[jonewer]

Came back from a few weeks off to find a hail storm had destroyed just about everything - it looks like fired ten thousand shotgun cartridges at the place.

Main bole of my young apple tree has snapped off and cost me 50% of my apple crop (now I will only have 1 apple).

Worst of all, the river alongside my plot flooded and I'm informed was under a couple of feet of water for the best part of a week.

Result - virtually all my spuds are mush. 

Total wipe out.

[Springlands]

That is awful - all of your hard work ruined. It may not be much comfort but other forum members have had exactly the same problems. Hopefully you can salvage something - or plant some fast growing crops now so that you can get something in the autumn.

[jonewer]

I'm thinking about swapping my plot for a vacant one the other side from the river.

I wonder if the council would let me keep both till winter when I can move the apple tree properly?

[Springlands]

All you can do is ask - if they say no at least you have tried. If you move to the new plot you might just have to take a chance and move the apple tree at the same time - if you do try to dig out as much of the rootball as you can to reduce the risk of shock to the tree.

[sunshineband]

What a shock for you 

Get that other plot on higher ground and move the tree when you can ---- it might take them a while to let out your old plot from the sound of it, so time could be on your sside

[Trillium]

Truly a shame. I'm betting your council/whoever probably had fingers crossed that your plot wouldn't flood this year when they rented it to you. I'd think in all fairness that they should let you have the other one if it's already vacant.

[yorkiegal]

have a chat with other plot holders on the site and see if they know if your plot is one which floods a lot. That's what happened with my first plot and as a result the secretary allowed me to move to one on higher ground. We lost everything too but fortunately had only had our plot for a couple of months when it happened. We were also given a 3 month window which allowed us to move things over. In fact, our old plot is no longer rented out to anyone and there are plans to turn that entire corner of the site into a nature reserve with a pond.

[jonewer]

Thanks for the replies. Thing is I need to bare-root the tree as there's horseradish growing underneath it (its easier to eradicate smallpox than horseradish!) and would really like to do that in winter......

[crh75]

Get yourself a nice big pot to put the apple tree in until winter.

[Yorkie]

You can kill horseradish by repeated use of glyphosate.  So long as the chemical doesn't touch the tree leaves or open cuts in the bark, the tree should be fine.

[jonewer]

As an update to this, I moved the tree to a new spot and am now free to attack the horseradish with some of monsanto's finest!