first year hops growth

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dantose

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so with the packet I got I was told to expect 8 feet first year. Looped a rope over a branch 20 feet up or so. It hit that and is now looking to branch off lower. Strong plant!
 
When did you plant? I threw some in the ground only a month ago. I'm not expecting much, but they are three feet now.
 
I planted 6 plants this year. I was only expecting about 10 ft of growth max. All six are above 20 ft and one of the cascades has about 2 oz of cones. Crazy how fast these plants can grow
 
Same here. I have 10 different varieties, all first years, with about 15 feet of growth, and if all the little fuzzy flowers make it into cones, I will have a busy fall with the picking, drying and packing. My Galenas have probably close to 1000 of the little fuzzys that are starting to look like cones, with more little ones coming behind, but I doubt these will make it to the first frost.
 
On the flip side of this success story, Mine are doing horrible. I dont know what happened. 2 of my plants are dying and one stopped climbing and is hanging on at about 7 ft. The bottom is slowly dying off leaf by leaf. Not sure whats going on, they get watered twice a day. Maybe I should have used better soil, I just used soil ammender, steer manure and mixed with regular soil. Dont have any pics but the leaves are turning brown around the edges until finally the whole leaf just dies.
 
On the flip side of this success story, Mine are doing horrible. I dont know what happened. 2 of my plants are dying and one stopped climbing and is hanging on at about 7 ft. The bottom is slowly dying off leaf by leaf. Not sure whats going on, they get watered twice a day. Maybe I should have used better soil, I just used soil ammender, steer manure and mixed with regular soil. Dont have any pics but the leaves are turning brown around the edges until finally the whole leaf just dies.

You might be over watering, If your soil doesn't drain well. Try watering every other day for a while.
 
I have actually been quite lazy with my hops, and I'm surprised they way they are growing. I have very rarely watered them, but we are having a wet year. they have been fed Miracle Grow 3 times during the summer, and I have not cut back anything, whatever came through the ground got put up on the string.
Maybe some people baby their hops too much, let them fing their own way and see what happens.
 
Here's mine so far. 1st year Kent Goldings

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My 1st year Cascades are doing great but my 1st year Magnums aren't doing that great.

It's been a hotter then average in the south this summer.
 
On the flip side of this success story, Mine are doing horrible. I dont know what happened. 2 of my plants are dying and one stopped climbing and is hanging on at about 7 ft. The bottom is slowly dying off leaf by leaf. Not sure whats going on, they get watered twice a day. Maybe I should have used better soil, I just used soil ammender, steer manure and mixed with regular soil. Dont have any pics but the leaves are turning brown around the edges until finally the whole leaf just dies.

Rather than worrying about drainage, I piled up dirt and compost and planted it in the mound. I used spent grains to mulch around it which is seemed to absolutely love. I only water every couple of days if it's been dry.
 
I live in San Diego, so we haven't had any real rain in months. I water twice a day for 15 minutes on a drip system. I don't think they are getting too much water, the leaves should yellow if that were the case right? I haven't really been using any miracle gro, but I mixed some in water today and poured it on all 3 plants. Time will tell I guess. Thanks for the reply's, and to the OP, congrats on your first year plants :)
 
I planted some last year and babied them, and most of them died. I think they drowned. I have 2 of my original 7 alive this year. This year's first years I just put in the ground. They seem to be doing better with benign neglect. Someone on here pointed out that these things grow as weeds many decades after they are no longer cultivated. So far, benign neglect as befits a weed is working better for me. I have barely watered mine at all, though we too have had a wet year. My first year Centennials have grown to about 20 feet, and are setting lots of cones. The Goldings and Chinooks are also pretty tall, and are setting a few cones. The Willamettes have grown well, but not flowered. The various others (Nugget, Perle, Glacier, Mount Hood, and Northern Brewer) are bringing up the rear.
 
Well I'm doing good. Beside a wind storm that tore out my Hallertauer (was the first to rise and the only one big enough to get damaged). The Mt. Hood were the first to rise to the top and the first to burr, now the cones are developing. The Cascades are close behind and ended up with even better growth than the Mt. Hoods. The Cascades have burrs everywhere. Then there are the Willamettes, they reached the top last and then started to burr. They have the least amount of burrs and only on the main stem after the point in which it reached the top ...there's a few others but not much - not much lateral growth. ...but all the bines that got going made it to the top ('cept the Hallertauer)

I think with the first year, the roots aren't as developed and the plants are prone to a wide variety of potential problems. Nutrition uptake being the biggest problem.

I added compost and manure to where I was to plant to a foot down and built mounds. I just don't think the rhizome was able to use those nutrients. I like Organic but this first year, I used Schultz' liquid plant food consistently - and I think that helped quite a bit. I think I'll lose some local terrior this year but should have good growth to give me a great second year (if I don't have to transplant).
 
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