The Benefits of Hail Cloth

Guest Blog by: John Weiss, Master Gardener in Larimer County

Hailstorms are every gardener's fear...and nemesis!

According to the Colorado Climate Center at CSU, hail season runs from April 15 through September 15. Using hail cloth offers the gardener at least two benefits. The first benefit is obvious - to protect your vegetables from unwanted hailstorms and the potential damage they can produce. The second benefit is shade for your vegetables. Studies suggest that a small amount of shade reduces the intensity of the sunlight. Plants appreciate the shade and responses with enhanced performance.

The hail cloth I selected provides 13-15% shade and can be obtained from greenhousemegastore.com (but there are other businesses that sell it).  The hail cloth has a somewhat open weave that allows air movement and rain to penetrate it while keeping even small hail out. 

Close-up of the hail cloth available from greenhousemegastore.com; this cloth provides 13-15% shade and protects plants from small hailstones

It can be easily cut with scissors and comes in any length.  Keep in mind that the cloth will shrink over the first season so cut large enough in anticipation of the shrinkage.

Jon's raised bed with hail cloth in place.

Above is my large, raised bed with a frame to hold the hail cloth about 4’ above the center of the bed.  The frame is PVC and each vertical piece fits over rebar imbedded in the raised bed.  A wood strip on each side was added for strength.  To keep the hail cloth from blowing off the frame, PVC pipe (lying on the ground) with a 3-4’ piece of rebar (for weight) sits on the raised bed frame.  Two vertical pieces of wood (on each end) was added to keep the PVC pipe from falling off the frame (see below).

PVC, rebar, and wood hold the hail cloth in place

Hail cloth can be draped over any sort of structure, even tomato cages and will last multiple seasons. If you haven’t tried hail cloth, give it a try as it’s great insurance against unexpected hailstorms.

Don't let this happen to your tomatoes! Get some hail cloth.

Is there hope for the landscape after hail?

by Amy Lentz

If you live along the Front Range in Colorado and have not had your yard ravaged by hail this year, you should count yourself lucky! I've been in the vicinity of four hailstorms around Weld and Larimer counties this year...and that's four too many! Hail can wreak havoc on one's landscape and garden. After hail, you might be wondering if your garden is toast or if there is something you can do to save the landscape. Depending on the time of year and the severity of the storm, there may be hope...

Hail forms within strong updrafts of some thunderstorms. As the air in the storm rises, it cools due to drops in pressure and temperature creating a colder air mass at the top of the storm. Ice particles can move upward due to the updraft and collect water as they rise, causing them to grow in size. The newly formed hail stones will swirl around in the upper layers of the storm. However, eventually the storm cannot hold onto the heavy hailstone, gravity takes over and it falls to the ground.

https://climate.ncsu.edu/edu/SevereHazards

The organization Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network (CoCoRaHS for short) has a list of hail facts on their website along with a ton of other great weather information. Here are a few interesting facts about Colorado's affinity for these falling ice balls (you can find the complete list here):

• Colorado is one of the most hail-prone states in the U.S.
• The Colorado hail season is April 15 to September 15.
• Hail occurs more frequently in the lee of the Rockies than anywhere else in North America.
• Hail also occurs very frequently in the high Colorado mountains during the summer. These stones, however, tend to be small and soft and rarely do damage.

CoCoRaHS also has a database to track the number of hail storms in your area, including the size and location of hail reports. For example, both Larimer and Weld counties have had hail reported on 13 separate dates so far this year. The hail reported ranged in size from that of rice (less than 1/4 inch) to hen egg size (two inches in diameter). The most recent storm occurred just two days ago on July 29th. 

Check hail reports for your county here.

So what should you do if your garden or landscape gets hit by hail? Your trees will show the most damage toward the tops as this is where it takes the most beating. Any leaf area still on the tree will continue to photosynthesize and will likely keep the tree going through the rest of the growing season. The tree should leaf out okay the following year. if the damage was not too great. However, keep in mind that the hail can also do damage to the branches and open up the tree to disease, so hail damaged trees should be monitored for additional stress throughout the season. Similar monitoring should be done with perennials, as well.

