What do I do after hail has shredded my plants?
Why hail damage looks far worse than it is, the small number of things worth doing afterwards, and how to tell hail from the pest and disease damage it is mistaken for.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 30 min
- Read
- 4 min
Short answer
Do almost nothing. Shredded, holed and torn leaves are a cosmetic injury that the plant will grow out of, and cutting them off removes the plant's remaining capacity to photosynthesise. What is worth doing: remove any fruit or stems that are split open, keep an eye out for rot entering the wounds in wet weather, water and mulch to support the regrowth, and hold off feeding until new growth appears.
A summer hailstorm can turn a border into what looks like a total loss in fifteen minutes. It nearly always is not. Plants are built to lose leaves, and the visible drama of hail damage bears very little relation to how much it actually matters.
Step by step
- Confirm it was hail.Hail damage is indiscriminate, simultaneous and directional — it affects unrelated plants, all on the same side, all to the same degree of exposure. Damage confined to one species or one plant is a pest or disease.
- Resist the urge to cut back.This is the main instruction. Torn leaves still work. A plant stripped of its damaged foliage has to rebuild from nothing at exactly the moment it needs energy, and recovers more slowly than one left alone.
- Remove only what is genuinely finished.Leaves hanging by a shred, stems snapped through, and any fruit with split skin. Everything else stays.
- Pick damaged fruit and use it.Split and heavily bruised fruit rots quickly and will spread rot to whatever it touches. It is perfectly good to eat straight away.
- Water and mulch.The plant is about to rebuild a canopy, which takes water and energy. Consistent moisture supports it. Mulching also stops rain splashing soil-borne spores up onto the fresh wounds.
- Wait before feeding.Feed once new growth is visibly under way rather than immediately. Feeding a plant that cannot yet photosynthesise properly does not help it.
- Watch for secondary problems for a fortnight.Wet weather after hail is the risk. Botrytis, mildew and bacterial rots all take advantage of fresh wounds, and catching them early is much easier than dealing with them established.
- Reconsider protection only if it is a regular event.In most of Britain damaging hail is rare enough that permanent netting is not worth it. Where it is a repeated summer problem, fine mesh or netting over the most valuable crops during the risk period works.
Tips
- Plants with large soft leaves — hostas, courgettes, beans, rhubarb — look catastrophic after hail and recover as well as anything else. The damage is proportional to leaf area, not to the plant's difficulty.
- Late-season hail on a crop close to harvest is the case worth acting on, because the plant has little time to recover. Early-season hail is almost always shrugged off.
- Seedlings and very young plants are the genuine casualties, because they have little leaf area to lose. Resowing is often quicker than nursing them.
- Hail damage on fruit skins heals over as russeted scars. The fruit is fine to eat and simply looks marked.
- If your greenhouse or cold frame took hail, check the glazing carefully. Cracked panes fail properly in the next wind.
If it doesn't work
Leaves holed, torn and shredded across many plants at once, all facing the same way
Cause: Hail. The uniform, indiscriminate, one-directional pattern across unrelated species is what identifies it — Fix: Leave the foliage in place. The plant will replace it. Only remove leaves that are hanging by a thread or have already gone brown and papery.
Fruit and vegetables with bruises, pits and split skins
Cause: Direct impact on soft tissue — Fix: Pick anything split, because it will rot on the plant and can spread rot to fruit touching it. Lightly bruised fruit is fine to eat and should be used sooner rather than stored.
Soft stems bruised, kinked or snapped part-way
Cause: Impact on unlignified growth, which is why it hits new season's growth hardest — Fix: Cut cleanly below a break rather than leaving a crushed stub. Support anything bent but unbroken and it will often straighten as it grows.
Rot or mildew appearing on damaged foliage a week or two later
Cause: Wounds are entry points, and hail is usually followed by wet weather — Fix: Improve airflow by thinning crowded growth, remove tissue that is actively rotting, and avoid overhead watering while the wounds heal.
Damage that looks like hail but is confined to one plant or one species
Cause: Not hail — probably caterpillars, slugs, flea beetle, capsid bug or a disease — Fix: Look for the culprit. Hail is indiscriminate and hits everything exposed; anything selective has a biological cause.
Questions people ask
Should I spray anything on damaged plants?
No. There is no product that speeds healing, and the wounds close on their own. If a secondary fungal problem develops, deal with that specifically rather than treating preventively.
Will the plant flower or fruit again this year?
Usually yes if the hail was early in the season, because most plants will produce new growth and new flowers. Late-season damage often ends that year's crop simply because there is not enough season left.
How long does recovery take?
New foliage generally appears within a fortnight in the growing season and the plant looks respectable again within a month or so. Woody plants may carry visible scarring on stems for longer without it mattering.