Recovering from a hail storm

Shredded Kale after Marble-sized Hail

I’m sure there are a lot of you out there in the same boat as me today. You woke up to find that your garden had been pummeled by hail and is now a shredded mess of it’s former self. Well, the truth is that you probably were woken up by the thunder and the pounding of the hail last night and knew the morning would be dreary because you’d have to face the damage. So what do you do now? I have a few suggestions that I’ve used in the past to recover my garden.

#1: Eat fast
This is really just common sense. If you had lettuce or spinach that got shredded by the hail – eat it. Sure, it’s dirtier than normal, but you can pick it up off the ground as easily as you could cut it from the plant. You can think of it as pre-cut if you need a silver lining.

#2: White Buckets / Milk Jugs
I’ve been using white 5-gallon buckets and gallon milk jugs to help struggling plants for the past few years. It’s quite simple, just plop the bucket or jug down over the plant and let it mend on it’s own. I’m not quite sure about the science behind it, but I suspect that the translucent plastic diffuses the sunlight which makes it less harsh on the plant, while at the same time providing it with a nice warm and humid environment. The moisture evaporates less quickly inside this makeshift greenhouse and it also provides a bug barrier. Beware that it can backfire if there is no ventilation and the heat gets to be too much, so either take the tops off your milk jugs or poke holes in the bucket or remove them completely if it’s supposed to be a hot day.

#3: Kill Bugs
Your plants are weak now and the last thing they need is to be feasted on by bugs. If they have any leaves left, they’re probably pretty torn up, which means they’re not going to be as effective at doing their job of making food for the plant. So help it out and prevent bugs from making more holes. For me, the big enemy is usually flea beetles and I’ve used Fertilome’s Triple Action Plus spray to combat them in the past. It’s up to you what you use and it’ll vary with how “organic” you want your garden to be.

#4: Be Patient
It will take time before you know if you’re plants are going to recover. Some of them might not make it, but before you get all angry or sad about it, remember that this is just part of being a gardener. And be thankful that you’re not a farmer who depends on your crops to make a living. If your cold crops don’t pull through, you probably just need to replant them later for fall harvest. This storm hit me in early June, about 2-3 weeks after our average last frost date. So for me, and others in that situation, replanting things like summer squash from seed is a viable option. Sure, it’ll be a later harvest, but it’s doable. And of course, you can still do transplants for peppers and tomatoes, etc.

Squash plant 5 minutes after hail and 2 weeks later

#5: Be Prepared
This isn’t for recovery, but I was a Boy Scout, so that motto stuck with me. If the weather looks like hail might be possible, cover your plants. If you’ve got buckets or pots (kitchen or plant), put those over your plants and put some weight on top of them since there’s a good chance there’ll be some wind with the hail. Even a tarp or patio chairs will make a nice temporary roof over your plants, but again, make sure they’re secure. Nothing would make you feel worse that having your protection system turn into a wrecking ball if the wind knocked it over on your plants.

Hail sucks. That’s the bottom line. It’s never fun to see your plants mangled, but it can be really rewarding to watch them bounce back. Gardening is always a bit of a crap shoot, so just hope that your luck will turn around soon.

Do you have any suggestions? Put them in the comments below if you do.