Hops - discoloration and holes in leafs

I live in Ohio and we had a terribly wet spring which I think delayed my hops from starting out solid.

RIGHT Side against building:
I planted these Cascade hops April 2009. This year was the first year I put up a hop pole and they are climbing well. Last year they had a good bunch of cones but were on a 5 ft tall trellis and I wanted to improve upon that. I scaled it back to 3 main vines coming out of the ground this year onto the one rope.



The top 5 foot of leaves/vine is looking good, I see lots of hop sprouts coming. The bottom 3 foot is looking a little yellow at the leaves.



LEFT SIDE against building:

I actually transplanted this year and the one growing up the left side is a first year transplant/rhizome from the one on the right.

As you can see this is one is yellow leaves near the bottom and also a few leaves are having many holes in them.



My other hop pole are Mt. Hood Hops and other than not growing real tall they are bushing out well and establishing some roots i'm sure. I started these out in pots and couldn't plant them for a long time since it was so wet.



I am just wondering if you all can help me determine what is going, why the yellow leafs near the bottom and why does the one cascade have some leaves with lots of holes. I did find a bug on one of the leafs, little brown bug smaller than size of your pinky fingernail. I kept it and can take a picture if I find my camera that takes good closeup pics.

Lately the Cascade hops have been growing several inches a day even though they look a little off. We've also had more stable weather and some good sun!

Just looking for some advice. This year I have been trying to put about 1/2 gallon of water (total for all 4 hop vines) on the base of the plants per day since summer is come along.

Thanks in advance
TritonBill

Looks like japaneese beetles to me. @ least the holes. Those things are dead by harvest time i think. As long as they dont eat the whole plant u should b ok. Gotta kill those things in the ground.

I thought of that Cletus, had similar problems with some green bean leafs early on but haven't seen any japanese beetles this year. We treat for beetles, in about 1 week.

Found the camera, here is the bug that was on the backside of the leaf and the only one besides a lightning bug that on the plants that I saw:

I don't think you have all that much to worry about. The lower (older) leaves tend to 'age' during the summer months (at least mine do - some varieties worse than others). As long as the leaves on the upper portion of the vines look good you're in business. The few leaves being chewed up won't be a factor in your harvest as these plants are able to take a lot of abuse. Also, you may want to change your watering (deep infrequent waterings are better than short daily ones). If you take an old milk jug filled with water and poke a pin hole in the bottom then set it near each crown, that'd probably be good about every 6 or so days. The water slowly seeps into the soil this way.

I would be more concerned about the corn growing nearby. About 12 years ago I had a bunch of hops growing behind a barn where I worked and ended up having some problems with European Corn Borer. The plants all looked normal but when I took the poles down to pick I found the hops very 'limp' rather than kinda krispy like they should have been. I noticed some bore holes along the vines. It took about 4 years but with the help of the local cooperative extension agent we identified the problem as ECB. I ended up buying a house and moved the hops to their current location so you're on your own if you do have a problem with the borers. I would imagine you'd have to try to control the adults before they lay eggs because once the eggs hatch and the larvae burrow into the vines you'd probably have to use a systemic insecticide once they're inside the stems. I wouldn't want to have to use a systemic on a food crop like hops. Try to talk the farmer into growing soybeans or wheat to keep the borers at bay. Good luck.

B- Hoppy, thanks all the info! The farmer alternates, corn and beans every other year. I don't think my 4 hop poles will influence his planting decisions, unless of course I share some really good beer with him! Haha.

Thanks again
Bill

bmickey said:

B- Hoppy, thanks all the info! The farmer alternates, corn and beans every other year. I don't think my 4 hop poles will influence his planting decisions, unless of course I share some really good beer with him! Haha.

Thanks again
Bill

Click to expand...

The good beer sounds like a plan! As for crop rotation, my farmer did the corn, wheat, beans thing and I noticed the problem didn't occur until it was time for the corn to be planted. Anyway, just make sure you have plenty of beer on hand to keep the pump primed! Adios