why won't he grow?

I have a second year chinook that just won't grow. He's in a planter and had some leaves shoot out around where the orginal rhizome was planted. But nothing more for over a week. I planted my rhizomes last week and they all have a good 2 to 3 inch vine coming out for each one. DO the second years take a bit to get going? Or, does it need more ckicken poop?

Thanks

hobbsj said:

I have a second year chinook that just won't grow. He's in a planter and had some leaves shoot out around where the orginal rhizome was planted. But nothing more for over a week. I planted my rhizomes last week and they all have a good 2 to 3 inch vine coming out for each one. DO the second years take a bit to get going? Or, does it need more ckicken poop?

Thanks

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Is it a small container? May be root bound or lack of nutrients.

have you been taking care of the roots while they were dormant? Did you water regularly and apply nutrients?

JarrodH said:

have you been taking care of the roots while they were dormant? Did you water regularly and apply nutrients?

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THey are in a smaller container. But they grew about 9 feet last year. I did water them once a week at least during the winter. I also covered them with hay (although it only got below freezing like 3 times this winter). As far as nutrients, I put on chicken poop and compost. I was thinking maybe it outgrew the container a bit but i would think that with daily waterin now and a lot of nutrients, it would do more. It will be out of the planter in about 2.5 months as we're buying a house I can plant a garden. Any suggestions?

Maybe just give it some time? Your plant may be taking a break. I would assume that they all would sprout at the same time (my tet and northern brewer did within a couple days) but it may be different for the variety. Did you prune last years growth off when it died back? Or before it died back?

he is a she

I was going to say - maybe because you've been calling her "He".

cactusgarrett said:

I was going to say - maybe because you've been calling her "He".

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Ha. I wish it was that easy.

I didn't cut the bines back until a couple of weeks ago. Could that have done something?

Cutting the bines back is a bad idea until the plants are 3 years old. She'll recover eventually.

david_42 said:

Cutting the bines back is a bad idea until the plants are 3 years old. She'll recover eventually.

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by that do you mean early season cutting to grow only 3 of the bines?
(done to promote the roots to establish?) I've only heard about needing to do that the first year.

No, I'm talking about cutting all of the bines to the ground early in the growing season. Some commercial growers do this, mainly to ensure all of the plants are 'in sync'.

For homegrown, cutting back to 2-3 bines per plant is what you want to do.