Hail damage

bkay2000

13 years ago

We had a hail storm last night and all my hosta have been beat up pretty severely. Since they are newly up, could I cut them back and let them re-grow? Is there anything I can do except wait until next year?

bkay

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Comments (14)

coll_123
13 years ago
Oh no! I'm so sorry that happened...I know the feeling and it's not something I would wish on anyone...especially a fellow hosta lover.

Last year hail wrecked my garden in late June. Some of the hosta had already started a second flush of leaves, some hadn't. I decided to leave everything as is. I took one hosta and cut it all the way back as an experiment. After about a MONTH, that hosta, Delta Dawn, sent up new leaves....but they were a joke compared to the size of the leaves I cut off. Not worth it and if hail happens again, I doubt I'll cut anything down. Now I have to wait and see how Delta Dawn and everything comes back this year. Too soon to tell, here.
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flowerchild59
13 years ago
I have had hail damage in the past and it is usually not worth cutting off the leaves. Just remember if you do choose to do that, to disinfect between plants.
I think there was an article in the hosta journal last year about this matter if I remember correctly.
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I'll take a swing at this one. I repair hail damaged vehicles for a living. The method I use to remove the damage is called Paintless Dent Repair or PDR. I'll mention my qualifications just to give you an idea of my expertise. I started in the trade in 1991 and have repaired vehicles all over the US and Europe, including work at the Mercedes Benz factory in Stuttgart, the Toyota distribution facility in Athens, and numerous other new and used car dealerships. PDR is a method of removing hail damage and minor dent using steel tools to reshape the dent from the back side of the panel. It is the performed method by every insurance company in the world to repair hail damaged vehicles. Now to your situation. Hail dents DO NOT pop out by the sun. It is mostly an illusion from just looking at the dents for a period of time. If the heat does stretch the metal and the dents appear to "shrink" they will just "reappear" when the metal gets cold again. Hail damage is considered an 'Act of God" and therefore Ins Company's cannot raise you rates because you make a claim. There was nothing you could have done to prevent the damage. So..... call your company and see how they want you to proceed. I'm working here in Indianapolis at the moment and all the major carriers have catastrophe teams in town set up to estimate the auto hail damage. If the storm produces enough claims this is how they handle it. Your area may be different. BTW they issue you a check for the damage right on the spot minus your deductable. I hope this helps. I always recommend making an Ins. claim. That's what you pay for isn't it? If you have any other questions please ask. Michael
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I'm sorry you had so much destruction but glad you made so much progress on replacement. Not just more hail seems likely, but very large to possibly GIANT hail according to the Day 2 Convection Outlook from the SPC. As of this morning's update, the big hail seems more likely at the southern end of the risk area, possibly in central and northern TX, and you know that many of us here in the Red River area often get our worst weather events coming our way from TX after they develop there and move here. Luckily for your garden and mine, (I think, and I mean 'luckily' in the oddest of ways), they've already been hit by hail several times this spring, so you'd think the law of averages might mean we won't get hit this week, but sometimes the law of averages just don't work out for gardeners. I'll be watching KXII tonight to see what Steve LaNore says about the prospect of hail. I'll also try not to work through lunch so I can make it inside for the noon news to see what Tom Miller says. I also keep an eye not only on the NWS-Norman webpage but on the NWS-Fort Worth webpage, since our worst weather at this time of year often starts SW of our county somewhere in TX and then moves NE towards us, giving us a chance to sit and watch the radar as it shows storms heading our way. I also keep an eye on WFAA's radar almost nonstop on stormy days using the one for North Texas because it shows southern OK so well. Yesterday afternoon my son was pulling up models on the Pivotal Weather website and showing me what they were showing for various parts of the day, evening and night on Tuesday. Cape Values, in particular, look horribly high for some areas tomorrow. I just dread the weather that's cominh tomorrow knowing some folks in the TX/OK/KS/NE area (and likely beyond that area) seem likely to get hit hard. Since at least the mid-1980s, it seems like North Texas runs in big hail cycles. They'll go several years without exteme hail, and then they'll have repeated cycles (sometimes for 2 or 3 