I don't think it was a tornado

[WayneByerly]

So we get this weather advisory in the evening... Not last night, but the night before... Tornado advisory until 0300 the next am. No problem, as Tennessee never (sic) gets tornadoes... those are reserved for places like Oklahoma and Nebraska... So I ignore the advisory... What I didn't give any consideration to, was that tornadoes are most often accompanied by high winds.

And I have described my greenhouse by using words like cheap, primitive, small... and, but not often, as being something resembling fragile.

So this is what I find the next morning when I get up. I had already pulled the largest branch off of the front of the greenhouse when I thought that I should get my tablet and take some pictures.

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The winds had blown both ends off of greenhouse. The little black wire basket looking thing laying in the floor is a three tier wire shelving thing that I had set on the top shelf in order to provide a little more space for several pots. The small wooden shelf that I attached to the wall had held eight or nine small pots. There are several broken pots, and multiple pots turned upside down either on the ground or on top of other pots on the lower Shelf.

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Many, many years ago there had been a clothes line in the yard, that had been taken down but not discarded. So several years back, maybe 10, I used one end of the cross shaped wooden pieces as a kind of a trellis for some wisteria to grow on. It was 4 by 4 treated lumber construction. Snapped off at the ground.

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The limb laying on the ground is a good 9 or 10 inches in diameter... a substantial limb from the maple tree on the right. If you look close you can see where it split off. I should have taken this picture from the side and not from straight down the length of it as I have. You cannot see from this picture that the limb is about 30 ft long. I was however able to put a couple of red lines on the picture showing the orientation of the limb and where it came from.

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This next picture is a Japanese plum tree. Again I should have taken it from the side instead of endwise. It's maybe 30 or 35 ft tall.

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The stuff that's fallen in the yard I can live with. It's just... there. I've never placed any real attachment to the trees growing in the yard. But the greenhouse and my cacti... I'm just devastated. The loss there just unnecessary... uncalled for...

When the wind blew the ends off the greenhouse, it allowed the rains to blow through, and a good bit of everything inside is soaked. I've ordered some new soil components hoping I can repot things in stuff that's dry, hoping that I can ward off root rot.

I feel like I've been kicked in the gut...

[Steve Johnson]

Man, I'm sooo sorry that happened to you. I can't imagine what you're going through, so all I can say is -- best wishes for a successful disaster recovery.

[gemhunter178]

Yikes! Best of luck in recovering. Hope everything goes better from here on out

[Pompom]

Oh I'm really sorry for your loss! That must feel so bad to see all destruction the wind left. But I'm glad you're safe and sound. I was worried of you when I read from oter post where you told you had a tornado warning. In my opinion, you should never rely on ”this never happened before” since to me that only means that something is going to happen at one point.
I'm a person who immediately tries to see happiness in sorrow. So here's the positive things what I thought: Fortunately the whole greenhouse and all of the plants didn't get destroyed. Now you know that you need stronger greenhouse regardless that you don't get tornadoes. Now you have a reason to clean up your greenhouse. Now you have more space for new cacti.

Ps. I'm so happy that stetsonia coryne survived

[ElieEstephane]

Oh i'm soo sorry for the damage wayne! Hope none of your cacti catch any diseases!
On the bright side, now you have more space for the cacti on your wishlist

[DodoBrooke]

Dear Wayne, I can understand how much it hurts Yet I hope some plants can be saved?
To be honest, until today I still remember some losses that happened 15 years ago Like, my favorite plant was always G.Denudatum. It is simple plant but I still think it is adorable. BUT I always remember that first Gymno Denudatum and the way I lost it. I somehow cannot accept it by today. It is even funny.

I guess it will be hard for some time to accept all this but hopefully this event will change some things to better, like some suggested...stronger greenhouse...new plants and new joys...
Stay strong and wishing you no tornado comes close for years and years

[hegar]

Hello Wayne,

I too am sorry to hear about the damage Mother Nature has caused to your property. I hope, that you have not lost many of your cherished plants in your greenhouse. Even if each one were to survive, just cleaning up the mess the storm caused is more than any of us would like to do.
I truly hope, that this was a one-time occurrence and you will get things back to normal as fast as possible.

Harald

[DodoBrooke]

Dear Wayne, how are you and how are hings going with restoring greenhouse?

