2nd year Centennial has stalled out

Hey guys,

My second year Centennial was the first out of the ground this year and quickly reached about 3 ft tall. Since then it hasnt really grown at all. I have a couple of theories as to why this might be but figured I would throw it out there to see if I could get any other info or ideas.

I am growing in the ground in North Georgia. The soil here is basically clay but I tilled up 6-8" when I planted and mixed in gardening soil in a 4' by 4' area. I am starting to wonder it may be stunted because the roots have reached an area of solid clay and cant penetrate it??

Another thing is that this was the first and only shoot. Maybe I should have trimmed this one and hoped for more??

Other thing could be that it isnt getting enough sun but with how it shot out of the ground and grew to 3' in no time its hard to think this is the case. Our weather has been incredible and between 70-80 pretty much daily. Below is a picture of it is about 2 weeks before it stalled out.

Funny thing is I planted 2 Cascade Rhizomes from Freshhops about 2 weeks ago and they are going crazy. I have 7 shoots on one and 5 on the other and 5 shoots about 2 ft tall already. Just hoping they dont stall out as well. Last year my Cascade got to about 8 ft before something dug it out of the ground.

Any ideas on why this would have stalled out like this? Suggestions?

That's some black looking soil there. Are you saying that that is strictly native clayish soil with store bought potting soil and nothing else added? It resembles nitro humus or some other type of manure based amendment.

One thing that could have happened is that there may be root rot from staying wet and not draining properly. The rains will compact soil on their own. When you planted, you say you tilled, but clay likes to get compact by its nature so it is really only a matter of time before enough rainfall will bring it back to where it was.

What was the fertility rate and frequency (both recently as well as last season)?

It's fine. It's just been cooler weather lately here in the south. Had a warm March, got things kickstarted, then cool weather hit the last couple weeks, cold nights slowed the growth.

Sorry should have clarified the picture. I use a Miracle Grow Garden mix. Not Potting soil. The black soil you are seeing there is just straight out of the bag that I put on top of the mix. So at the beginning of last year I tilled and mixed about half and half soil and garden mix. This year I just removed the mulch I had on there and then added a little bit of the straight garden mix on top.

Sorry but I am not sure I understand what you are asking on the fertility rate and frequency. We do get some pretty heavey rains here so very well could have compacted the soil. I do have a 15 x 10 garden about 10' from this area which I have tilled the last two years and amended the soil/clay similarly and most everything in the garden seem to be doing ok. So Im not sure.

If it is root rot is there anything I can do to help. I guess I can let it be and if it never gets better dig it up and see whats going on. I was thinking about digging all of them up end of year anyways and trying to do a raised bed in the same area. Just not sure I will have the time or money to do so. Thanks for the info!!

bhughes said:

It's fine. It's just been cooler weather lately here in the south. Had a warm March, got things kickstarted, then cool weather hit the last couple weeks, cold nights slowed the growth.

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Awesome!! Thats what I was really hoping to hear. RDWHAHB!! Works for hops too I guess. Thanks.

I had a hard time reading your post - my eyes kept wandering over to your avatar LOL.

My 2nd year hops took off like a rocket in March but have slowed quite a bit the last week or so too, likely because of the cold nights we've had. NC probably gets about the same weather as you.

I think hop plants have a lot of stored energy in the rhizomes in the spring, and the use it all up blasting shoots up from the ground. When that energy is used up, then growth will slow down a bit as they start pulling nutrients from the soil and using photosynthesis to grow. If they don't look as green and healthy as you think they should, it might help to hit them with a little bit of fertilizer, something higher in nitrogen (N) to promote growth. Or an organic choice would include spreading some blood meal on the surface and cover it with compost. If you just mixed clay with potting soil, there's probably not much for nutrients in the soil.

If the plant is green and healthy looking though, I'd probably just wait a bit and see what happens when the nights warms and the sun gets a bit stronger.