years in a row) of big hail hitting over and over again, and often it keeps hitting the same communities again (this year, it seems like Wylie, Frisco and Plano are under the gun). Once in the late 1980s or maybe the very earliest 1990s, friends of ours in Arlington got hit 3 times in what I believe was three consecutive springs by baseball to softball sized hail. Every time they got the roof, windows, skylights and interior of the house repaired and replaced and finally got the landscaping fixed again and everything was finally back to normal, the giant hail struck again. Unfortunately, this seems like a year for N TX to have that sort of repeated cycles of big hail and you and I live too close to N TX to let our guard down. I've been through baseball-to-softball sized hail twice in my life, both in N TX, and it is a horrifying experience I hope never to repeat again. Sadly, even much smaller hail will destroy a garden. Baseball to softball sized hail around 1979 or 1980 just destroyed my parents' house, putting large holes not just through the entire roof and all the windows on the north side of the house, but even through the exterior siding, and interior walls and ceilings. To fix the house, much of it had to be stripped down to the studs. Damage to every living plant outdoors was almost as bad, and some trees lost so much foliage they never recovered. That is the sort of storm I dread having. While losing a large part of the veggie and flower garders is devastating in its own way, we've never had anything bigger than about half-dollar sized hail hit our house since moving here, and my garden rebounded pretty well from that. Our Fort Worth house took a huge amount of hail damage one year in the 1990s from hail that was almost tennis ball sized, but my garden tolerated the hail damage that year really well, which surprised me. That was likely in April or earliest May of that year. The garden likely survived as well as it did because of the direction from which the hail came, which meant the hail had to fall through the canopy of our next door neighbor's tall trees (which shaded the garden more than I liked, but which in this case helped), which meant it had slowed down significantly by the time it hit my garden plants....and they had the added "shelter" of many small limbs knocked down on top of my garden by the hail. And, honestly, there was so much damage to our roof, window screens, and ornamental plantings that year (oh, and to our large above-ground swimming pool and to our cars) from the hail that I had a lot more than my garden to worry about. It likely was the least of my worries as it was more quickly fixable than everything else. It is hard to get a roofer to fix your house when every single house in the neighborhood also needs a new roof at the same time. I don't even want to think about having hail this week, but I think this region is likely to see some big, big hail. Since hail is usually so hit-and-miss, I'm hoping we all escape it, but good luck only carries us so far in the spring before it runs out.
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I don't know if this interests you or not, but someone told me (I think it was Chris) that you could fertilize every two weeks with a water soluble fertilizer to promote growth. Whomever it was said Bob Solberg said you could do every 10 days. I've not tried it, but it might help cover the bare spots. Glad they are looking better. That touch of class is really pretty. We've had some nasty weather with hail and tornadoes, but it has all missed me, thank God. With spring about over, maybe we're finished with bad weather for the summer. bk
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If you planted another Pepper plant right now and grew them side by side, you would not catch up to the hail damaged pepper until december if not much longer. That plant will just have to take a break and put it's energy into growing foliage for a while before it starts concentrating on putting out little peppers but it won't take long. You will see new green growth come quickly over the next couple of weeks. WE had some hail over the last couple of days but mostly pea size and nothing prolonged....thankfully, no damage for me after having my plants out for only 5 or 6 days.
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plantbug
13 years ago
bkay, I feel your pain. I had hail damage a week ago and mine look like yours. What the frost didn't get.......plantbug
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hosta_freak
13 years ago
I had hail damage last year. What I did was leave them alone. The plants need the green to continue to make food for the plant. My later leaves covered up much of the damage,and they looked pretty good the rest of the year. Just MHO. Phil
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gayle0000
13 years ago
I've been lucky over the years avoiding hail. My problem at my current house is the sticks and twigs falling out of the junky trees I've yet to clear out. They fall and spear the hosta leaves. My stick damage looks just like the hail holes.