The Weld County Extension Demonstration Garden after the June19th hail storm, up to dime-size hail.

The Weld County Extension Demonstration Garden 1 month after the hail storm, recovering nicely.

Depending on the time of year that hail hits your annual flowers, they might have enough time to recover and look nice. In early June, I had several containers of annuals damaged by a severe hail storm (up to quarter sized hail for an extended period of time). Needless to say the plants were shredded, with just a few leaf pieces hanging on for dear life. Upon further inspection, I noticed that there were a few new growth points that looked to be spared. So I waited. It's a good idea to wait a few days (up to a week or so) after hail has damaged you plants before you prune them back. This way you can see where there is hope for regrowth, allowing you to leave that growth on the plant when pruning off dead plant parts.

Quarter-size hail from the June 19th near north Fort Collins.

My lovely containers of petunias, zinnias and coleus after hail on June 19th.

Even though this coleus was shredded, a few growing points are still in tact.

After about a week, I removed the dead portions from these annuals and made sure to keep them well watered and as stress-free as possible over the next month to help them recover. After about 5 weeks, the annuals are recovering well. 

Five weeks after hail damage. If you look close, you can see that the coleus from the last picture is growing again.

Vegetables are tricky, as some will not recover at all after a hail storm, while others might be salvageable. Give it a week and see how they respond. You may need to replant if it's early enough in the season. Row covers and hoop houses can be helpful, along with hard structures to protect the plants. The University of Wyoming has an article with additional tips on how to protect the vegetable garden from hail. That article can be found here.

So don't loose all hope! If it's early enough in the season to get regrowth and if the severity of the hail left some leaf tissue in tact, the plants may be able to recover with time and a little TLC.

 Click here to find more information on how to deal with hail damage in this Planttalk Colorado™ article regarding hail.

A Reason For Optimism After Hail

Posted by: Linda Langelo, CSU Horticulture Program Associate, Golden Plains Area

This squash plant emerged after the hailstorm.

