The short version: Wait until the storm has passed, keep well clear of any fallen power line, and bin every vegetable that floodwater touched. Then give damaged plants three to five days. A plant with a living tip, crown or side bud will usually regrow; one with none left will not. Clear broken stems, re-stake what leans, water at the base only once the soil needs it, and resow fast crops.
By morning the silverbeet looks as if someone went over it with a hole punch, the corn is leaning and the tomato has lost its top.
Hold off pulling the lot: plenty of storm damage grows out. The Bureau of Meteorology notes that most severe thunderstorms arrive between September and March.
Safety comes before the garden
- Wait for the all clear: warnings ended and flood water gone down.
- Treat every fallen power line as live. NSW SES advises staying at least 8 metres, about two car lengths, away and warns that lines can hide in fallen branches. Queensland's Energex asks for at least 10 metres. Call your electricity distributor, or 000 in an emergency; the SES takes storm damage calls on 132 500.
- Wear gloves and sturdy shoes. Gardening Australia warns that cuts can pick up soil-borne infections such as tetanus.
- Leave broken building material alone. NSW SES lists asbestos among the hazards after storm damage.
Floodwater produce goes straight in the bin
Water that flowed across or pooled over a bed is different. The floods and food safety advice from Food Standards Australia New Zealand warns that floodwater can carry sewage, animals, and agricultural and industrial waste, and says to throw out any food it has touched. That means every leaf, fruit and root the water reached: do not wash it, cook it or taste it. Gardening Australia also suggests testing flood-affected soil before growing food in it again.
Wait three to five days, then check the growing point
Plants grow from growing points: each stem tip, the buds where leaves join the stem, and the crown or whorl at the centre of lettuce, silverbeet and corn. Torn leaves can be replaced; a crushed tip cannot, though a bud below it may take over. Purdue University advises waiting three to five days after hail on corn, longer in cool weather, then looking for new leaves unfolding from the whorl, and most vegetables deserve the same patience.
Meanwhile, remove snapped-off stems and debris but leave torn leaves attached: South Dakota State University Extension notes that ragged leaves still feed the plant.
Crop by crop
Leafy greens
Pick off the shredded outer leaves, eat clean pieces soon and leave the centre to grow on. A lettuce cut above the crown often resprouts smaller leaves rather than a new head. If the crown is mashed or rotting, pull the plant.
Tomatoes, capsicum and eggplant
Cut a snapped stem cleanly just above a healthy leaf or side shoot and let that shoot take over. Gardening Australia notes that tomato side shoots stripped of lower leaves, planted deep and kept watered will root, so a healthy broken-off top is worth a try. Re-tie leaning plants with a soft wire tie.
Zucchini, cucumbers and pumpkins
Remove leaves broken at the stalk, keep torn ones, and watch the vine tips and the zucchini's central crown for new leaves. A split crown or a stem snapped at soil level means resow.
Sweet corn
Purdue University notes that corn pushed over with roots partly pulled can straighten while still growing; judge it after at least four days. Hill soil around the base to help anchor it. Young corn keeps its growing point below ground until about the six-leaf stage, Iowa State University notes, so shredded young plants usually regrow. A stalk snapped below the cob will not fill that cob.
Seedlings and bruised fruit
Resow seedlings snapped below their seed leaves, except young corn (see above). Pick hail-marked tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers, cut away the bruises and use them soon, because broken skin lets rot in; bin any already mouldy or rotting.
Keeping disease out of the wounds
Sustainable Gardening Australia lists hail among the wounds fungi use to enter plants, and wet, humid weather favours most plant diseases.
- Clear torn leaves and split fruit off the soil (more in our garden hygiene guide).
- Bin anything diseased, since a home compost heap rarely gets hot enough to kill spores.
- Wipe your secateurs with methylated spirits between plants.
- Water only once the soil needs it, at the base and in the morning, so leaves dry before evening.
- Watch for two weeks for soft, water-soaked patches or grey fuzzy mould and cut them out early; pull any lettuce with a slimy base.
