To experienced hop growers...

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I have looked on every site possible to understand the reason for my yellowing hop leaves and I was hoping for some additional insight. I am sure that I'm either over watering, over fertilizing, or under fertilizing, that is causing these leaves to yellow. I guess my question is, is this bad for the hops themselves? I water my container hops about every day to every other day. I fertilized with a 10-10-10 npk miracle grow mix about 3 weeks ago, making sure not to over do it. Then, i began to see the leaves begin to yellow and curl up, and I assumed it was a magnesium or potassium deficiency. Three days ago, I added the recommended amount of an organic fertilizer of magnesium-potash-sulfur, which is a slow release fert. My leaves continue to yellow at the bottom three feet and curl up. I pluck them and toss em out, and continue to hope for the best. Hops have since budded and there are a crap load on the plant, although I have seen a couple shrivel and die. Is this normal for a hop plant to do and will this hurt my hops in the end?

POst some pics. YOu just described about 10 different problems.

Try going to this website http://5e.plantphys.net/article.php?ch=t&id=289 it may help you out. I went there and I had a Iron Deficiency.

Pics speak louder than words.. Get a close up of a leaf in question and then take a picture of the entire bine.. If the yellowing leaves are only happening down low I wouldn't worry about it to much. Those leaves are older and they have served their purpose so they turn yellow and fall off. If the plant is getting to much water it goes chlorotic and will not absorb and nitrogen which causes the entire plant to start yellowing. but if that is the case you will notice around the veins in the leaves you will still see some green. If they aren't getting enough water the tips of the leaves will start to yellow and get crispy. Something very similar drying out will occur when you over fertilize. So please post a picture so we can actually see what you have going on

Sorry, i ripped off all of the leaves and tossed em, but I'll take a pic with the next yellow one. Basically it's the bottom 3 feet leaves that have turned yellow. The edges got brown and crispy and curled up. I've also seen a couple of my hop flowers wilt. Is that normal? Or is it a sign of something? I guess I just wanted to know if my situation was normal with the yellow leaves, or if it was something abnormal. Ill post a pic when I can.

http://ipm.wsu.edu/field/pdf/HopHandbook2010.pdf

this may help you identify your problem. it was posted a few threads down by hop farmer. identifies most all known problems to hops.

Here are some pics. This has happened to all of the leaves on the bottom three feet. Again, I gave it 10-10-10 npk miracle grow about three weeks ago and some slow release fertilizer of magnesium-potash-sulfur into the soil about four days ago. How "slow" does this actually take before it begins to work? They are also container hops which I planted in potting soil, with a few applications of manure about once a month. Is watering every day or other day too much? Not enough? Any help would be appreciated.








This is a new leaf that is half green and half yellow.

I would think zinc and boron do a foliar spray

Can you post a picture of the entire bine? Do you do a moisture test before you water? I can go out and take a picture of my hop plants and all of them have that yellowing on the bottom. It just looks like spent leaves but I could be wrong.. Try and foliar is Iron/Zinc see if that helps like HF said but I dont think i'd be to worried

How is the rest or the top of the plant doing? I posted something very similar a few weeks ago, and the general thought is that the bottom leaves are dying of old age and there is nothing to worry about, so I went about my business. A friend of mine who has grown for a year longer than I have told me that his bottom leaves turn yellow and brown mid-summer every year.

Do you have cone production yet and if so, how far along are they. Hops will normally start shedding leaves when cones are 1/4 of the way into production, the plant is spending more time and energy into the flowers. This typically starts lower on the plant and slowly works its way up. Try a fertilizer that is not so heavy in Urea Nitrogen(like MiracleGro). I use an 18-6-12 fertilizer on my tobacco which is really sensitive to Urea Nitrogen and hops love the Alaska Fish Fertilizer.
Hopes this helps and I don't think you have anything to worry about.

The rest of the plant seems fine. It has a ton of buds, although some have died off. Maybe just a small handful. I hope its a normal thing because I'm running out of ideas.

trevorc13 said:

PICS ADDED BELOW...

I have looked on every site possible to understand the reason for my yellowing hop leaves and I was hoping for some additional insight. I am sure that I'm either over watering, over fertilizing, or under fertilizing, that is causing these leaves to yellow. I guess my question is, is this bad for the hops themselves? I water my container hops about every day to every other day. I fertilized with a 10-10-10 npk miracle grow mix about 3 weeks ago, making sure not to over do it. Then, i began to see the leaves begin to yellow and curl up, and I assumed it was a magnesium or potassium deficiency. Three days ago, I added the recommended amount of an organic fertilizer of magnesium-potash-sulfur, which is a slow release fert. My leaves continue to yellow at the bottom three feet and curl up. I pluck them and toss em out, and continue to hope for the best. Hops have since budded and there are a crap load on the plant, although I have seen a couple shrivel and die. Is this normal for a hop plant to do and will this hurt my hops in the end?

