Monday Night Hail Storm

raydawg · June 11, 2008

Last night when I got home from work, I finally got to see the damage. We had about a fifteen min hail storm of pea size that knocked out our power. I lost over a dozen growing tips along with leaf damage. It was unbelieveable. The bottom of the raised bed looked like I used my weed eater on the plants, with leaf pieces everywhere. The worst was my potato leaves, they looked like they were shot with a shotgun, some had three or four holes in each leaf. You could see the hail marks on some of the outer tomatoes. Lucky with the plants at six feet there are lots of tips to keep growing.

On a good note, of the nine dwarfs only one had a single split leaf.

I'm telling you the dwarfs from the projects are some baaaaad tomato plants. I wouldn't want to mess with them in a dark alley.

barkeater · June 11, 2008

So sorry about your loss. When I was a commercial farmer, the only time I ever had hail damage was when I had a great early crop a week away from ripening!

The leaf damage won't hurt, but any almost mature tomatoes that were cut will rot. If they were still immature they will be scarred but will ripen without rotting.

At 6 feet plus, there are many growing tips, so you are right not to worry about that.

Have you been picking tomatoes from these plants yet?

raydawg · June 12, 2008

No I have not picked any. These went in the ground on Apr 22, so I am at 51 days. I probably have 30 or so, but no ripe ones yet, they just keep on setting. Paul Robeson and Early Girl are going to be ready probably next week.

June 11, 2008	#1
raydawg Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Douglasville, GA Posts: 41	Monday Night Hail Storm Last night when I got home from work, I finally got to see the damage. We had about a fifteen min hail storm of pea size that knocked out our power. I lost over a dozen growing tips along with leaf damage. It was unbelieveable. The bottom of the raised bed looked like I used my weed eater on the plants, with leaf pieces everywhere. The worst was my potato leaves, they looked like they were shot with a shotgun, some had three or four holes in each leaf. You could see the hail marks on some of the outer tomatoes. Lucky with the plants at six feet there are lots of tips to keep growing. On a good note, of the nine dwarfs only one had a single split leaf. I'm telling you the dwarfs from the projects are some baaaaad tomato plants. I wouldn't want to mess with them in a dark alley. __________________ Ray

June 12, 2008	#3
raydawg Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Douglasville, GA Posts: 41	No I have not picked any. These went in the ground on Apr 22, so I am at 51 days. I probably have 30 or so, but no ripe ones yet, they just keep on setting. Paul Robeson and Early Girl are going to be ready probably next week. __________________ Ray

June 11, 2008	#2
barkeater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: NE Kingdom, VT - Zone 3b Posts: 1,439	So sorry about your loss. When I was a commercial farmer, the only time I ever had hail damage was when I had a great early crop a week away from ripening! The leaf damage won't hurt, but any almost mature tomatoes that were cut will rot. If they were still immature they will be scarred but will ripen without rotting. At 6 feet plus, there are many growing tips, so you are right not to worry about that. Have you been picking tomatoes from these plants yet?