Last week Friday northern weather fell upon the German district of Schweinfurt (Bayern), the municipalities affected include Sennfeld and Gochsheim. While there was not much damage in the region, Sennfeld was hard hit by the sudden hail and lost a lot of vegetables in the field. "One hundred percent of the area in Sennfeld was in one way or another affected by the hail," says grower Sebastian Tietze. He guesses that in about 17 and a half hours 35 litres of rain fell (including hail) per meter squared.

The zucchini for example are full of holes from the hail, says Tietze. Due to the hail stones one zucchini had 20 holes. On top of this all the leaves of the herbs and lettuce were damaged. Tietze is now wondering if he should leave the plants in hope that they will recover, or if he should just immediately plough them. The vegetables with holes are more susceptible to diseases. The intensity of labour increases because now the same area has a lower yield. The zucchini full of holes are virtually unsellable. Only sales on the weekly local market would be possible now because here people can explain why the zucchini looks the way it does. Supermarkets however will not take these vegetables. Sebastian Tietze cannot say how high the damage is yet.

At the market last Saturday the locals could see the effects of the damage that occurred in Sennfeld, with many stalls being completely empty. Fresh lettuce was especially lacking. "The lettuce was completely destroyed and therefore we could not harvest it," explains Tietze.

Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/