I leave them. I don't risk chopping off foliage. I'd rather have holes and enjoy the plant as it is than cut things off and wait for recovery. I wait all winter for hosta season the way it is. I get tired of waiting. Enjoy them as they are.
Gayle
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in ny zone5
13 years ago
I had no hail but frost last May with some plants partially leafed out here in zone 5a. One hosta developed badly malformed leaves which I cut off in July, could not stand the look. The plant never developed new leaves last year, I hope it will come back.
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paul_in_mn
13 years ago
Feel for you, hail is tough on the emotions, it happens so quickly and nothing you can do about it. Last time it hit my gardens, I was out of town and wife called - got home late and walked around with a flashlight feeling sad. After new leaves flushed I finally felt like taking pics again - mostly leaf pics and longer shots.

Paul
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years ago
DO NOTHING FOR 2 or 3 weeks.. then.. SELECTIVELY .. TAKE OUT THE WORST leaves of each clump ... just pull them out.. to avoid having to sterilize your shears every plant.. just slide you fingers down the petiole.. and rip it from the crown ...

you will be surprised.. how removing.. maybe 3 or 4.. will make it look so much better ... and then later.. when they flush in mid summer.. remove a few more if necessary ...

if they do come up on stored energy .. and you immediately go out and remove everything.. you better hope there is enough stored energy to do it again ..

any if you do that.. expect all clumps to be smaller next year ...

if you wish a perfect garden.. then yes.. you wait for next year ...

but once you get over the shock.. you will have a very nice garden this year.. just relax about it ...

some say mother nature is a cruel mistress ... frankly.. she is just a bi+ch ...

ken
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bkay2000
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks, everyone.

We followed up Thursday's hail storm with high winds yesterday, which shorted out power lines. They worked on the power lines behind my house all night. I got up this morning to find they had dumped tree limbs on my iris bed, which hadn't finished blooming.

So far, this does not look like it's going to be a good gardening year. Maybe it's a good year to re-do the older beds and a good excuse to get some new hosta.

bkay
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Babka NorCal 9b
13 years ago
So very sorry, Bkay. I know it is difficult enough to grow hostas in the warmer zones, and this certainly doesn't add to the fun. It is only cosmetic and they'll come back next year even bigger and better.

-Babka
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years ago
oh come on bkay ... its a little early to give up on hosta ....

i am sorry you are in shock from the weather.. but keep it firmly planted in your mind... that they are hosta.. and would probably grow on the driveway ... and they would look worse than yours .. lol ...

couple years back .. i had a hail storm.. that completely flattened.. not a few holes .. flattened.. 1500 hosta ... now that season was a loss ...

focus on the summer flush .... it will be damage free ....

chin up .... rah , rah ... ken

pix of the 6 21 08 hailstorm

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bkay2000
Original Author
13 years ago
Wow, that is bad. We didn't get near that much. I heard they had baseball size hail about 30 miles from us, so we got off easy. Also, the power company came today and cleaned up all the limbs they left in my yard.

I'm certainly not giving up on hosta. I take it as a sign from the Gods that I must need more hosta. That will certainly lift my spirits. I'm running out of shady places to put pots, though.

Thanks for the photos, that makes my "holy" hosta look lots nicer. I'm going to do better about fertilizing, as I don't normally get a second flush of leaves. Maybe better fertilization will help.

bkay
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coll_123
13 years ago
lol, bkay, I took it as a sign last year, too, and aquired many new ones. Mostly because I just couldn't bear to look at the ugliness all around me. It did help brighten my spirits. And the microburst that brought the hail also took down a huge tree, making it possible for me to add a new hosta bed this year, so that's good.

I don't know if it was the time of year we had our storm, but only two hosta bothered to send up a new flush of leaves- Stained Glass and Tropical Storm. Stained Glass really recovered well and looked almost decent. The rest were trashed for the season.

Here is poor Parhelion. This makes me only want to buy hosta with small leaves now.
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thisismelissa
13 years ago
I remember Ken's hail storm. He, too, was disheartened. But I do like what he said.... wait a couple weeks and re-assess.

Last year, during the convention, several forum-members were AT idiothe's house when a 10-15 second hail storm came thru. It was so sad to see how such a short event can cause such damage.
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Hail damage

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