage is flexible enough to bend but not break for the most part, and it takes a direct hit to break the more brittle branches. This year I decided to try a few dwarf tomatoes, and put out two each of Summer Sunrise, Sweet Scarlet, and Dwarf Purple Heart. The rugose leaves on these plants are very impressive. Instead of the wispy foliage normally associated with hearts Dwarf Purple Heart looks upright and sturdy and is a great looking plant. Summer Sunrise and Sweet Scarlet are potato leafed plants with huge substantial looking leaves, some as large as my hand. The size of those leaves and the doubling of their surface area from the rugose texture will surely make them very efficient energy collectors. Then we had our first hail storm of the year. It wasn't a very bad one either, about 30 minutes of pea sized hail just before midnight. The next morning I went out to check on the garden and found that of my 25 tomato plants only one Big Beef had lost a couple of branches. The potato leafed dwarfs were another story. Each of those big beautiful leaves had about a dozen holes big enough to stick my little finger through. the same characteristics that made them so impressive also made them highly susceptible to hail damage. The plants may replace some leaves and recover but those damaged leaves will surely all be lost and the plants have been set back, probably by several weeks.

[PhilaGardener]

Sorry to hear of your hail damage! Please let us know how the plants do as the season progresses.

[carolyn137]

I'm of two minds of what you've said. And yes I've had a lot of tomato hail experience.

Yes, the surface area of PL leaves is almost always larger than RL leaves and yes PL rugose leaves have ridges and ruffles if you will.

But the epidermis of PL leaves in my opinion is thicker than RL leaves and that's shown in my experience since they are less susceptible to foliage diseases and at the end of the summer thay are the last ones standing when the RL's are down and out.

Which is one reason that I prefer growing PL varieties when I have a choice.

I've seen hail damage holes on RL leaves as well, and that never set them back much at all. For both I suggest you don't take off such "holy" leaves which leaves an open wound at the attachement site, just let them fall off naturally, if they do, and sometimes they do turn yellow and fall off, but again, in my experience, never ALL of them.

Carolyn

[AlittleSalt]

Today, I noticed a plant that had gone though ping pong ball sized hail and 70-85 mph winds from a raised tornado. The plant looks horrible. I would say that 90% of gardeners would have pulled it a week ago right after the storms. I'm a firm believer in nature. After all, it has endured through the life of our planet.

Well, today, the top half of a special tomato plant to me - broke off. It was seriously 50% of the plant. I saved three stems and put them in water filled solo cups. I have no idea what those tomatoes that I saved stems from taste like, but I'll be "..." if I'm not giving them another chance.

[efisakov]

Alittlesalt, I agree. In 10 days or so you will have good enough roots to pot them.

[b54red]

The wind storm we had last Saturday did far more damage to the potato leaf plants than to the regular leaf plants but they are all starting to recover now so no big deal. Except for the fact that nearly every lower truss with full blooms was just blown off. Probably sets back my production by another two weeks. With all the delays this year I'm going to be getting my main burst of tomatoes way later than usual. Maybe the first freezes won't come early like the last two years and the season can run a little late.

Bill

[clkeiper]

Alittle salt... Add sterile potting mix to the container with drainage holes and put them in or plastic bags over the top to form a "greenhouse" for them. They will root quickly and the roots won't be so fragile. I have also rooted them right in the garden with a pot over top of them for a few days with no problems, too. One of my friends stopped last year and it was the end of the greenhouse season up here and there wasn't much left to choose from. We had just had a last freeze and his tomatoes were fried. I pulled all the suckers off of some of my plants and handed them to him and told him to put them right in the garden with pots, cut down milk jugs, plastic containers of some kind with holes in them for ventilation, over them right where they wanted them planted... They were shocked that that would work and later mentioned to me how happy they were to have had them.

[efisakov]

Carolyn k, I did something similar just out go curiosity. The once that were under intense sun and heat did not survived. Shaded area was the best. Few cloudy days do help as well.

[Salsacharley]

Here's some hail damage for you from yesterday (May 4). Today the ground is covered in shredded leaves. I won't have to cull my peaches or apples this year. All my apples have hail damage, and my raspberry plants are completed denuded as well. This is a bummer.

[clkeiper]

Oh, how awful to see that. the raspberries should come back to produce though. the apples and peaches? how pitiful. I am so sorry for this for you. just depressing, huh? I wish I could send you some undamage.