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Griffith, In

Last night a major severe thunderstorm went through our town, heavy rain, hail, and it did major damage to the plants in our patches. Plants were pushed down, leaves are full of holes, and pumpkins full of hail pock marks. The only pumpkins without marks are the giants that had tents over them. Will our plants come back from this? and Will the pumpkins with hail damage survive? What are our odds? Thanks, Judy in Griffith, In.

8/16/2007 5:12:49 PM

[email protected]

The odds are better than you might think Judy. Leave them be a few days then give them a dilute fertilizer & watch 'em go.

8/16/2007 5:39:01 PM

Littleton, Colo

Very sorry to read about that PC...hang in there and try to learn something from this to better next year. Don't give up !!

8/16/2007 5:39:52 PM

Farmville, Virginia ([email protected])

No experience here with the fruit damage but my patch was torn up pretty bad earlier this summer by a storm and I thought it was over. Two weeks later I could hardly tell anything had happened. These plants are tougher than you may think.

8/16/2007 6:58:57 PM

Leamington, Ont.

Your odds should be pretty good. This same thing happened to me this year on July 25th. My plant was already pinched off (no more new growth) and my pumpkins was at 269 lbs. Now, today its at 691 lbs. Although it is starting to slow down...It's still going! Here's a link to my diary:
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryView.asp?season=2007&grower=28102&action=L

One thing I recomend is to try and control powdery mildew before it finds the injured leaves.

8/16/2007 7:59:17 PM

Paradise Mountain, New York

Hello Pumpkin Carver. Join the hail club. I have been hit twice this year with hail. Never seen hail in the twenty years I have lived here. Leave them alone for a few days. Let them get past the shock first. Just keep on doing what you have been doing. Don't feed them anything heavy with fertilizer. The plants are stronger then what you might think and they will bounce back. The second storm we havd damaged some of my uncover plants that where covered by sheets. I wish I had tarps over then, but I didn't. So I put tarps over then injuried pumpkins and the one squash. There scaring over pretty good now with no sheets on them. I think letting air get to them helps a lot.

8/16/2007 8:54:37 PM