granite, I'm so sorry for what happened to your garden. Didn't the forecasts warn about the hail? Of course, sometimes the weather warnings come a bit too late, or ones is busy with something else and finds out a bit late to protect the plants I wish you that as soon as the ground dries a bit you can replant with better luck. Cheer-up granite!

granite

That's a REAL bummer!

You know, I think I'd see what happens to all the plants that still have some viable stems with leaves, as well as planting some new ones, just in case. Your zucchini looks like not all the stems were broken, and do I see a couple of healthy leaves on them? Same is true for the pepper plant. The onions should be okay, and the tomatoes will probably grow again.

We should all figure out a way to make some sturdy "hail pyramids" or cloches big enough for large plants. Seems like we're having much stormier weather than usual this year.

Maybe all isn't lost for you. I hope not.

Bummer for sure...just yesterday I was explaining to my DH that a good looking garden right now doesn't mean a big harvest cause there are too many if's...

Sorry about your garden...I know how it feels.

I am sorry too Granite, I know that has to be pretty traumatic to lose everything that quickly. Hopefully some of it will come back, and / or you can have some late summer / fall garden.

We have had such an unusually cool, wet spring here that while my garden looks lush and green for the most part right now, yellowing leaves have started on the bottom part of many of my tomato plants and there is probably not a thing that I can do about it. I had bought some Daconil and had it ready, but with rain so frequently, it would just be wasting time, money and effort to try to spray. We got an additional inch yesterday and it has rained off and on all day today.

Some of the plants are really loaded with tomatoes, while some have none at all yet. Even the Maxifort that I am growing to get seed for root stock is supposed to have a high tolerance to disease and pests has had many blooms but no tomatoes and has {{gwi:66263}} starting on the bottom of the plant.

Hang in there and keep us posted on what recovers.
Bill P.

gonefishing, may I ask, what do you suspect your tomato plant might have?

granite,
I had a bad hail storm last year on June 28. I know how frustrating that can be....bless you. It hurts to be in your situation.....sometimes seeminly nearly alone. Last year I was thinking that I probably had the best patch of melons in the county..and why me?
The corn leaves were shredded and looked terrible, but they totally recovered. Some of the melons suffered rather badly where there wasn't a tree on the sw to block the driving hail....zucchini squash may not recover well though vined ones did fine. My peppers were, well, peppered and were a near total loss. The onions did ok but were hit more than you would think. The tomatoes came through 100%. The sweetpotato leaves were shredded a lot but came through 100%. Green beans were not hurt.

From the looks of your tomatoes you really got hammered.

No forecast for hail, just for "scattered thunderstorms"...at any rate I was at work when it happened and once it started there was no going out to cover anything. My DH was home but he said the noise was deafening, the horses across the street were screaming in pain, and there was no venturing out in the storm. He said he was afraid at one point that all the windows on the front of the house would break (they held). Afterwards he let the doggies out to play in the hail on the deck. The puppy would take a running start down the deck and slide the last 15' on the 4 - 10" accumulation of hail on the deck. They all crunched mightily on the hail and thought it a fine snack.

I think the zukes are goners, very few leaves left in tight on the plants. The peppers and tomatoes should recover, but it will set production back weeks. I'll be checking the onions, some I'm sure will need to be pulled now due to the leaf damage. I straightened the sunflowers and most should pull through but about 10 of them were snapped off at the middle. If I get home soon enough tomorrow, I'll start replanting the areas that have dried enough to work.

My deepest sympathies! Sorry to hear about your losses. But we gardeners always persevere! Hang in there and keep us posted on what survives the season!

Carol, I am just hoping that it is too much water, but I am afraid that it is probably some of that fungal problems or blight. I guess time will tell.
Bill P.

Hey granite

Man I'm sorry for your garden. Imagine what it must have been like when that garden meant the family either ate or didn't eat!

I'm not minimizing your loss but, it could be worse.

Katrina left us with 13 1/2 feet of water in the house. When the water receded, it left behind 2 feet of the nastiest slop you can imagine inside.

Now, to avoid contaminated soil, I built planters 2' X 8' X 6" and raised my garden 2 feet off of the ground. My grand daughter and my son used 16X strength fertilizer on my garden and killed EVERY plant I was growing. That garden was growing in nearly all composted material. The only additive was vermiculite for aeration. There shouldn't have been any added fertilizer used on that garden at all. My fault.

We have an extremely long growing season so, I'm able to restart many of what I want to grow.

Which, leads me to this; I have many (ridiculous amount) of vegetable seeds. If your growing season would permit it, you are certainly welcome to whatever seeds of mine you might be interested in. Just email me for a list.

BTW, we're doing just fine and are blessed beyond belief!

Ray

OMG, I kept scrolling through the pics and my jaw dropped further and further down. I'm so sorry. I can't imagine the feeling.

Thanks for posting.

