Hail Storm

Australian conditions vary from one extreme to another. What do you do and when do you do it?
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Watto
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Hail Storm

Post by Watto »

Last Thursday there was a hail storm in our area. Hail and bonsai are not compatible and usually there is only one winner. There was some damage to a few of my bonsai but nothing critical, but I did do a 'run' during the worst of the hail to rescue one of my little darlings, something only mad bonsai people do! :palm:
One funny thing was a group planting that had pit marks in the moss so I thought you might be interested.
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Last edited by Bougy Fan on October 17th, 2021, 7:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Typo
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Re: Hail Strom

Post by Keels »

My worst nightmare... A hailstorm. Brave man for making a dash to save your trees. How big was the hail? I heard Sydney had some big ones too.
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Re: Hail Strom

Post by Watto »

More like silly man, the hail started off small nut soon got to about golf ball size.
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Promethius
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Re: Hail Strom

Post by Promethius »

You could think of them as ‘speed holes,’ if it helps. Very classy, highly sought after in some circles.
Or perhaps you can incorporate an astronaut figurine to fit with a meteorite impact crater scene?
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Re: Hail Strom

Post by Sno »

So which one is the one that you risked it all for ? I know when it happens up here I run around like a mad chook chucking trees under tables and screaming like a banshee at the sky . Luckily I live on acreage other wise my neighbours would ring the cops .
Each time it happens I promise myself to make a proper bench with hail netting . One day .
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Re: Hail Strom

Post by TimS »

I feel the pain! A few weeks back i had decent hail at my house, fortunately while I was home, and I sprinted outside to bring trees under the patio to protect them and that was from much smaller hail than you got!
In the blue darkening sky, the moon paints a pine tree.
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Re: Hail Strom

Post by Watto »

I have a hawthorn that has pink flowers and it has a thousand flower buds this year (true, not joking) and I want a few photos of it so I went out and got a few bruise's for it.
I hope it was worth it! I will post a few photos when it all happens.
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Phil Rabl
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Re: Hail Storm

Post by Phil Rabl »

I got smashed by hail over a decade ago in Canberra. Since then I have built hail protection into my bonsai stands. There's little you can do with whopper hail, but every little bit of protection helps. Here is a photo of the weld-mesh I have on the top of my display stand. I also rollout shade cloth on top of it in summer and when hail/storms are forecast. Anything that hits the mesh will break. The shade cloth won't stop golf balls, but will stop smaller hail.
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Re: Hail Storm

Post by melbrackstone »

I wondered if you'd been affected Watto, glad to see you were able to contain the damage.

Phil I have similar over some of my trees, and it does stop the worst of it. It looks like it might be another bumper season for hail, sadly. :(
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Re: Hail Storm

Post by greg27 »

Phil Rabl wrote: October 17th, 2021, 10:52 amHere is a photo of the weld-mesh I have on the top of my display stand. I also rollout shade cloth on top of it in summer and when hail/storms are forecast. Anything that hits the mesh will break. The shade cloth won't stop golf balls, but will stop smaller hail.
I might borrow that idea Phil. I've been meaning to add a shadecloth over my stand for summer and the weld-mesh looks like a good addition. We don't get much in the way of crazy hail in Adelaide, but a few years back so much fell in such a short time that it looked like snow.
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