[WayneByerly]

... how are things going with restoring greenhouse?

Without naming every single one of you individually, I would like to thank you one and all for your concern and your very gracious expressions of sympathy. They are greatly appreciated, and I am grateful for them all.

I'm not quite sure of the number, as most of the cactus that I lost were seedlings, but I think there were somewhere between 3 to 5 plants lost. There was one broken pot and several cracked and/or chipped pots. The pots that are cracked or chipped are not damaged enough that they required replacing. They can be used again.

Components for potting soil (15% organic and 85% inorganic) were purchased to repot cacti that had gotten soaked from the rain blowing through after having been watered twice in close succession (mostly because of heat). I wanted to get them out of their soaked soil and into something drier.

I think it was probably a good thing that I had to repot them, as maybe three of the cacti that I repotted were in a soil composition that was way, way too high in their percentage of organic components... and had been in that soil for several years. I think they were really overdue to be repotted. I think I repotted 12 or 14 plants at a cost of about 65 to 75 US dollars.

The worst part of the damage I think, was to cacti that is similar to the following picture that occurred from hard things falling on softer cacti.

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Overall, most everything survived quite handily. As is evidenced by the following picture.

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Again, I thank you all, very much... Its very nice to have such very good, very considerate friends...

[greenknight]

Very sad to hear about your misfortune. Good that it wasn't any worse, but it's always disheartening to lose any of the plants you've carefully nurtured. I had hoped to hear that you were able to save them all, very sorry that you weren't.

I'm sure you're correct that it wasn't a tornado, most likely a downburst or microburst. These occur when a powerful downdraft out of a thunderstorm hits the ground and spreads out, producing powerful straight-line winds that radiate out from its center. Microbursts affect a smaller area and don't last as long but can produce more intense winds - up to 130 mph for 5 minutes. They can be accompanied by significant precipitation, as it sounds like the one you got was.

You can grow Wisteria without a trellis, if you give them nothing to climb they grow as a bush. They grow less rampantly than when they're climbing, actually easier to maintain that way.

[J-M]

I feel really sorry for you. At least you did not lose everything. Hold on and think about growing seasons in years to come and all the plants that will flower for you !

[WayneByerly]

You can grow Wisteria without a trellis...

I've "concreted" another 4x4 post into the ground next to the wisteria, and current plans are for me to get a friend of mine to come over with his truck so that we can pull the wisteria up right, and tie the existing broken post to the new vertical post.

I'm thinking now that I should put in another vertical post on the other side, and run a 4 x 4 through the center of the wisteria "bush" horizontally, screwing the horizontal post to the two vertical posts, making an upside down u-shaped post for the wisteria to grow around.

Yes, it will grow without a trellis, but in my experience from much, much earlier in life, is that it will do better with a trellis.



Again, I would like to thank each and everyone of you who has responded to this spurious & useless post, for your very kind and considerate expressions of sympathy. The number of them is really quite touching. This just goes to prove my past assertions that the people here are the best in the world! Thank you, thank you, for your friendship and your kindness.

[WayneByerly]

... most likely a downburst or microburst.

Actually, I was thinking exactly the same thing. In all my years of living here, I have never seen the winds get that high. I wish I had taken a video of the trees whipping back and forth. It was really quite impressive!

[greenknight]

Yes, it will grow without a trellis, but in my experience from much, much earlier in life, is that it will do better with a trellis.

Exactly - having nothing to climb dwarfs them, there's much less pruning needed to keep them in bounds. A trellis covered with Wisteria is awfully pretty when it's in bloom, though.

If you really want to dwarf them, you can grow them as bonsai. Bonsai treatment dwarfs the foliage, but not the flowers - they're quite spectacular in bloom.

[WayneByerly]

A trellis covered with Wisteria is awfully pretty when it's in bloom, though.

This is just an FYI, in case you don't know about it... From seed, it takes anywhere from 7 to 10 years for wisteria to start to grow flowers.

If you really want to dwarf them, you can grow them as bonsai.

I wanted green things growing where I lived, but the state of my health dictates that I don't have a lot of wherewithal to spare for taking (care of things. Which is one of the reasons I chose to start with cacti and succulents. Cause they don't take a lot of care. Bonsai do take a considerable effort be exerted for their care...