Just spent an hour trying to rescue the pepper, tomato, basil etc, seedlings. They don't look good. Almost half have every leaf gone and the hail froze solid around their stems. Not what basil and pepper like being packed in ice after being shredded.

At least the hail netting worked as advertised. Everything in there looks good.

I'm so sorry! That is one of the most depressing sights we have in our gardens. Glad the netting worked though. Give the peppers a chance, I've had them come back from that. Not all of them, but some defiant survivors have surprised me and spited the hail. Here's hoping!

Wow - that's a lot of hail, gjcore! Glad most things made it through anyway :) Too bad for the seedlings - hopefully you can get some replacements at the swap!

I'd love to see how you make the hoops - looks like they performed well as protection along with the netting!

Marj

So sorry that your plants got zapped, gjcore. It made me sick to see the photo - I am sure it was even worse for you. :-(

Had hail in my part of Westminster, too, but nothing like that - about mothball size but it only lasted a very short time and there was no accumulation. Lots of tree leaves and conifer buds got damaged, knocked from the trees, but only lost a few leaves on my tomato and pepper seedlings. 'Tis the season, but I dread it every time I hear that distinctive noise on the roof as the hail comes crashing down.

I hope your veggies recover.

Holly

That SUCKS man! One year we got it real bad, everything was rushed to little busted twigs poking up out of the dirt. But, to my amazement, everything recovered and grew beautifully. I know that's not a lot of consolation when you look outside at it right now though...

Thanks all for the consolation. It sure does look bad right now. Some seedlings will probably survive. I can get over the loss of the basil as it's easy enough to direct sow. I will just reload and hopefully in a few weeks it will be a distant memory.

Whoa.... I am speechless.

Lookin' good! It's amazing how resilient plants can be, particularly peppers. I've seen them almost completely defoliated and then come back multiple times stronger and more productive within a few weeks!

Glad to see all is well!

Ah, I love peppers. The least demanding and most resilient plant in the vegetable garden I think. Must be their perennial roots, born survivors really. If only our season were longer....

Basil, too, is pretty tough. Thriving on neglect and hardship. I have never had more beautiful basil plants than the ones that got beaten to mere twigs by hail early in the season.

Glad your plants have made a comeback Greg! How frustrating it has been this year for so many people. A friend of mine had her tomatillos decimated by ping-pong sized hail just a couple weeks ago. At least in May they have a chance to recover.