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Experienced hop grower / grower of MANY other types of plants here.

To answer your question: Your problem will be solved when you STOP BABYING YOUR PLANTS. They drop leaves, oh well. A few cones drop, oh well. In the spring provide your plants with good compost and manure, if you chemical fert thats ok too, just do not overdo it (sounds like you are doing fine). At risk of sounding like a nanny, plants are NOT pre-packaged plastic wrapped vienna sausages. They are living breathing growing organisms and they have flaws just like you.

Save yourself the brain power and focus on more important tasks, like making beer, and do not FRET over your darned plants. All you will accomplish is more stress and NO progress. Sometimes they will drop leaves, sometimes they will not - stop worrying.

jjones17 said:

Experienced hop grower / grower of MANY other types of plants here.

To answer your question: Your problem will be solved when you STOP BABYING YOUR PLANTS. They drop leaves, oh well. A few cones drop, oh well. In the spring provide your plants with good compost and manure, if you chemical fert thats ok too, just do not overdo it (sounds like you are doing fine). At risk of sounding like a nanny, plants are NOT pre-packaged plastic wrapped vienna sausages. They are living breathing growing organisms and they have flaws just like you.

Save yourself the brain power and focus on more important tasks, like making beer, and do not FRET over your darned plants. All you will accomplish is more stress and NO progress. Sometimes they will drop leaves, sometimes they will not - stop worrying.

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Haha! Yeah that's probably not going to happen. I baby these plants because...well...they're my babies. I worry about them because I enjoy putting effort into growing them. Part of the hobby is to worry a little so you get the most out of what you put in. Being a first time hop grower I want to know about every little thing that is going on with the plants so when I become experienced, I know when to worry and when not. Just like home brewing (like I will be focusing on today). When I began I was worried about everything. Now I don't have to because I know when things go wrong. My question here was just to understand the cause of the yellow leaves, if there was something I could do to prevent it next time or fix it now, and to see if this was normal to other hop growers. I am by no means freaking out, but I am worried about them. Probably will for the rest of the season. Caring about this hobby is what makes it fun. Thanks for the input.

I had yellowing leaves earlier in the season. I pulled those leaves off (they were dead)and reduced my watering a bit (every 3 days now) Mine have been fine since. My first year Magnums are producing wonderful hop cones almost ready for picking.

trevorc13 said:

Being a first time hop grower I want to know about every little thing that is going on with the plants so when I become experienced, I know when to worry and when not. . . . My question here was just to understand the cause of the yellow leaves, if there was something I could do to prevent it next time or fix it now, and to see if this was normal to other hop growers.

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I was a first time hop grower back in about '85 and found myself very concerned about my plants. I figured that since I had a degree in Agronomy it would be a slam dunk to be able to easily grow 'weeds' for my hobby. Boy was I wrong. There are many more uncontrollable variables when it comes to growing plants (in general) as compared to brewing that the problems encountered can be endless. Again, I've been dealing with plants for most of my life and came to the conclusion a long time ago that it's not that easy to become so good that you can determine when and when not to become concerned. Diseases, viruses, insects etc. can create problems with plants that produce visual symptoms. Sometimes a very similar looking symptom can be caused by something other than what you may think is the culprit and cannot be accurately verified without expensive testing. Even at this point you may not be able to verify the actual cause of the problem.

Sure, hops will grow just about anywhere but there are certain environmental and cultural conditions that will determine whether they will grow 'well' anywhere. I've walked around hopyards in Washington and Oregon and those hops seem to grow quite differently than the ones I've seen growing here in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. Yes, since '85 I've seen the lower leaves turn yellow and crinkle up at my little yard, but they don't seem to do this nearly as much out west. My harvests have mostly all been pretty consistent with the yellowing leaves so I ignore that occurrence. Some times some of the cones don't form properly. As long as it doesn't look like or appear to have been caused by a disease, I'm thinking it's more of an abiotic factor at work and realize that I probably don't have any control of the problem. If I can positively determine that it is caused by a disease, I know that there is something I can do to disrupt the disease triangle to minimize if not halt the occurrence of the problem.

I pretty much belong to the jjones17 camp and feel that we, as growers, should do whatever we can to provide the least stressful growing conditions/ environment for our plants and hope for the best. Healthy soil is probably the magic bullet as a base to start with. Understanding what too much water can do to plants is another big factor. And realizing that this is not a perfect world and sometimes your plants will look less than perfect but it doesn't mean they're gonna die or have some kind of fatal illness. So go have a beer and don't believe everything that you read - but take good notes from what you see.