Hail damage

Shredded leaves, pocked fruit and stripped bark on one side of everything, all in the same ten minutes. Most plants recover better than they look.

Disorder Serious Doesn't spread

What you'll see

Leaves torn, shot-holed and stripped to the midrib, with the damage all the same age.
Everything hit on the same side — the windward one — including the vertical faces of stems and fruit.
White or brown bruised pits on fruit, on the upper and windward surfaces only.
Bark scarred or knocked off young stems on one side, and shoot tips broken.
Damage stopping abruptly at the edge of a sheltered spot, under a tree or against a wall.

Why it happens

Ice falling at speed. The wounds themselves are usually survivable; the real risk is what gets in afterwards, since every torn leaf and bruised fruit is an open door for bacterial and fungal rots that were already in the garden.

Severe thunderstorms in late spring and summer, worst in the plains and mountain states. Broad-leaved plants with soft new growth take the most visible damage; woody plants take the most lasting.

Treating it

Wait a week before doing anything. Plants look far worse immediately afterwards than they turn out to be.
Remove badly broken and hanging shoots cleanly, but leave every leaf that has any green left; the plant needs it.
Pick and use bruised fruit and vegetables promptly rather than leaving them to rot on the plant.
Water and feed lightly to support the regrowth, but do not force it with heavy nitrogen.
Watch for rot and bacterial disease in the wounds over the next fortnight, which is where the real losses come from.

Keeping it away

Keep floating row cover or shade cloth to hand where hail is a regular event, and put it over the beds when a storm is forecast.
Grow the most valuable crops where a wall, a hedge or a tree gives some overhead shelter.
Site tender crops on the leeward side of the garden.
Sow successions so a wiped-out planting is not the whole year.
Stake and support tall plants, which suffer most from the wind that comes with the hail.

Who gets it

Everything, but broad-leaved vegetables, hostas, tomatoes and tree fruit show it worst.