Feeding once the bed drains
Heavy rain washes nitrogen out of the soil, and roots in saturated ground take up little. Once the bed drains, give a light liquid feed such as fish emulsion at the label rate. Liquid seaweed is a tonic rather than a feed, carrying little nitrogen. If water is still lying, see our guide to waterlogged soil.
Resow or wait? Count the weeks
Check that a crop is still inside its sowing window on What to Sow Now, and late in the season favour the fastest.
- Bush beans such as Provider, about 52 to 55 days. Most zones sow until January or February.
- Zucchini and squash, about 6 to 9 weeks. Black Beauty goes in until January, or February in subtropical and arid gardens.
- Radish, 4 to 10 weeks, all year outside the tropics and the cool zone, with shade over summer rows.
- Lettuce, leaves from 4 weeks, in temperate and cool gardens with afternoon shade.
- Amaranth and kang kong, summer greens with leaves from about 4 weeks.
In the tropics beans, zucchini and radish are dry-season crops, so a build-up storm is a cue to sow amaranth or basil. Cool and alpine gardens can still sow tatsoi and komatsuna until November.
Quick protection for next time
- Watch the warnings. When storms are forecast, keep seedlings in punnets and move pots under cover.
- Cover young beds. Hoops with shade cloth or fine mesh, pegged down all round, soften small hail. Make them sturdy, because hail usually comes with strong wind.
- Stake at planting, using our guide to supports.
- Break the wind with a screen that lets about half the wind through, and raise the beds, which recover faster after intense rain.
Storm season by zone
- Tropical (Darwin in the Northern Territory, Cairns and Townsville in Queensland): the Bureau notes that large hail is uncommon in the tropics; storms bring damaging gusts and downpours, so staking and mounded beds matter most.
- Subtropical (Brisbane and south-east Queensland, northern New South Wales): thunderstorms are frequent, and the Northern Rivers is among the most hail-prone districts in New South Wales. Hail is likeliest in spring and early summer, before storms turn wetter.
- Arid and semi-arid (Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Broken Hill in New South Wales, Mildura in Victoria, Kalgoorlie in Western Australia): storms from September to March can bring damaging gusts and hail to open gardens, so a windbreak earns its keep.
- Temperate (Sydney and the New South Wales coast, Melbourne in Victoria): Sydney's hail season runs from late winter into summer, peaking across New South Wales in November and December. Melbourne sits further south, where thunderstorms are less frequent.
- Mediterranean (Perth and southern Western Australia, Adelaide in South Australia): Geoscience Australia notes that Perth averages five or six warm-season thunderstorms, far fewer than eastern and northern Australia, and winter hail there is usually a centimetre or less. Adelaide gardeners should follow the Bureau's district warnings.
- Cool and alpine (Tasmania, Canberra in the ACT, Ballarat in Victoria, Orange and Armidale in New South Wales, Stanthorpe in Queensland): the Northern Tablelands around Armidale are among the most hail-prone parts of New South Wales, while south-east Tasmania has the fewest thunderstorms in the country.
These zones are broad groupings; between two, lean on local storm history.
Frequently asked questions
Will my hail-damaged plants recover?
Many do. Within a week, look for fresh leaves at the tips, buds and centres.
Should I cut off leaves with hail holes?
On fruiting crops, no: attached leaves keep feeding the plant. On leafy greens, pick the damaged outer ones.
Is hail-damaged produce safe to eat?
Produce hailed on but not flooded can be washed, trimmed and eaten soon. Anything floodwater touched goes in the bin, however clean it looks.
Is it too late to resow after a December storm?
Often not. Bush beans, zucchini and radish fit where your window runs into January or February.
Give the garden a week before judging it. It often surprises you.
Related growing guides
- Coastal and Windy Gardens: Shelter from Salt, Wind and Sand
- Heatwave Survival for the Vegetable Garden: Shade, Water and Timing
- Beating the cold: frost protection and stretching your growing season
Browse our bean seeds and zucchini seeds.