Growing Hops

Maybe lack of water. My Fuggles were second year this past summer. I had LOADS of hops.

With "normal" plants, yellow leaves are often a sign of an iron deficiency.

From The Desk Of Marty Albert KC6UFM

Nah, definitely plenty of water. They weren't wilting by any stretch of the imagination. Just kind of yellow splotchiness starting at the bottom, slowly spreading to the larger leaves. Disease? Nutrient deficiency? Not sure.

I've been growing hops for quite a while, I've researched it quite a bit too. Hops are heavy feeders, they require regular fertilizing and LOTS of water. Mine had yellowing leaves the first year, but after fertilizing regularly they are nicely green right to the top (about 20 feet). They like well drained soil, so they don't have to sit in a puddle all the time. On very hot days in the summer I water mine every day and apply Miracle-Gro weekly. Gary

What kind of soil are you using?

I use about 80% rich leaf compost and about 20% peat moss. I water just about everyday and fertilize with plant food at least once a week. For their second year, they started early and really took off. I harvested in late July.

Just what mother earth put there. Sandy soil, drains pretty easy. I should probably have done more fertilizing. Sweet pictures of your hops BTW. Mine grew to the top of my garage -just didn't seem too healthy. 12 hop flowers on the Willammette for example.

I have 5 first years and only chinook is putting out flowers.

I'd just get an all around fertilizer and dose it med to hard and water like there is no tomorrow.

I'm in a warm climate so watering is needed! YMMV

__Stephen

My first year cascade plants had the same blotchiness you describe. I sprayed them with vegetable insectiside regularily but that didn't help. I used miracle grow 2-3 times a week and watered almost every day. The plant with the most blotches on the leaves grew the fastest and produced quicker. I finished harvesting off that one almost a month ago whereas the plant that looked healthier I'm going to final harvest this week. So far between the two I've got about 4-5 ounces of dried vacume sealed cascade. So while those spots on the leaves look like hell, they didn't affect anything.

"Stephen Russell" wrote in message news:j3v0d.2037$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.columbus.rr.com...

I tried my hand at growing this year, I live in Arizona, so it was a very interesting experiment. I did manage to get a vine about 2 feet high before the sun cooked and baked that poor little guy. I'm hoping it will come up again next season, but I'll be ready this time, I'll be armed with shade screens, drip system automatic watering and hopefully have some good luck. It can be done, I have a friend that has had some very good results. Now, if we could genetically cross a cactus and a hop plant?,,,, hmmmm.... lol

-barley

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My guess is that you need to water them more. Like 1 gal / plant / day depending on your location and altitude.

Shade isn't the issue but moisture is. My first year and I have 5 plants at about 20' each now. Only Chinook producing flowers, but it's only year 1. I water every 3 days unless it rains, and in Memphis the past 2 summers rain is easy. I hit with fertilizer every other week.

__Stephen