Research on creating more resilient, productive and environmentally friendly crops has been set back years after Monday's severe hailstorm ripped through the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's (CSIRO) Canberra campus.

Some of the research on crops including wheat, barley and cotton had been under way for up to three years before golf ball-sized hail smashed thousands of panes on about 65 glass houses, making temperature control impossible and shredding leaves.

Rows of damaged greenhouses at the CSIRO's Canberra campus after an unseasonal hailstorm. Credit:AAP

Chief research scientist Evans Lagudah, who was in a greenhouse when the storm began, said he had had to choose between suffering bruises from the hail or cuts from the glass.

"It was almost like an explosion as the hail stones got onto [the glass houses] and started falling around us," Dr Lagudah said. "It was almost like being in a tornado situation."