Hail...!!!

[Tom Hooper]

Three minute of hail destroyed a season of growing. Peppers are bruised, tomatoes knocked down and leaves shredded. The wind blew several plants off the deck so I've got lots of broken posts. And I was so looking forward to sharing a huge crop report. Anyway I got alot of red and yellow peppers and a feast of cherry tomatoes and the asian eggplants were prolific. But it's still August and I was expecting another six to eight weeks of crops. Am I the only one in VA that got wiped out? TWH

[Penelope Periwinkle]

Oh no! How disappointing and frustrating.

How bad are the peppers? I've seen some chili peppers make a remarkable recovery. Oh, you won't get as much as if the hail hadn't happened, but you might salvage a bit of your fall season.

I had some wind damage here in South Carolina last week when Bonnie passed through, but nothing as bad as your hail storm sounds. My remaining tomatoes were knocked over, and all my Corno De Toro peppers lost at least one pepper-loaded branch. There were lots of unripe peppers striped off the plants, too. Luckily I always over plant, so I still have plenty of peppers.

Sorry for what happened to your garden. That kind of disaster would really put a damper on my summer.

Penelope