Hail Damage Question

Douglas14 · May 22, 2011

Last evening, around 9 PM, hail hit here. I had my tomatoes planted out on May 17. They took a beating. Fortunately I have backup plants for most of them, but not all. I'm wondering what to look for to see what plants will grow out of this O.K.? If the growth tips(not sure the technical term) of the plants are damaged, or broken off, are those plants pretty much done for?

barkeater · May 22, 2011

I've read that if the center growth point is broken off it really hurts the plant. In any case it can delay your first tomatoes by a good 3 weeks or more, which is a lot of time in Minnesota. I'd go to the backups.

GaryStPaul · May 22, 2011

Hi there, Douglas. Sorry to hear about your losses in last night's storm. My part of St. Paul escaped the damage, fortunately.

I have 72 plants in 4" pots, all doing well (at the moment!), but can plant out only about 52. A few of the extras are spoken for, but I'd be happy to share with you. If you're interested, let me know here and I can email you my grow list. There might be some that you're looking for. Gary (seed swap guy from a few years back).

**carolyn137** · May 22, 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by Douglas14

Last evening, around 9 PM, hail hit here. I had my tomatoes planted out on May 17. They took a beating. Fortunately I have backup plants for most of them, but not all. I'm wondering what to look for to see what plants will grow out of this O.K.? If the growth tips(not sure the technical term) of the plants are damaged, or broken off, are those plants pretty much done for?

Doug, I've had to deal with hail damaged plants more times than I'd like to remember and most of the time you'd be surprised how well they do, how resilient.

If the leader stem of a determinate variety is broken off that's a problem, but not a problem if it's an indeterminate variety bc ther latter will shoot out lateral branches, aka suckers.

I'd just groom the plants taking off the damaged branches and sometimes if there was life left it them just sticking a short one in the soil about a foot from the damaged plant, building a wee moat around that small branch and keeping the moat filled with water until I saw new growth.

But if you already have sufficeint backup plants there's no need to do that.

Just two days ago a T storm came though and dumped heavy hail in the village and I live about 4.23 min from the single stoplight in the village and got nothing here in the boonies. But the fact is that I don't ever plant out tomatoes until the first of June for several reasons.

These are the plants that Craig LeHoullier just hand delivered to me on Thursday when he and his wife were in the area after driving up this way from Raleigh. No USPS costs this year but maybe I should have chipped in on the gas costs, but they had to be up here anyway and I did pick up the tab for the B and B where I'd made reservations for them.

Douglas14 · May 24, 2011

Thanks for the replies.

Barkeater,
That's what I was thinking might be the case.

Gary,
Thanks for the offer! I sent you a PM.

Carolyn,
It's amazing how resilient these plants can be. There were a couple of times this season when I thought many of my young tomato plants wouldn't make it. They wilted in a cold shed one evening; on another occasion many looked almost dead after leaving them out on a cool, windy day. But I saved them in time.
They rebounded to looked very healthy as they got bigger.
For those I have backups of, I'll replant those. For those I don't have backups of, I may try to keep some of the better looking ones going. Especially Goose Creek, which I've been excited to try. A couple of those plants look like I can salvage them.

May 22, 2011	#1
Douglas14 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2007 Location: Minnesota Posts: 602	Hail Damage Question Last evening, around 9 PM, hail hit here. I had my tomatoes planted out on May 17. They took a beating. Fortunately I have backup plants for most of them, but not all. I'm wondering what to look for to see what plants will grow out of this O.K.? If the growth tips(not sure the technical term) of the plants are damaged, or broken off, are those plants pretty much done for?

May 22, 2011	#2
barkeater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: NE Kingdom, VT - Zone 3b Posts: 1,439	I've read that if the center growth point is broken off it really hurts the plant. In any case it can delay your first tomatoes by a good 3 weeks or more, which is a lot of time in Minnesota. I'd go to the backups. __________________ barkeater

May 22, 2011	#3
GaryStPaul Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: St Paul, MN Posts: 158	Hi there, Douglas. Sorry to hear about your losses in last night's storm. My part of St. Paul escaped the damage, fortunately. I have 72 plants in 4" pots, all doing well (at the moment!), but can plant out only about 52. A few of the extras are spoken for, but I'd be happy to share with you. If you're interested, let me know here and I can email you my grow list. There might be some that you're looking for. Gary (seed swap guy from a few years back).

May 24, 2011	#5
Douglas14 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2007 Location: Minnesota Posts: 602	Thanks for the replies. Barkeater, That's what I was thinking might be the case. Gary, Thanks for the offer! I sent you a PM. Carolyn, It's amazing how resilient these plants can be. There were a couple of times this season when I thought many of my young tomato plants wouldn't make it. They wilted in a cold shed one evening; on another occasion many looked almost dead after leaving them out on a cool, windy day. But I saved them in time. They rebounded to looked very healthy as they got bigger. For those I have backups of, I'll replant those. For those I don't have backups of, I may try to keep some of the better looking ones going. Especially Goose Creek, which I've been excited to try. A couple of those plants look like I can salvage them.