AHH!!!! The devestation!!

[GardenGirl]

While we were down in Staten Island visiting relatives on a beautiful, HOT, but non-rainy day, we were getting the rain storm of a lifetime here at home. I didn't realize how bad until the morning when I went to take care of the chickies and saw the horror.
Almost all of the eggplants were on their side as well as the peppers. I was able to lift them and push them in the ground a little further to get them standing again. Thankfully the fuit on all of them are still small. The tomatoes had it worst though. There were branches snapped or bent over where they were tied to the stake. I can't tell how many tomatoes we lost, and every variety had branches lost that had fruit ripening on it.

Does anyone know if I have to take off the branches that were bent? I ask, because the leaves at the end of these branches are wilting. Will they recover?

Sorry, I just needed to vent.

 

[Dace]

I don't know if your tom branches will recover, I sure hope so.

I feel your pain, I hope everything recovers nicely!

 

[Grow 4 Food]

tomatoes are a pretty resiliant plant. If they aren't broken off completely there is a chance that they will survive. Tie them up the best you can and give them good support. They will come around. As for the ones that have come off. Time for relish, fried green tomatoes, pickled tomatoes, or put them in a bag in the cabinet and let them ripen there.

 

[patandchickens]

For fallen-over solenaceous plants you can just 'hill them up' as if they were potatoes, or you can leave them leaning and stake the top to keep it off the ground and hill up the base. Things in this family (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, plus obviously potatoes) are pretty unusual among veggies in that they easily sprout roots from anywhere along their stems, so it is totally fine to cover the stems with dirt.

For bent/broken branches, I'd leave it alone if it's questionable and cut it off cleanly if it is obviously very badly damaged. If you get a LARGE branch that is bent down to the ground you can (as per above) heap soil over it, with a rock to keep it all in place and a stake to keep the end part headed upwards, and it will generally be fine. Sometimes better than fine, as the extra roots it will form can enable more vigorous growth. If you actually want that <g>

Pat

 

[GardenGirl]

Thank you for all the advice and encouragement! :bouquet The tomatoes seem to be recovering and the peppers and eggplant seem to be holding up on their own. Lost a few fruits and flowers though, but some for harvesting is better than none. They are calling for heavy downpours and storms later tonight, so I will be bracing for what I may find tomorrow if they come through. Hopefully they will pass above or below us.

 

[Beekissed]

You might just find this puts new life into your plants. I swear the plants that have been the most tortured (dogs and chickens) in my garden are(after I had given them up) the most productive I have!

In fact, the onions I planted 3 wks later than my first patch were twice as large at the bulb. These had been layed upon, dug up, broken off and otherwise disfigured by my ungrateful animals. So, I traumatized the healthy ones and it yielded good results...they are now getting larger bulbs. The pepper plants that were bent double are loaded down now....don't give up hope!

 

[simple life]

You might just find this puts new life into your plants. I swear the plants that have been the most tortured (dogs and chickens) in my garden are(after I had given them up) the most productive I have!

In fact, the onions I planted 3 wks later than my first patch were twice as large at the bulb. These had been layed upon, dug up, broken off and otherwise disfigured by my ungrateful animals. So, I traumatized the healthy ones and it yielded good results...they are now getting larger bulbs. The pepper plants that were bent double are loaded down now....don't give up hope!

So Beekissed does this mean that your out in the garden taking a baseball bat to your plants and calling them names now?

 

[GardenGirl]

Maybe I should just unleash the chickens and see what happens. Maybe they can get the corn to actually grow.
Actually, things seem to be better now. The tomatoes are getting bigger faster and seem to like the thinning that Mother Nature did. Hopefully mine will recover as well as yours Beekissed!

 

[Beekissed]

You might just find this puts new life into your plants. I swear the plants that have been the most tortured (dogs and chickens) in my garden are(after I had given them up) the most productive I have!

In fact, the onions I planted 3 wks later than my first patch were twice as large at the bulb. These had been layed upon, dug up, broken off and otherwise disfigured by my ungrateful animals. So, I traumatized the healthy ones and it yielded good results...they are now getting larger bulbs. The pepper plants that were bent double are loaded down now....don't give up hope!

So Beekissed does this mean that your out in the garden taking a baseball bat to your plants and calling them names now?

YOU have NO idea how close you are to the truth....I couldn't reach most of the onions as I buried them between the tomatoes....so, you guessed it....had to swat them down with a stick! :coolsun

 

[kenman]

My garden also suffered through a storm. My corn and tomatoes took the worst of it. I looked out early on a Sunday morning after a stormy night and all my corn, about three feet tall, was on its side and my tomatoes were in shambles. I didn't know what to, so I left the corn for a couple of days and picked up, staked up, and basically cleaned up the tomatoes. Within a week, the corn was back upright and growing and now I am harvesting some Jet Star beauties that are abundant & delicious. I recently harvested my corn and took 115 ears off 90 ft. of row. I'll take that! Ain't plants amazing!