EDIT: Missed your update on the MG soil - if that has nutrients in it then I'd just leave the plants be and see what happens as it warms up more.

br1dge said:

Sorry should have clarified the picture. I use a Miracle Grow Garden mix. Not Potting soil. The black soil you are seeing there is just straight out of the bag that I put on top of the mix. So at the beginning of last year I tilled and mixed about half and half soil and garden mix. This year I just removed the mulch I had on there and then added a little bit of the straight garden mix on top.

Sorry but I am not sure I understand what you are asking on the fertility rate and frequency. We do get some pretty heavey rains here so very well could have compacted the soil. I do have a 15 x 10 garden about 10' from this area which I have tilled the last two years and amended the soil/clay similarly and most everything in the garden seem to be doing ok. So Im not sure.

If it is root rot is there anything I can do to help. I guess I can let it be and if it never gets better dig it up and see whats going on. I was thinking about digging all of them up end of year anyways and trying to do a raised bed in the same area. Just not sure I will have the time or money to do so. Thanks for the info!!

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Might be the cool or cold weather. I was asking what fertilizers you add and how much and often. I guess the miracle grow has some nutrients in it so the topping may have helped some. If you recently put it on top then you would have to rely on it leaching into the root zone which may or may not happen right away. I would not rely on the fertility from it as a sole source of nutrients though. Be sure not to crowd the crown with that stuff on top. I recommend that raised idea for clay soils. It gives another avenue for drainage.

If it's a second year plant, the other option would be to slash it. I have a 2nd year newport that I plan on pruning of bines... Actually I have two plants and am contemplating trimming all the bines from one and leaving the original best of the other to see how harvests differ. There has been some back and forth on this topic lately, and as a noob I am clearly wavering. I don't mean to confuse issues further, just wanted to throw it out there.
An extremley condensed version of what I have read here is this: the growth of initial shoots may be more irregular or stunted than secondary growth (maybe due to frosts, etc.) and the initial growth may not produce as many sidearms (and therefore cones) as the secondary growth of a second year plant (one that has not been transplanted). If I am wrong on this I hope someone will illuminate me.
As far as when to cut, I believe it is at the point where one would pretty much have to start training....but I am waaaay less sure about that aspect of it.
Again, I do not want to spread misinformation; this is NOT firsthand knowledge as much as passing on what I have read on earlier threads.

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My 2nd year Centennial is doing same thing. I have read that the initial shoots ARE from stored energy and some have commented that those shoots should be cut down to allow new more consistant growing shoots come up. I have cut down only one (the biggest) of the three shoots. I am wating to see what the new shoots look like before I cut down the other two.

My Great Lakes Hops I just planted in the past two weeks look terrible (probably due to cold weather shock). I cut down all of my Zues bines and they have already shot up two new ones in less than a week. I plan to cut down all of the others that look bad.

Good Luck

My 2 cents worth:
I'd probably let the plants tell you if you should cut back the first shoots. If they are firing out of the ground like rockets with thick bines and a foot gap between leaf nodes, it's probably a good idea to slow them down a bit. I cut back my Cascades, Magnum and Santiam first shoots because they were going nuts.

But if the the bines are thinner and the plant is taking it's time climbing up (like my Willamette and Centennial did) then I'd let them go. I don't think cutting them back would help the plant at all.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I will keep up to date on what is happening and hopefully with the weather warming back up they will take off again. Ill snap some more recent photos when I get home tonight and post them here. Thanks again!!

Jesse - Thought about slashing it. Just made me incredibly nervous as I only have one shoot up right now. Just kept thinking how pissed I would be if I slashed it and nothing came back!!

bigljd - Good info. I have read a bunch about trimming and whatnot and kind of lean towards your method of goign by feel. For instance, my 1st year Cascade I got from Freshops is going bonkers. Most people say do no trimming with 1st year but I now have 7-9 bines popping out on each. about 4-5 of them are big and strong. Thinking about trimming the small guys and letting the big dogs hunt. Still undecided.

jmich24 - Let me know what happens with the regrowth. Very interested!!

Here are some pics. Cascade is going nuts. Having some small bug issues I'm working through. Second is centennial which is still stalled. Last is my tiny chinook that gets the least amount of sun.