A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Gardener's Chat Hail Damage!!!!!!

We just had a hail storm pass through here and though it did some damage like huge holes in my large zucchini leaves most of the vegetables are still standing tall. The potatoes look a bit flat and listless, but maybe with some sunshine they will get up again. It's kind of heart breaking to see the damage that can be done to months of hard work, in 15 minutes.

I have a question for someone....when hail damages vegetables are they safe to eat? Or how much damage must be done before it's not safe to use vegetables after a hail storm?

I would think they would be fine to eat as long as you harvested them before any bugs got to them. You know right after the storm or something like that. But I've never been in that situation so you'll probably have to wait for one of the experts.

I chimmed in mostly because I just got a check for 75.00 for the 1100 dollars worth of damage done at my place in one of those 20 minute storms.

If hail damages your vegetables, I would suggest picking them regardless if they are ripe or not. Holes can lead to bacterial and bug infections. If the leaves are damaged, the plants will recover. If the vegetables are bruised, but the skin isn't broken, it's safe to eat - intact skin will not let bacteria in.

tkhooper, I'm sorry to see it was so little, 20 minutes is a long time when you know what damage it can do isn't it? Thanks for the input kennyso, I'll pick everything that's there for sure.

I had just picked my peas yesterday morning and took off all my zucchini, but I was going to cut leaf lettuce and spinach which was just beautiful, and today I see my spinach is full of holes. I'll still take it all, guess the holes will save me chopping it up for salad .... I must look on the brighter side of things this morning.

It has been a real challenging year for me, so many things are happening that I really have no control over nor can fix ... like our cool weather and so much rain. But I'm hoping my potatoes, peas squash zucchini and so much else will pick up after the sun comes up again.

It's been real challenging for me as well. A lot of my summer bulbs rotted in the ground from the cold, and I had quite the battle with some weird disease that destroyed a large portion of my herbaceous perennials. The only veggies I have this year are tomatoes, two pumpkin vines, and two hyacinth beans. The pumpkins have only begun to set fruit (which is about a month behind) and not a single bean (hyacinth beans are semi tropical). Tons of tomatoes, but they're all green. The Americas are really taking a beating from the weird weather. Last year here in Ontario, we have record rainfall (a LOT) and this year we're having record rain fall (too little). On the bright side, I've never had violets persist through to August lol I've also been hearing that the wheat harvest isn't going to be good this year...the prairies took quite the beating from the drought. That, and the wildfires in BC...*sigh*

"Sigh" is right. Here in Alberta in the north there is a drought, in southern Alberta we're having "too much" rain. Everything is beautiful and green, but so are the crops .... green and not ready to harvest yet. We're hoping to get most of the vegetables in before we get our first frost which sometimes hits end of August already. But we need to be thankful for what we have. We must always remember those that are less fortunate then we are.

A bit late, but my suggestion would be to harvest anything that's reasonably sized, now. Use what you can. I'd leave the smaller damaged stuff on the vine, but take care to make sure you have some straw or whatever under it to deter snails and other factors that would promote rot. One thought is that by harvesting the larger fruits now, energy would be diverted to the smaller fruits making them more able to ward off problems caused by the damage.

Thanks Marcia that's what I did, though I'm not sure I'll be getting any more peas out of my crop. Here is what my beets and zucchini look like.