We just had a freak hail storm and the hail and high winds completely decimated all 100 of my tomato plants. My subscription to this site runs out in a week and I think now's a good time to retire from gardening. :(
I just lost all my tomato plants
How heartbreaking. I am so sorry. Please don't retire from gardening. There's probably lots you can teach me if you're growing all those tomatoes. Taking time off is okay though :).
Laurel
I can't imagine! 100 plants gone in a blink. How horrible.
Please don't leave us.
NO! No retiring! Beat mother nature! She can be cruel sometimes but you can fight back!
Don't quit, you KNOW you don't want to.
oh how sad!! mine didn't produce any tomatos but at least they are still there for me to look at and hope!! maybe stick to flowers instead of giving up all together!
Wow - so sorry to hear this.
someone mentioned starting new tomato plants from old--i do not know if you take a branch and place it in water or dirt but maybe you could salvage a few? or is it to late in your zone to do that?
You might feel better after awhile, and dare to start again. I hope so!
Life without tomatoes...hmmm....something would be missing!
For me, as hard as it is...it is usually best to start over, even when you don't feel like it, just trusting that after awhile...you WILL feel like it.
"To plant a seed is to have faith in tomorrow"...but it would be best at this point to wait until spring to plant the seed!
In fact, I would send you some seeds in the spring to encourage you, if you'd like...
I think you can take cuttings from tomato plants, but Fall is right around the corner so I think it would be too late for that, unless you have a greenhouse or cold frame or something...
That is terrible, every gardeners nightmare to loose so many plants. I have no desire to see hail here again - luckily it hasn't happened during the growing season.
fall is right around the corner for some folks!! summer is going to be here for a long time here!!
I salvaged about 20 pounds of tomatoes I'll ripen. It's just depressing to be salvaging tomatoes in August when I'm accustomed to doing so in November.
The plants are completely done for. It's too late in the season to take cuttings and start new plants. What makes this depressing is that this is the second year in a row I've lost almost my entire tomato crop to either high winds or hail.
My daughter lost her whole garden to hail this year. Over 50 tomatos and as many peppers. Tons of squash, and pumpkins, and cucumbers. We live only about 12 miles away from her and got spared. Today on our way to Rochester there was hail on the road. And they are predicting hail here again tomorrow.
My daughter was so upset, but at least they were her personal plants. Many big tomato farmers in the area that live off the crop lost everything too.
I don't know why all these hail storms this year, but they are so devastating.
This is unusual. Hopefully it will never happen again. Please don't give up. Stay with us on Daves Garden, get thru the winter, and hopefully the spring will bring renewed hope, and the energy to try again.
My sympathies!.
that is terrible ... so sorry to hear that
I was in a hail storm yesterday as well. It rained so bad in Albany that it took us an hour to go 30 miles. It hailed so hard that when we got out of the car our ears were ringing!! I fully expected the car to look like it had a bad case of cellulite!! What is up with this weather!!
Don't give up gardening.
Very discouraging for you. All that hard work, care and then the expectations just dashed in a matter of minutes. Now your garden will get an extra long rest and so will you, but in the spring hope and the urge to make something grow will rise a new. Take heart and don't give up.
54 tomato plants here. I got battered by hail earlier this year. Everything green, got tore to smitherenes. I kept plugging away. Now I have the fungus/blight, skanky tomatoe plants and I have given up. But, only for this year! You cant beat mother nature. When the time comes, it comes. Thinking about next year all ready. Going to expand the garden and plant more plants :-) Quitting gets you no where. If you quit and go to the garden for that tomatoe next year - You will have to drive to the store.
It's not time to quit gardening, it's time to design a quickie hail shelter! One that can be thrown up over your plants when bad storms threaten. Design it now, install in the spring, (or fall, even) and this time next year you'll be writing in saying "It Worked!"
It could be as simple as putting in heavy duty poles every 4 plants or so, that you'd throw a thick plastic tent over- anchored with bricks or 4x4s on the sides. You can get that white hoop house plastic online easily enough.
Or create a quick install hoop house with pipe driven into the ground with plastic conduit pipe bent into arcs. For extra wind resistance, drill holes in the pipe & the conduit and use tractor linch pins as a fasteners.
You could even rig up something that would work with salvaged wall paneling and some 2x4s. Although the wind is brutal on the plants, the main design consideration would be protection from above.
Granted, you may not be able to do 100 plants- but you could protect 25 or so without too much expense. Plant your absolute favorites together, and get creative. (And of course you know if you do it, it'll never hail in your area ever again!)
Don't mourn, organize!
Somehow this reminds me of that old saying... "Don't put all your eggs in one basket". Sorry about your tomato plants, the weather is one factor you can't control.
So sorry to hear about that! So much work goes into getting them this far. I feel for you! Since you are due a great year, now is not the time to quit gardening!!! How sweet the victory when the crop comes in just fine next year!
Jim don't feel too bad or all alone. We had a tornado rip through Barnstead on July 24. I lost all my tomatoes on the back deck. The ones in the garden were knocked down. Most of my beans are gone and I'm trying to figure out exactly what the storm did to the squash and pumpkins.
That is so sad! I know how you feel. Nature can be very cruel. I had a bad experience with deer this year. Just over a week ago they came in the night and ate almost every bud on hundreds of my daylilies. I was absolutely devastated! There were so many more buds left on them, and now I can't enjoy them anymore this year. I will have to fence in my property now. It's really the only way to prevent this from happening again. I will be using electric fencing. Will have to save my money for that. It's very disheartening. But I'm not quitting, as I love gardening too much to do that.
Karen
jj did we talk you into not giving up? sometimes time is what you really need along with support from us gardeners--
That is soo sad. Sorry this happened, we here in Brewster had a bad storm but no hail. Did have hail in may/june and that did a number, but not such a loss. I feel for you, however, few years ago we had about 50 Mature plants full of Toms, nearly ripe, eaten by deer. It was a very dry summer and they needed moisture. Never before did I hear of deer eating tomatos. The area where we had the toms is very visible from our patio. We stared up there all the time. Sad year.
Chin up and try again next year.