Spring hops growing prep reminder

This is not so much a question as a couple of reminders for some of the newer growers of hops.
First off, if you had bugs last year (you're lucky if you didn't), you should seriously consider a dormant oil spray by the second week of March. Most of the U.S. had a very mild winter without the extended cold temps that kill a lot of overwintering pests and their eggs. It will probably be a record year for aphids, mites, and loopers. Dormant oil sprays that are applied to DORMANT plants pre-season can kill a lot of these pests. (If you have questions about this you can Google it or ask away here) The idea is to start clean and stay clean. Aphids typically overwinter on nearby weeds -so remove them -even the dead ones cause they are loaded with eggs. Mites overwinter beneath bud scales and bark on nearby trees. Spruce and Cottonwood are two of their favs to hang out on. If you scout your yard, check the trees and shrubs that are typically the first to green up- pests have evolved to overwinter on these because they provide their first source of food.
Spray/soak any nearby evergreen shrubbery, trees (and trunks) that could be over wintering pests. A good spring clean up goes a long ways towards reducing your initial pest populations.
Second - if your ground is thawed, it is time to apply a light dressing of organic fertilizer. The idea is to "wake up" the soil microbes and get them rockin' so they are ready to break down the plant fertilizer you apply 3 to 4 weeks later. This app of fert is not intended to feed the plants; so a little goes a long ways don't use chemical based fert for this app - inorganic fert actually reduces the amount of soil microbes and most will just leach away because the soil is still too cool for the microbes to convert it.
If you have questions about these cultural practices, this thread is the place to ask - there are many very knowledgeable members on the forum who will respond Brew On!

I have recently purchased some that should arrive in the near future. This will be my go round in sw Florida. Any suggestions that will avoid problems in the future.

Thanks for the advice. For those of us who are planning on planting hops for the first time this year, is the risk of these critters already in our soil high enough that we should do this. And if so, should we add the spray before or after planting the hops?

I'll actually be passing through Zeeland later this week for work and plan to stop by and get a couple crowns. I'm sure that I'll have more than a few questions when I actually have a captive audience!

Great info, thank you! This will be my 3rd growing season and I didn't know most of this stuff. THANKS!!!

Ordered 6 Hop Starts from you guys planing on planting in pots for a year a two will i get a yard to put them in the ground. Any tips for me?

Looking to get some crowns. How long till you can ship?

The place to start on pest control is a good spring clean up. Aphids and mites eggs over winter on about anything, but they tend to move to plants/weeds that stay alive late into the fall and re-sprout early in the spring. Perennial weeds, in particular, are favs because the pests move down into the crown and even onto the roots to survive the cold winter temps. Fungus spores overwinter on the dead leaves and stems. So removing these gets rid of a lot of what is called inoculum - the starter material for the coming growing season.
Fertilizer, in general, is two types - organic (nature made) and inorganic (made by chemical synthesis and ground based minerals). The important difference between the two is that the inorganic types (your typical 12-12-12 granular) is composed of a lot of different salts. They are set up just like table salt sodium/chloride. Plants / microbes break apart the salts and use what they want. The remainder is left behind and can build up in the soil (especially containers) if rainwater doesn't leach them away. The "leftovers" do nasty stuff like shifting soil pH, blocking uptake of the good stuff, killing helpful microbes, dessicating root tips, etc.
Organic fertilizers tend to be a lot lower in the salt levels and more microbe friendly. That is why organic fertilizers should be considered in a growers strategy if they are growing hops in containers or soils with high alkalinity levels.

Let's all please try to stay on subject - I am posting here to help folks grow their hops better - not to sell stuff. If that is your interest, please private message me or go to my site. Thanks for understanding!

Any tips for starting getting the area/soil ready for a completely new hop garden?

my concern with applying dormant oil is that i live in a residential area with plenty of trees in my neighbors yards. our yards are long and narrrow = their trees are near my yard. my fear is that i'll do a good job of controling the nasties in my trees, but unless the neighbor sprays his trees which are 10 or 20 feet away it'll be all a waste. the bugs and/or diseases don't care about fences...

cincybrewer said:

Any tips for starting getting the area/soil ready for a completely new hop garden?

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what is your soil like?

hops prefer a well-drained loamy soil. you can't go wrong by adding organic matter.

My words exactly sweetcell. I do a good size vegetable garden each year and do all I can to keep birds, rabbits, etc out of the garden. My neighbor had bird houses and a brushpile. So.. Last year my corn was damn near demolished by the birds and the rabbits ate a good amount of my ground plants.

I want to try growing some hops but not sure of what you mentioned and how well they will do growing in the middle Tennessee area. I may try some in containers first.

sweetcell said:

my concern with applying dormant oil is that i live in a residential area with plenty of trees in my neighbors yards. our yards are long and narrrow = their trees are near my yard. my fear is that i'll do a good job of controling the nasties in my trees, but unless the neighbor sprays his trees which are 10 or 20 feet away it'll be all a waste. the bugs and/or diseases don't care about fences...

Click to expand...

That's all true, but in my experience a lot of time the bugs are within 10' of your hops. Also, sometimes the neighbors get curious about what the heck you're doin' and when you explain the whole pest /garden thing, they get on board. A lot of my neighbors now do the garden thing!

cincybrewer said:

Any tips for starting getting the area/soil ready for a completely new hop garden?

