You Grow Girl™

Ancient Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 1380 Location: Toronto

Ciao all-

How did all of you do during yesterday's hailstorm? I've got shredded nasturtiums and eggplants, some leaf damage to the tomatoes, and some brown bits from the ice on the basil, but I think most everything will recover. We didn't get as much as some folks north of us, but it was enough to cause some damage. I was out there in the torrent yesterday frantically bringing in 38 container tomato plants into the garage.

Posted: 24-06-08 8:46

Sorellina,
There you go! I got home from work and wondered who or what had roughed-up my plants (if they could have talked, they would have). Of course there was no evidence as the cold-hearted "perps" had melted. Thanks for solving my backyard wiseguy mystery.
Greg

Posted: 24-06-08 8:51

Fortunately, I think my neighbourhood missed the ice. There wasn't any sign of damage when I got home at 5:30.

Glad to hear you survived it ok! One of those funnel clouds was right by my brother's house, which freaked me out a bit!

~ Mel ~

Posted: 24-06-08 11:04

I'm at Dundas W and Bloor and we barely got anything- hardly any rain and no hail at all! I could see the black clouds and lightning north of me tho. We had a bit of hail last week but not enough to do any damage.

What a strange June it's been weatherwise...

Ancient Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 1380 Location: Toronto

Ciao Callile-

I'm between you and York University. The University got pretty hammered, while we got a few minutes worth, enough to cause some damage, and towards the lake didn't get any or very little. Our church is at St. Clair and Dufferin and they didn't get hit at all.

After doing a thorough damage assessment while tying up plants and removing damaged leaves, it appears I lost some branches on a few of the tomatoes as well. The squash leaves are also a bit shredded.

Posted: 24-06-08 17:16

Julianna - Holy Tamole ... I can't believe it ... during the first tornado scare about a week or so ago I brought all my rooftop plants in and nothing actually happened ... then last night I saw the storm footage on the news (and I just wrote about it in my blog) ... two days ago I put one of my 3rd little bushy bunches of basil out as a test hardening off batch before I let the others out and then I sat down for a day to tend to other pressing matters and when I turned on the tv I saw someone in Toronto shoveling a foot of hail off their driveway and that part of the Don Valley was closed from flooding) ... I RAN to my basils and found them very perky and thriving just fine on my roof top!

I hope all your plants survive this and come back with a vengance once they get over their traumas!

Posted: 25-06-08 8:31

I was out walking north east of my place when the hail came down. I saw it there but am not sure if it hit my place. My plants seemed remarkably fine. Such a relief because I thought for sure some delicate plants would be toast.

Anyways, hail in late June. What next?

Ancient Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 1380 Location: Toronto

Ciao campers-

Here it comes again, so beware and be cautious.

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH: City of Toronto
Issued at 12:59 PM EDT WEDNESDAY 23 JULY 2008

LOCALISED SLOW MOVING THUNDERSTORMS WITH TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON. THIS IS AN ALERT TO THE POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS..LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS. IF THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES TAKE IMMEDIATE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS.
CLUSTERS AND LINES OF SLOW MOVING THUNDERSTORMS HAVE DEVELOPED OVER PORTIONS OF THE ABOVE REGIONS AND ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE THROUGH THE AFTERNOON HOURS. THE PRIMARY CONCERN WITH THESE STORMS IS FROM RAINFALL AMOUNTS APPROACHING 75 MILLIMETRES OVER A 2 TO 3 HOUR PERIOD. ADDITIONALLY THERE MAY BE A THREAT OF LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WIND GUSTS LATER THIS AFTERNOON PRIMARILY OVER THE NIAGARA REGION.

Posted: 23-07-08 12:33

Wow... I hope all this means is that I won't have to water!

Thanks for the heads-up. Hope everyone gets through this ok...

~ Mel ~

Posted: 23-07-08 12:47

Water?? My plants are drowning!

If it doesn't stop raining soon I'm building an ark.

Posted: 23-07-08 14:21

Apparently we have hit some kind of record rainfall... I can believe it.

Posted: 23-07-08 18:43

Niagara region - Grimsby
28 years of gardening
this is a first, my entire garden is wiped out............too depressed to write anything else...........

Posted: 23-07-08 22:43

OH NO! I am truly, truly sorry. So disheartening.

Old Growth Joined: 16 Mar 2008 Posts: 79 Location: Toronto

yes that is extremely sad! how horrible Sad

They are calling for extreme thunderstorms, possible hail, possible tornadoes, in Toronto today! Why did I not save *cloches* from hardening off!?!?!? Actually, they wouldn't fit over my tomatoes anyway I suppose. Blankets?!

Posted: 27-07-08 7:08

still alive.......
and bounced back!......................
an opportunity to real understand the strength of my garden!
So after talking to some old time farmers at the market i decided to keep a portion of the heirloom tomato, after ripping out about 10 of them. The last 3 days i have pruned about 75% of the plant back. My tomato garden looks like something from a Tim Burton movie - Sweeny Todd! Pics to come! And now the experiment begins............
Has anyone gone through a similar situation. If so what did you do with your tomato plants? What did you learn?

Posted: 28-07-08 19:14

Good Luck beet5 - let's see how resilient your garden is now!!! Fingers Crossed.

Posted: 30-07-08 9:05

Good luck, that's so tragic!

Earlier in the season, back in May, one of my tomato seedlings fell off the table in the backyard and the top snapped off, all but two leaves. I thought it was done for but the plant went crazy and grew a couple of big shoots and now it's got tomatoes on it. Never underestimate a healthy plant's will to live!

Ancient Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 1380 Location: Toronto

Ciao beet5-

I'm so sad for you! Every time there's a forecast for thunderstorms, I pray really hard that hail will not be included. You're a ways from me, but I've got lots of tomato suckers you're welcome to try and root, plus volunteer tomatillos that could use a good home.

We had one today just finish going through Toronto and my rain guage measured 1/2". A few days ago we had another one with horrible winds that caused some damage in Oshawa. I think what we've been calling "weird" weather has now become the new norm.

If nothing else, it certainly vindicates Mr. Gore and all those naysayers who said Global Warming is a bunch of hogwash.

Posted: 31-07-08 14:44

Hi Julianna,
i might be able to take you up on your offer. PM on it's way...

Cover your eyes if you do not like a horror show!..........

Pics 10 days after the storm. Interesting how many of the crops have bounced back. Some of the tomato plants have set new leaves and a couple of plants have new flowers on them??? Potatoes were completely flattened but on the third day they began to stand up! Carrots bounced back. The basil/storm pesto is coming along slowly. i pruned back about 75% of each tomato plants.

New Growth

Potato - Charlie Brown's Christmas tree

Zuchinnie pitted from the hail

and new growth

ending on a happy note

Posted: 01-08-08 16:52

The Happy Note was very sweet!

Hang in there ... your plants look like they are fighters - you must be so proud!!!