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| Photo Edamame: Julie Echter |
There is nothing more rewarding than starting a vegetable garden and watching your tiny seedlings grow into beautiful, fruiting plants. You’ve spent months preparing your soil, planting, pruning, fertilizing, and watering. Everything is looking great and you are just about to harvest your first couple veggies… then the hail storm hits. What do you do now?The damage may look bad but don’t panic quite yet. Plants can be much more resilient than we often think. Many vegetable plants are likely to recover on their own but there are some steps you can take to aid in the process.
1. Assess the damage
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| Photo Squash: Julie Echter |
Consider the types of plants you have in your garden and where you are in the season. Early root vegetables need their leafy foliage for root growth. If no foliage remains, it is likely they will not recover. Root crops, late in the season, have a better chance of making it to harvest. Leafy vegetables may be set back a bit but have a good chance of recovering especially in the early season.
2. Remove damage & debris
If the hail was severe, it's likely a good portion of the plant is damaged. Prune out the most critical damage such as broken branches, badly shredded leaves, and bruised fruit. Clean out any debris on the soil surface that could harbor plant disease.
3. Consider applying a copper fungicide
Wounds caused by hail can leave plants vulnerable to fungal or bacterial infections. Studies have shown the use of copper fungicides may limit the chance of these diseases. Apply the fungicide quickly after damage for best results.
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| Photo Tomato Branch: Julie Echter |
4. Walk away
You’ve done all you can do at this point. Walk away and give your plants time to recover.
5. Monitor recovery
You may be surprised how quickly your plants start to recover and put on new growth. If you don’t see signs of new growth in a week or so, consider replacing the plant. Heavy rains that often occur with hail storms likely leached many nutrients out of the soil. When new growth appears, apply a light application of low nitrogen fertilizer to replace lost nutrients.
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| Photo Jalapeno Recovery: Julie Echter |
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| Photo Squash Recovery: Julie Echter |
The heartbreak of hail storm damage is all too familiar for many Colorado gardeners. The best strategy after a storm is to prevent further damage from possible disease and encourage new growth. You may also want to consider hail mitigation strategies for future storms like those outlined by Colorado Master Gardener in this document:
For additional information consult the following: CSU-Plant Talk Hail Damage, Hail Damage
