Can I get a toast for the season that ended before it began?

Peter_L · Jun 11, 2017

The twin cities got rocked by a pretty nasty thunderstorm today and the location where I had my plants had a particularly bad bout of hail. The city actually had to start using snow plows to clear streets.
It was quarter size hail for about 10 minutes and ended up about 1 inch thick in some areas.

Unfortunately we didn't expect the storm to be as bad as it was and no one was home to bring in the plants in pots.

I'm not too sentimental and gardening is actually my cheapest hobby. Neighbors had trees that fell on their houses so I'll consider the ~$300 loss in plants to be fairly lucky in comparison. I still have a couple varieties that I didn't have room for, but I guess a lot of space just opened up. Hopefully I'll still get a few pods by the end of the year after planting again.

Pictures are 3 hours after the storm when I arrived at ground zero.

pedders91 · Jun 11, 2017

That's rotten luck. I thought we had difficult weather in the UK.

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Mr.CtChilihead · Jun 11, 2017

Man real sorry to see this..I was wrecked by a hail storm a few years back so I can really feel your pain..Send me a pm with your info when my pods start coming in in a couple months I'll send you some pods..

Gorizza · Jun 11, 2017

heart-breaking

Jubnat · Jun 11, 2017

Damn....

that's crazy. Sorry to hear that.

Edmick · Jun 11, 2017

Damn that sucks. Mother nature can be a real cüñ+..

Gonebad395 · Jun 11, 2017

Man that sucks man there is still time to recover. The weather is crazy up north for sure

LTCM · Jun 11, 2017

Sucks man. Sorry to hear it.

Don't throw them out. Some of those plants will live. Big time set back but a plant's desire to grow is insanely strong.

moruga welder · Jun 11, 2017

Oh bro , That sucks ! sorry to see . Chin up , if ya need some powders or a few pods look me up later , ( i got tons of powder now ) pods soon , i can hook you up . :party:

CAPCOM · Jun 11, 2017

Don't give up hope. There are some in the picture that will still grow and produce pods. Peppers plants can endure some nasty stuff and still over come.

Trim the extremely damaged stuff and treat as though nothing happened.

I would vs. throwing in the towel.

Geonerd · Jun 11, 2017

I'll bet 80% of your plants survive just fine. And with a well established root system, they will grow back faster than you might think.

Peter S · Jun 11, 2017

I agree with what others are saying, most of them should come back fine. Don't give up.

Guatemalan Insanity Pepper · Jun 11, 2017

sorry to hear about your plants
I got a little damage, several plants with torn and ripped leaves. but not as bad as you were hit.

here's a pic from coon rapids

they got hit really bad

unfortunately we got such a short season here that, while most will certainly bounce back, some of them wont have time to ripen pods before the cold nights come :mope:

i'll have to take a closer look at the damages tomorrow and see how bad we got hit.
I think i'll still have enough plants to have pods to share this September though if you'd like some local peppers

G.I.P.

jedisushi06 · Jun 12, 2017

Guatemalan Insanity Pepper said:
sorry to hear about your plants
I got a little damage, several plants with torn and ripped leaves. but not as bad as you were hit.

here's a pic from coon rapids

they got hit really bad

unfortunately we got such a short season here that, while most will certainly bounce back, some of them wont have time to ripen pods before the cold nights come

i'll have to take a closer look at the damages tomorrow and see how bad we got hit.
I think i'll still have enough plants to have pods to share this September though if you'd like some local peppers

G.I.P.

Are you in Iowa?

Peter_L · Jun 12, 2017

jedisushi06 said:
Are you in Iowa?

I think Coon Rapids, MN

Because that's near where my plants were.

The loss of leaves and broken stems are bad, but I'm also worried because most ended up sitting under an inch of hail for 3 hours. I think that may have started damaging parts of the root system. I suppose only time will tell.
I know some will bounce back and thankfully I still have a few plants that were not outside. It's a year for learning and it won't be total loss in any case.

I also just wanted to say thank you for all the support and what a great community it is here. I'll be sure to keep periodic updates on how everything pulls through.

It seemed like a fitting time to eat a couple pods frozen from last year to remember the day. They were excellent.

ako1974 · Jun 12, 2017

What a mess! Sorry, that sucks. Way to keep positive, though. I'd be going bananas.

willard3 · Jun 12, 2017

The upside of this is that you'll learn it's hard to kill a chile.

Let them grow.

The_NorthEast_ChileMan · Jun 12, 2017

willard3 said:
The upside of this is that you'll learn it's hard to kill a chile.

Let them grow.

CAPCOM said:
Don't give up hope. There are some in the picture that will still grow and produce pods. Peppers plants can endure some nasty stuff and still over come.

Trim the extremely damaged stuff and treat as though nothing happened.

I would vs. throwing in the towel.

While I agree with above and others about pepper plant resilience, your plants will rebound (And I don't believe being under 3 hour hail soak will damage roots.) but with your short growing season you need to start planning for the cooler temps and moving plants to a warmer spot for those late season pods. OH, and so sorry for the setback!

Guatemalan Insanity Pepper · Jun 12, 2017

jedisushi06 said:
Are you in Iowa?

Nope, Minnesota just north of the Twin Cities