Hi Scott, I read that and thought for once it isn't raining here, thinking you meant Jay OK which is in my county. Then I realized you meant Jay, the tomato king. I agree that he is probably getting some bad weather, but the scariest part, I think, is going to be when that storm from Colorado meets up with the one brewing in western Oklahoma and moving northeast. That western OK storm already has a lot of upper level rotation in it.

For Jay's sake, I hope he just gets rain and not the bad stuff.

Scott I received 6 inches of hail and 2 tenths of rain. The pepper plants I was hardening off that were against the north side of my house look fine. Most of the plants I had in my lean to the wind took some of the panels out of look ok. A few of the plants in the cold frames that were against the very west sides look ok. And the 3 plants in the garden that I hadn't removed the buckets and put the cages up look fine. The other 6 plants in the garden and 4 of them had maters on them and the remaining plants in the frames (250 plants plus) are basically wiped out. A few may rebound but not sure most will in time to amount to much. Had several real nice plants. My sweet corn is nubbins. Stripped the garlic and the onion tops are beat down to about 2-3 inches tall. The ground is covered with what it beat off. Will watch things for a few days. Might try to find some big plants to put out. I had planned to cut down and wasn't succeeding. Think this may do it. I'm thinking 20-30 plants now unless some show rapid improvement. Sure wish I hadn't removed the buckets from around those that I did. I looked at the weather this morning and they said the severe storms would be east of us and so did the NWS forecaster on the radio from Amarillo. Wish we had received more rain and less hail. Jay

Jay,

I am so shocked that your plants were destroyed. Why oh why couldn't you have had 6" of rain and 2/10s an inch of hail?

You know, I had tomato plants beat back completely to the ground in one of our earliest years here. I cut them off at the ground and cleaned up and hauled away all the plant debris to lessen the chance of disease, and probably 90% of the plants came back from the roots. With no leaves left on them, I didn't expect such good regrowth. My harvest was about 6 weeks late, so it wasn't as bad as I expected.

I wish I had 'back up' plants to mail you.

Are the horses and dogs alright?

Dawn

Dawn,
First I'm just thankful it was hail and not the terrible storms that have been hitting east of here. I will still have a garden. I may have less tomatoes and more peppers and other veggies. All of my peppers are fine. I've had tomato plants pull out but these look terrible. Hindsight is always the best. I could of covered those in the frames really easy. But didn't feel I needed too today. If the wind hadn't removed part of the lean to before I got the rubber seal installed I would of had most of my extra's in there and they would of been fine. I will just have to wait a year to try several I wanted to try. Will also give me more time to finish other projects. And it is odd how it would strip one tree and another look fine. My oldest apple tree that produces so well looks like nothing happened. A younger tree 30 ft away go stripped. I expected to see the onions beat down but surprised how it stripped and beat the garlic tops down. And it beat some of the potatoes pretty good. My potatoes have had a tough year. The 4 from Darrel got froze back and one has never came back. Now they got beat up along with some of the others. Like I said I will have more time for other projects. And there is a possibility I may purchase another property. Jay

Jay, I am heartbroken for youy. 250 plants represents a lot of lost work, and much lost hope. I prepared for hail, as best I could, and we got none. Doesn't it always work that way?

Oh, Jay! No, no, no, no. no....

I wish there weren't a couple lengths of states between us. :-(

Diane

I am so lucky, for the past two years I have been complaining that every thing come through south of Poteau or north of Ft. Smith. So far that trend is continuing. I have lost a small amount of corn that had been whipped around till it broke off at the ground. I think the ones that are not broken will recover.

Larry

The local radio station said the official report was 1" to 1 3/4" hail 6" deep in my location yesterday. It was a narrow band. A mile east or west and my garden would of been fine. Some areas got a half and inch of rain. I received the hail instead. Just proves the old saying be careful what you wish for. I had complained the last few years about all the storms steering around me. This one took dead aim. At least it is early enough I can replant most. I may have to buy some tomato plants though and won't be the varieties I had planned on. Most of the plants that are ok were the ones I intended to use for back ups. Not as big or the varieites I had planned for main plant out. The pepers were a little wind beat this morning after 40-50 mph winds most of the night with gusts higher. I had said a few weeks ago that we had been lucky about not receiving any hail for several years. Especially with the drought. As it seems during those years is when we receive the worst hail storms. Jay