Ahh hail! Its been a rough year

[Stepheninky]

I had been coming home all last week and working in the garden as for us here we are over a month behind. Just finished getting most things in the ground Friday night. I even worked out in the dark that night to get it all finished up. Today Sunday 6/5/11 all hail broke lose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiyN-sa9auI

My garden was flooded and under at least 2 feet of moving water and like my plants my spirits are a little down as well, but dog dang it I refuse to give up. Just wanted to vent a bit and share with my friends on here.

[gdwa]

Wow. A little down? I thought I was having a bad year. Persevere! You shall be rewarded. I would be thinking about growing some in pots and moving them if need be!

[VGary]

Stephen, Sorry to hear about all the problems you are having with your tomatoes. I experienced hail and heavy rains once but didn't get too much damage. Do you have replacement plants since you just finished up your transplanting?
Continue to think positive; you are a pretty resourceful guy from my observations!
Gary
Louisville, KY

[Stepheninky]

Originally Posted by VGary

Stephen, Sorry to hear about all the problems you are having with your tomatoes. I experienced hail and heavy rains once but didn't get too much damage. Do you have replacement plants since you just finished up your transplanting?
Continue to think positive; you are a pretty resourceful guy from my observations!
Gary
Louisville, KY

Well, I had a flat of seeds started from Blue Ribbon tomatoes that were all KY heirlooms but it was on that table in the video and pretty sure not a one lived.

The water is starting to go down and while there is some damage I am hoping enough of them will rebound. The flowing water I think may have at least reduced some of the effects of the hail. Just going to wait and see.

I know some of my cucumbers,squash, and peppers bit the dust as they were cut off at the ground but worst case I will buy some replacement plants at one of the box stores. Waiting to see on the maters but so far I think most might pull through. Kinda bummed out about the 12 varieties of KY heirloom seedlings lost as I don't think I will have time to replant from seed but stuff happens. My family, neighbors, and I am all ok so that's the most important thing. Lost a few trees in the yard and the telephone line going to the house is down. (I now have internet phone anyways) So nothing that can't be replaced was lost. So still consider us lucky.

[b54red]

We had some bad hail back in March and it did a good bit of damage but my very young seedlings which I thought would be destroyed came through okay. Seems they were limber and small enough not to break as much as the larger plants. Of course some were smashed but over half survived unscathed. Maybe yours will come through better than you think. Good luck.

[Stepheninky]

Originally Posted by b54red

We had some bad hail back in March and it did a good bit of damage but my very young seedlings which I thought would be destroyed came through okay. Seems they were limber and small enough not to break as much as the larger plants. Of course some were smashed but over half survived unscathed. Maybe yours will come through better than you think. Good luck.

Thanks for the encouragement, I got home today and the seedlings are gone just green bits in the container. Some of my container plants (no tomatoes though) are doing surprisingly well. The main garden though was rougher then I had expected. It is supposted to storm again wed, Thursday, and Friday so once that all passes and it gets dry enough I will see where I ma at and start replacing with box store plants.

[Stepheninky]

I did a film of the damage, but I am still trying to cling on to some hope the plants will recover. This is the first time I have ever had hail hit a garden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i8q38UvSHA

[remy]

That's awful! I could hardly watch the video. Hearing hail makes me cringe. I feel your pain. If it lakes you feel any better, I once had 2 hail storms hit in one day. It was shortly after planting. Thankfully most things survived. Some of the tomatoes broke, but they grew. The eggplants that got hit didn't recover well. They are primadonnas though.
I hope your damage wasn't too bad,
Remy

[frogsleap farm]

Stephen - so sorry to hear of your bad news. I had a "minor" hail storm here in MN a day after transplanting, and I couldn't sleep for a week. They have mostly recovered. Good luck Stephen.

[Stepheninky]

Originally Posted by frogsleap farm

Stephen - so sorry to hear of your bad news. I had a "minor" hail storm here in MN a day after transplanting, and I couldn't sleep for a week. They have mostly recovered. Good luck Stephen.

Thanks for the encouraging replies, yea I did not sleep well last night and it was dark when I left for work. I probably should have looked at the garden prior to getting the video camera out. Still can not believe I called my Burp-less hybrid cucumbers, Burp-less hybrid squash (when I watched it and heard myself say that I knew I was not in my normal state of mind. ) I will pick up some more of those after work tomorrow along with some tomatoes to put in the un planted space just in case once things dry out a bit. I may use the leaf mulch compost in there as well once I get things sorted out.

[Stepheninky]

Originally Posted by remy

That's awful! I could hardly watch the video. Hearing hail makes me cringe. I feel your pain. If it lakes you feel any better, I once had 2 hail storms hit in one day. It was shortly after planting. Thankfully most things survived. Some of the tomatoes broke, but they grew. The eggplants that got hit didn't recover well. They are primadonnas though.
I hope your damage wasn't too bad,
Remy

Thanks yea it was something to watch the video, I have a video I made Sat of the garden before the storm but have not been able to bring myself to watch that one.

[PaulF]

In our hailstorm we only lost five plants. And I was feeling sorry for myself. I feel your pain. I hope things turn out for the better. At least I am on a high bluff above the flooding Missouri River. I guess through mismanagement by the Corps of Engineers, millions of acres of farmland will be under water for several months at a cost of many trillions of dollars. Makes my five tomatoes lost seem insignificant.

[Dewayne mater]

I feel for you! I also feel your pain as we've had 3 hail storms in a Dallas burb this year and I need a new roof on my house and both cars are beat to sh&#! My tomatoes all came back, but they were all at least 18 inches tall at the time of the worst storm. Many leaves and branches were broken, but they came back. Figure it cost me a month of production approximately, which is a ★★★★er. Hope you get most of them to come back. Good luck.

[Stepheninky]

Some bad news but mostly good on the tomatoes, The good news is of the ones actually planted in the garden all but three look like they are trying and should recover. The bad news is that the three that looks like they got washed out (only found one of the three) was my Minnie's Pinstripe I introduced last year. My neighbor Minnie lost all her seedlings earlier in the year but I am hopeful she has still got the two seedlings I gave her, so I might still get some seeds from her to try and grow out next year.

Enough of the squash and peppers look like they too will recover and I saw some of my okra today so I am trying to keep hope alive.

My cucumbers not so good but I can probably get by replanting them.

[clara]

Stephen, I feel very sorry for you! While I was watching your videos, I heard a mighty thunderstorm and much rain falling down here - it's already after midnight and I can't go out to see what has happened in the garden. In the last few days, we had similar storms in other parts of Germany with hailstones between pea-size and tennisball-size and many floodings and great damages and even some dead people - mother nature sometimes is cruel. You, your family, your house are okay - think that is might have been worse and I do hope that most of your plants will recover! clara