Click to expand...

May I suggest searching the forums? The topic is discussed frequently and has multiple threads. You can find the search button way up in the right corner on the main forum page under your login name. If you can't find specfic enough info , come on in and ask or even start your own thread -it's kinda fun!

sweetcell said:

what is your soil like?

hops prefer a well-drained loamy soil. you can't go wrong by adding organic matter.

Click to expand...

No idea. I guess i have to figure out how to test it and go from there. I'm not much of a green thumb...But I guess I would start out by building a little row of dirt/soil for the hops? Since they grow vertical I assume the depth of the area doesn't have to be too great. I'm used to other plants like tomatoes where you want a decent amount of spacing. Sounds like hops only need something like 12 inches of depth and then enough spacing width wise so they don't get mixed up.

Jagdad said:

May I suggest searching the forums? The topic is discussed frequently and has multiple threads. You can find the search button way up in the right corner on the main forum page under your login name. If you can't find specfic enough info , come on in and ask or even start your own thread -it's kinda fun!

Click to expand...

Sure, you can suggest it...But I am quite familiar with the search feature, however, since this was a thread specific to helping people grow their hops, I thought I'd ask in here and thought it makes sense to have that info in here. I'm guessing you can find the info from the first post with a google search as well....and of course if you would have done a search first, you would have known that I've used the search feature before as well as started many of threads.

posted in wrong thread, please ignore

cincybrewer said:

No idea. I guess i have to figure out how to test it and go from there. I'm not much of a green thumb...But I guess I would start out by building a little row of dirt/soil for the hops? Since they grow vertical I assume the depth of the area doesn't have to be too great. I'm used to other plants like tomatoes where you want a decent amount of spacing. Sounds like hops only need something like 12 inches of depth and then enough spacing width wise so they don't get mixed up.

Click to expand...

you don't necessarily have to test, there is a lot you can learn by digging a hole. it the soil loose and sandy? or is it clumpy clay? what color is it? does grass or other plants grow well on that soil, or is natural growth patchy? but if you do want to test, most hardware stores sell soil ph testing kits, simple soil nutrient analysis kits, etc.

depth is important! if you can, dig down a little (2 feets at least) and break up that soil. the hop plant will send down roots to tap lower humidity, it'll be happier if the soil is a little aerated and can drain after a good flooding. mixing in some compost lower down is also a good idea.

Greatlakeshops said:

Organic fertilizers tend to be a lot lower in the salt levels and more microbe friendly. That is why organic fertilizers should be considered in a growers strategy if they are growing hops in containers or soils with high alkalinity levels.

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Do you have a good organic fertilizer to recommend. My hops are going into their 2nd year. I planted them in pots last year using a potting soil with a slow release fertilizer. Since that's likely gone, I'm wondering what fertilization strategy to take up.

Also, based on your first post, it appears that I'm a bit lit late for the "after thaw" fertilization. I'm guessing it's better late than never?

If I do pick up a fertilizer in the next few days and apply it lightly, when would you recommend the next fertilization? How much would you recommend in my case?

Edit: I just noticed the first sprouts on one of my pots.

What about using fish emulsions?

jescholler said:

Do you have a good organic fertilizer to recommend. My hops are going into their 2nd year. I planted them in pots last year using a potting soil with a slow release fertilizer. Since that's likely gone, I'm wondering what fertilization strategy to take up.

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i don't think there is a huge difference between brands of fertilizer. it's a fairly standard product that is hard to screw up. don't lose sleep over which one you select, just get some and work it in the soil.

depending how slow your slow-release is, there might be a little left. are you plants still in the same pots? have you transplanted them? if not, will you? transplanting is an idea time to up the fertilizer: mix it in with whatever additional soil you will be adding to the new pot/hole in the ground.

jescholler said:

Also, based on your first post, it appears that I'm a bit lit late for the "after thaw" fertilization. I'm guessing it's better late than never?

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yes, you plants will thank you for whatever fertilizer you provide them. would you rather have dinner an hour late, or not at all?

jescholler said:

If I do pick up a fertilizer in the next few days and apply it lightly, when would you recommend the next fertilization? How much would you recommend in my case?

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the (annoying) answer is that "it depends". it will depend on how much you apply now, what its type it is & its composition, whether you sprinkle it on the surface or work it into the soil, what soil you're mixing it into, etc. organic matter (decomposed leaves, manure, etc) is relatively slow release so if you mix it in to the soil well, you're likely set for the season.

sweetcell said:

i don't think there is a huge difference between brands of fertilizer. it's a fairly standard product that is hard to screw up. don't lose sleep over which one you select, just get some and work it in the soil.

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I was more going for compositions. Looking at the Oregon State paper, they recommend proportionally the most N, followed by K, then P. I understand these are very general recommendations and they can vary greatly based on your soil.

I looked up some fish emulsion and it seems pretty good. It has a 5-1-1 composition and...
"There are over 40 minerals, vitamins and amino acids in our Fish Emulsion, such as iron, boron, zinc, calcium, manganese, vitamins B1, B2 to name just a few".

Sounds good for hops. That's probably what I'll go with. Sound like a plan?

By the way, I will be keeping them in their same pots.