We stood and watched two-and-a-half-inch hail devastate the landscape around us within minutes.  All efforts of the growing season gone.  Yet, in the aftermath, there is reason for optimism.  Most vegetables are resilient.  Take the local community garden for example, even the broad-leaved plants in our landscapes most affected can be resilient.  The silver lining is if 50 percent or more of the leaves remaining on the broad-leaved plants, they have the opportunity to produce food for the plant to survive.  Broad-leaved plants such as daylilies can survive.  In fact, at various public places I’ve worked, we intentionally cut the daylilies back after they bloomed then watered and fertilized them.  They produce a second bloom by late August and September.  I don’t recommend this every season.   This is forcing a plant to bloom out of season and not the best cultural practice.  The native coneflower came through the storm like a champ! One other optimistic note after a severe storm, is if you have lots of native plants in your garden, it seems that they did better than any of the non-native herbaceous perennials, biennials and annuals.   Amazingly the native plants of the Plant Select™ Program fared the best in the Sedgwick County Courthouse Colorado, landscape. These include: Diascia integerrima ‘P009S’  Coral Canyon Twinspur Penstemon x mexicali 'P008S', Red Rocks Penstemon Clematis scottii, Scotts Sugarbowls that faced the wind and hail head on came through with only a couple of seed heads pruned off the plant. Fallugia paradoxa, Apache Plume Ceroearpus intricatus, Littleleaf Mountain Mahogany Ratibida columnifera, Prairie Coneflower Nepeta “Pskite” PP 18,904 made it through with some tattered leaves as well. Echinacea purpurea, Purple Coneflower also made it through with just a few leaves tattered.  There are a lot of other natives that would do well, these are just those we can testify to in the hail aftermath.   Natives do not need any fertilization.   Apache plume is tough as nails....what hail?! There are many methods to heal what is wounded by storm damage; I would suggest the following: Herbaceous perennials that had prolific flower stalks: prune those back to good growth if there are any good leaves left on the stalks. If there are basal leaves or a rosette at the base of the plant, just prune the stalks to just above the basal leaves or rosette. If the rosette or basal leaves are damaged give a light fertilization.  This will give plant further energy for growing new leaves.      Master Gardener Joe Stan examining garlic following the hailstorm. Annuals: you may just have to call it quits, especially if nothing grows back in a week.  Examine them to see if there is anything left to grow and fertilize.  Sometimes with petunias, snapdragons and violas, you may find that they get severely damaged, yet there is still a mass of leaves to grow again and flower.  With the petunias, pruning will be helpful.  Other annuals such as zinnias can be pruned.  There is still enough time in the season.  I am recommending to lightly fertilize annuals once a week.  On that note, too much nitrogen in the soil increases the mineral salt content.  Excessive salt can dehydrate the plant.  The symptoms would be burning or yellowing of the leaf margins.  The best thing to do is to water and wash the excess nitrogen in the soil.  Nitrogen moves quickly through the soil.  Excess nitrogen will slow root development.  Our garden of greens following the hail. Biennials: enjoy what is left because if they are flowering this will be the last year you will see them.  You will need to start over next season. Shrubs: prune out what is damaged and during the very hot days of summer give them a deep root watering.  The timing for pruning won’t be perfect for some shrubs and you may lose next year’s flower buds.  Trees: prune out what is damaged and during hot dry periods such as an extended drought give them an extra deep root watering, but do not fertilize them.  It makes sense to remove the branches that are hanging first and make nice clean cuts.  Then examine the tree for any other severe hail damage and prune properly.  Even if your tree looks very thin, give the tree time, it will grow new leaves.  Fruit trees: remove the damaged fruit.  The damaged fruit will attract pests.  Again, look to see if there are any hanging branches and other severely damaged hail wounds on limbs that might not heal quickly.  Open wounds are an easy entry for pests and diseases for trees and shrubs.  In answer to the question, “a reason for optimism after hail?” We have witnessed the wounds of severe hail, now we can apply optimism towards what remains on the landscape and heal.  It is hard work, and that, in part, is what gardeners do!

Making Lemons From Lemonade

by Mary Small, CSU Extension

State Master Gardener Coordinator

As you’ve probably guessed, this is not about the cold beverage made from oval yellow fruit. It’s about those not-so-nice things that sometimes happen in the landscape.

I planted a climbing yellow rose (can’t remember the name) in the garden. It performed beautifully for several years. Yes, it had some winter dieback every year as roses do in our climate, but nothing like what happened following the November 2014 polar vortex. That took the whole thing out.

I didn’t get around to digging it up last year and it sprouted from below the graft union.  Since I was going to take the thing out, I just ignored it and I think it ignored me, too!

Unidentified fragrant rose

This spring, before I got around to digging it up, the canes rewarded me with the most beautiful apricot colored, fragrant blossoms! The little garden adjacent to the rose is dreamy with its scent. And to think I almost destroyed it!

Young oak is growing well

We used to have a 10 year old catalpa in our front yard. It looked kind of like a Dr. Seuss tree as the top had been broken out of it. But it provided wonderful, cooling shade. A few years back, an early fall snowstorm broke out so many branches that it finally had to be removed. We replaced it with a small oak tree and complained about the lack of shade.The oak has only been planted for three years, but it has put on more yearly growth than I ever expected. Now that catalpas are blooming, I’m reminded that I don’t have to rake up their flower stalks, leaves and seed pods anymore!

Alison O’Connor, one of our bloggers, lost a large maple in a tornado several years back. But it

gave her the opportunity to plant other trees and plants that she wanted to grow. Just look at the before and after pictures. I think you’ll agree the tree loss was really a net gain.

Spring 2016

Alison also lost her vegetable garden in a severe hail storm. (Are we seeing a pattern here?) She turned the loss into lemonade by planting a cover crop – which improved her soil for the next season.

Smashed tomato after hail

Sometimes those gardening “mishaps” or “missteps” actually turn out better than expected...or planned!

9 weeks later, a cover crop!