It only takes a few minutes for a strong hail storm to leave a hard-working summer resident without a harvest.
However, don’t be too quick to give up – if you act quickly, you can save some of the plants, and along with them the harvest.
First of all, try to rake out all the ice from the beds to prevent the soil and plants from becoming too cold.
After this, get rid of all damaged parts of the vegetable crops - you won’t get any benefit from them anyway.
The next thing to do is to hill up the plants, using well-loosened soil for this purpose: bad weather can lead to severe exposure of the root system.
If the seedlings or young plants have been strongly pressed to the ground, they should be lifted, each leaf should be cleaned of dirt and the wilted leaves should be carefully trimmed with scissors.
The fallen plants are tied to wooden pegs and the soil is lightly hilled to a height of up to 5 cm. To provide the roots with access to oxygen, do not forget to loosen the soil.
The last thing you need to worry about after hail is fertilizing, which is needed to stimulate plant growth and support their overall immunity.
