[AT] Now NC twisters: was Mina problem

[charlie hill]

Grant,  I somehow missed your message until I read Dean's reply.  Sorry to 
hear of your loss.  I can tell you from being raised on a farm and from 
working for a while as a crop insurance adjuster, an inch of hail is a big 
deal anywhere.  In fact any hail at all is tough on crops.  I hope you 
recover well.

I have a question for you with regard to your greens.  In the old days of 
tobacco farming we always handled our young tobacco plants in the seed bed 
with kid gloves.   But some years weather conditions would result in the 
plants getting too long (leggy) before they could be transplanted and that 
caused problems with the transplanters.  (be patient.  I'll get to the 
point).  It was then that the folks at the universities figured out that you 
could simply take a lawn mower, modified so that it would cut about 4 inches 
high, and mow the plants down.  They would then sprout back out as if 
nothing ever happened to them.   I'm wondering how your greens would do if 
you tried the same thing?   I mean, cut them off below the hail damaged 
leaves and let them grow back out?  Just curious.  I realize that might not 
be feasible for a large scale operation and I also realize you need to meet 
a particular market demand within a specific time period.  It probably 
wouldn't solve your problem.  Just wondering how the plants would respond to 
it.

Good luck with the rest of your season.

Charlie



-----Original Message----- 
From: Dean Vinson
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 7:59 PM
To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
Subject: Re: [AT] Now NC twisters: was Mina problem

Grant, I'm very sorry to hear of the crop damage you suffered--that must be
terribly frustrating.

And, speaking as a more-or-less lifetime resident of the Midwest, an inch of
hail is serious business wherever it falls!

Hope your spring sale was productive--and if nothing else, good on you for
making the best of a tough situation.

Dean Vinson
Dayton, Ohio
www.vinsonfarm.net



-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Grant Brians
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 7:25 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Now NC twisters: was Mina problem

On April 7th we had a freak Thunderstorm here in the Santa Clara Valley of
California. Normally we rarely get thunderstorms and we only get hail once
in a while. During that day, at two of the ranches I farm about half a mile
apart (but not at the other two ranches, one of which was less than three
miles away as the crow flies) we received 5 separate periods of hail. In
total about an inch of hail fell as part of the total 1.2" of precipitation
during the 5 hour time period.
     Now I know what you people in the midwest and Southeast are thinking -
"that hardly counts as precipitation let alone hail!" But remember this is
coastal Central California where we "almost never" get hail and certainly
not in April! So, the problem is that the hail damaged my Spinach, Miners
Lettuce, Baby Lettuce and various other Baby Greens crops from bruising and
it also knocked off many of the fruit tree blossoms - all of these being
major crops for me and in the types of local crops that are grown. So the
result ended up being a loss well over $10,000 for my farm, all because of
less than an hour of hail falling during a part of one day from a small
Thunderstorm. And as noted by others in this thread, these types of storms
are usually ones that only "touch down" in certain spots deemingly for
unclear reasons....
     So there is my "hail tale of woe" and to recover a little bit from it,
we ran a Farmers Market "Hail Spring Sale" on the weekend to try to recover
a little from this.....

         Grant Brians
         Hollister,California




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