For those who think that you can always run out in the hail....In 2000 hail that looked like perfect(and very solid] golf balls fell where I was at work. I stepped outside and one hit me in the back...very hard. Later I leaned out a bit when someone exclaimed, "Oh, Wayne's window just busted" (vehicle]. Well, it was another Wayne, but one ball hit me on the head and it rang kind of like a telephone ring!

Of course Wayne, ones NEVER should go out during a hail storm (nor windstorm either). My question was about the precautions that might be taken in front, as long as the forecasts say something.
Granite, poor those horses and the puppies...!

Granite,
My condolences. :( How awful!
It has been a strange year here, weather-wise, for sure. I lost all my blueberry blooms in the April freeze, the first year of fruit gone. I was so disappointed after pruning them all the first year, waiting patiently for the reward later.
Seems like it has really been a struggle this year with the weather - too hot, too cold, no rain, too much rain/hail. I keep thinking next year will be better, and adjust my expectations, but it's hard sometimes.
I wish you the best and hope you can salvage some of your plants. :)
Rosemary

Greenville SC here...

I feel your pain, but differently, I was in the garden laying out the drip irrigation system when the rain came howling in, my wife opened up the window and told my son and I hail was forecasted.

At that moment I looked at my 11 year old son who is my co-gardener and in charge of the squash and hot peppers and at the 800+ cherry tomatoes on my 2 plants, the 4 romas and beautiful squash plants(3 a day easily) and massive amounts of hot peppers and i called him on his dedication to maintaining the garden. Without even a blink he answered "what do i need to do"

for 15-20 minutes we both sat in the hail holding a tarp tight over the garden, in shorts and t-shirts, he had my panama hat on which protected his head, however he took a beating and never flinched once.

When it was over the only damage was that the zuke leaves had some holes torn in them and about 50 cherries got knocked off, all in all a great save.

My poor son looked like he got stung be 200 bees, you could count every hail stone that hit his body. I told him I would understand if he went inside but he said not after all the hard work we put in, he knew i loved my garden and his mom loved the zukes and maters.

I had never been more proud of him at any other moment in his entire life, I calculated the cost of replanting the garden and figured it to be the cost of a new bicycle, which i took him out the next day to buy.

I will never forget watching him on the couch with his eyes misting from the pain and when asked if he was okay, he said it hurt be he would get over it.

That night we harvested some zukes, fried them up with onions and olive oil and ate a toast to the garden we both saved that day.

I have a feeling your hail was worse than mine granite.

condolences.
gg

You have my deepest sympathy. I am so sorry for the devastation. I'll repeat what others are saying, weird weather. Here in East TN they are predicting rain/storms. Let's all pray for a good rain without any destruction. I think all of the south east is in a severe dry spell. The worst I've seen in my lifetime. Best of luck.

Just to clarify...my dogs were INSIDE during the hail storm, being spoiled and pampered as usual. They only went outside AFTER the storm and had a gleeful playtime sliding around in the ice and eating it.
{{gwi:66267}}

I would never recommend for people to stand out in hail for any reason. You can be seriously injured. Hail falls at 15 to 45 meters/second.....that's up to 100 miles per hour! (for some reason it won't let me use the hyperlink feature to list the site for the physics of hail, but it is here: http://www.stormtrack.org/archive/0826.htm if you are interested).

I bought more bean seed today and planted 2.5 rows before another thunderstorm came in. Luckily, this one looks like just rain.

So one week later its obvious that 4 squashes, a pepper plant, and a tomato have bit the dust entirely. The remaining squashes look very brave with their blooms coming out underneath a few battered leaves. I've replanted the cucumbers as between the hail and the bunnies I had about 3 leaves on two plants left. I tucked in a few more squash seeds but it does look like quite a few of the plants are going to leaf out and grow. Whether they will be productive is another story. Has anyone else had experience with squash plants coming back from a pounding that left very few leaves and quite a few open hollow stems? I'll see if I can get a few pictures of the plants so you can compare last week to this week.

So a week later, here is the pepper plant:
{{gwi:66268}}

So here is the same tomato:
{{gwi:66269}}

A zucchini (not sure if it is the same one or not):
{{gwi:66270}}

A week can make a lot of difference

So nice to see your vegetables are putting growth! After all what you had with the garden, looking at the signs of recovery must be a big relief. Enjoy it!
Carol

Recovery indeed! Now at two weeks and two days since the storm, my zucchinis have squash on them that are 4 to 6" in length!! I did lose several plants and two more look to croak in the next few days, but look at the change!!

Pepper plant:
{{gwi:66271}}

Zucchini row:
{{gwi:66273}}

the same Mortgage Lifter tomato:
{{gwi:66274}}

I'm glad I didn't give in to despair and pull it all out on June 17th when I went out there to clean up the damage!

That's a good lesson for us all! Thanks for the (mostly) good news update. I'd been wondering if your plants recovered.