Storm damage

I was so disappointed by a HUGE thunderstorm that rolled through our area yesterday morning. It was pitch black out and there were 65 mph winds. In the city, there were at least 100 trees damaged.

At home, I found that the winds managed to bend my steel conduit trellis slightly. I think it will make it through the rest of the season though.

The worst part was that the winds knocked down hundreds of apples that I had planned on picking this weekend. Most of them are a total loss because they are so bruised and dented. I managed to salvage slight more than a 5 gallon pail full and am planning on making lots of applesauce tomorrow.

There was another huge storm yesterday afternoon, dropping an 1" of rain in about 40 minutes along with vicious winds. My poor trellis is damaged beyond repair. I just keep hoping that it will last out the rest of the season so I don't lose all of the cantaloupe that are on it.

I'm so sorry to hear about your damage! I'm shocked that your steel conduit trellis didn't hold up. I started out using 1" PVC several years ago, and I'm still using the same PVC. It's made it through some pretty good storms, so I guess I'm lucky. I was considering changing over to the conduit, but now I'm not so sure.

Hope your cantaloupes make it through for you.

We had a major storm in our area last night, too.



I have two steel conduit trellises (or is it trellisi?) in which morning glory vines have connected.



I cannot get into to see all of the damage. However, I woke this morning to find that the wind had lifted one trellis out of the ground and its 18'' rebar. That trellis, and all of its plants (large pumpkin, tomatoes, morning glories) are now resting on another SFG bed. Furthermore, it is pulling down the neighboring trellis.



I cannot blame the steel conduit. It has held up well. However, when a trellis is full of plant materiel, it becomes like a boat's sail in high winds. Perhaps, I need to plan for less growth onto each trellis.



Sorry, about all of your storm damage, HouseofWool. I hope the sweet taste of fresh applesauce is softening the blow.

I have 7 pints of applesauce processing right now, with enough apples left to do another batch. I am thinking of trying apple butter... There are still hundreds of apples on the ground. So sad.

I don't think I can fault the conduit this time. I have two trellis, both made from steel conduit, with bends in the corners (my dad happens to have the do-hickey for bending conduit) and a single join in the middle of the top. One of the trellises is connected by zip ties to steel fence posts and is positively ladened with butternut squash. That one is fine.

The other was set on rebar and the rain had softened the ground significantly. So much so, that I ended screwing conduit straps onto the bed to help support it. This one get the brunt of the wind. Both are set on the north(ish) side of the beds, and don't face into the wind. I think it was just too much wind, too much rain (close to 4" in 3 days, coming in roughly 1" bouts), and lots of heavy fruit that did the damage. No matter what, there is no salvaging the damaged trellis now. I will take off the netting and re-use that, but the steel is probably too bent to save.

HouseOfWool wrote:No matter what, there is no salvaging the damaged trellis now. I will take off the netting and re-use that, but the steel is probably too bent to save.

So sorry you had all that damage from the wind and rain.

I am glad you were able to salvage those windfall apples. At least you were already geared up to make applesauce this weekend. I have to purchase apples to make my apple butter, but the kids love it when I send them some for Christmas.

HouseofWool wrote:

The other was set on rebar and the rain had softened the ground significantly. So much so, that I ended screwing conduit straps onto the bed to help support it. This one get the brunt of the wind. Both are set on the north(ish) side of the beds, and don't face into the wind. I think it was just too much wind, too much rain (close to 4" in 3 days, coming in roughly 1" bouts), and lots of heavy fruit that did the damage. No matter what, there is no salvaging the damaged trellis now. I will take off the netting and re-use that, but the steel is probably too bent to save.

Howdy Woolie: My grandfather used a wheeled hoe to set up his row garden and sometime the rows were not quite straight. He used to say that you could plant more on a crooked row anyway so he never seemed to worry about it. I wonder if you can grow more veggies on a crooked trellis?

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

It isn't so much about functionality, but because the steel has been bent, it will be more likely to fail in the same place in another storm. We've had several horrible storms in the area this year (4" hail in one, a tornado nearby, and several with hurricane force winds) and I would anticipate much of the same next year. I would have to have it break completely and tear up all of the plants.

Next year will have a new steel trellis set with fence posts.

HouseofWool wrote:It isn't so much about functionality, but because the steel has been bent, it will be more likely to fail in the same place in another storm. We've had several horrible storms in the area this year (4" hail in one, a tornado nearby, and several with hurricane force winds) and I would anticipate much of the same next year. I would have to have it break completely and tear up all of the plants.

Next year will have a new steel trellis set with fence posts.

Howdy HouseofWool:

We had hurricane force winds last week. In fact we had a hurricane. The winds blew for almost 12 hours and reached 83 MPH. We had one trellis leg bend just a bit. Each of the trellis are interconnected across the tops and each leg is fastened to the SFG box. Most of the trellis had low or reduced amounts of growth so did not act so much like a sail as yours. The winds were strong enough to cause a very large pine tree to come down on my neighbors carport and we had to cut our way out to the main road due to downed trees. All in all we felt lucky and were out of power for only 4 days.

The bad news is we lost all of the produce we had put into the freezer which was not much but it is lost anyway.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.