Is there a Hop Doctor in the House?

I need a diagnosis. These pics are of my first year hops. They are all being grown in containers in Miracle grow potting soil. I am keeping them watered and check the moisture every other day to ensure that the soil is moist. I am using the Miracle Grow powered plant food ( 2 scoops to 2 gal of water) for the 6 plants. I do this every other week. I thought I might have some spider mites so I made a solution with Ivory Soap and water and sprayed the leaves. I started pruning off the bad looking leaves as the top bines are starting to look like they are producing cones.

I really could use some help.

Zman

Looks like Fert Burn to me, quit fertilizing them for a while. Mix that Miracle Grow at 1/4 the recommended strength to keep this from happening anymore. I only fertilize every 2 weeks, if I remember...

wyzazz said:

Looks like Fert Burn to me, quit fertilizing them for a while. Mix that Miracle Grow at 1/4 the recommended strength to keep this from happening anymore. I only fertilize every 2 weeks, if I remember...

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Will do. Thanks for the quick reply. Should I continue to prune the leaves or can I just leave them?

Yep, no problem. If the leaves are still green then they are photosynthesizing so you can "leave" them be. If they are brown/yellow and don't have much green left on them then pluck them, they aren't doing anything for you at that point.

Usually in soils that have been overplanted--but iron defiency looks like that yellow color.
Miracle Grow is NPK and not so many micro nutrients.

Iron is essential for formation of chlorophyll. Sources of iron are the soil, iron sulfate, or iron chelate.

With fertilizer burn and corking.

Andrea said:

Usually in soils that have been overplanted--but iron defiency looks like that yellow color.
Miracle Grow is NPK and not so many micro nutrients.

Iron is essential for formation of chlorophyll. Sources of iron are the soil, iron sulfate, or iron chelate.

With fertilizer burn and corking.

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so you agree that it is fert burn?

I think it is too little iron that makes the plant unable to process too much nitrogen.

Plus what are you thinking raising a poor little hop plant in Five Points?!!!

Andrea said:

I think it is too little iron that makes the plant unable to process too much nitrogen.

Plus what are you thinking raising a poor little hop plant in Five Points?!!!

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What do I need to do to increase the iron? Should I just water and RDWHAHB? Five Points is not the Five Points of old. In addition to the hop garden we have a community garden that no one has messed with or picked from. I guess I have excess good karma credits. Here is my ghetto fab hop garden

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/what-do-people-do-when-their-hops-get-too-tall-181440/

I also have a layer of mulch covering the soil. Could that be stealing nitrogen? Should I remove it?

Mulch is good for moderating soil temperature which is crucial right now --98 degrees
yes decomposing mulch binds up the nitrates and makes then unavailable for your plants but we were talking about too much nitrogen. So I vote yeah for mulch!

We use Ironite, shameless plug now:
A natural fertilizer and soil supplement that provides, in a single application, an effective blend of nitrogen and other essential nutrients to stimulate growth, color, and promote maximum root depth. Replaces vital trace elements, slow-release, and will not burn. Neutralizes alkaline soils, contains natural soluble iron, and can be used on shrubs, trees, flowers, and lawns.

That part about slow release is crucial. We lose the benefit of iron out here because water can wash it away in our alkaline soils Most of all in the future get those hops in some honest to god real life dirt!

Colfax isn't the same either. Next time in Denver maybe we will drive by

Montrose's redneck hop yard
www.sanjuanhopfarms.com


PS Wait little old ladies at the church for our community garden rip us off blind when something ripens. Goes to show.....

I'm a pretty hands off kind of guy, I fertilize a few times during the season, I do amend my soil with manure, I weed & mulch my garden (with straw) but I definitely don't mess with them every day, or for that matter every week. I figure that they've thrived year after year without my interference so they should be able to keep doing so. I treat my garden just the same and it does fantastic every year. (knock on wood)

I'd keep watering, leave the mulch as it will suck up the excess nitrogen, and quit miffing with them. They should do fine in a week or two and start to "right" themselves. Or if you are a real "hands on" type of gardener, do as Andrea suggested and add some Iron to the soil, it should help them recover faster.

Not to hijack this thread, but I am also in need of a diagnosis. I have two Cascade and two Centennial plants, all second year and the varieties are planted separately. One of my Cascade developed what is seen in the picture below pretty early on in the year and it's now gotten significantly worse and looks to have spread to my other Cascade plant. I thought that it was maybe powdery mildew, but the leaves don't seem to have the telltale powdery feeling when I touch them. Thanks for the help!

Sorry, image didn't attach.

Possibly Verticillium wilt if it's a disease with the leaves curling upward like that. Are you fertilizing? If so how often?

I've fertilized I believe twice this year, maybe three times. Each time I use one tablespoon of MiracleGrow in about 1.5 gallons of water and split it between two plants.

wyzazz said:

I'm a pretty hands off kind of guy, I fertilize a few times during the season, I do amend my soil with manure, I weed & mulch my garden (with straw) but I definitely don't mess with them every day, or for that matter every week. I figure that they've thrived year after year without my interference so they should be able to keep doing so. I treat my garden just the same and it does fantastic every year. (knock on wood)

I'd keep watering, leave the mulch as it will suck up the excess nitrogen, and quit miffing with them. They should do fine in a week or two and start to "right" themselves. Or if you are a real "hands on" type of gardener, do as Andrea suggested and add some Iron to the soil, it should help them recover faster.

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I took the mulch off. It is the somewhat thick bark mulch so I figured it was robbing the plants somehow. I tested the PH and all of them are in the 7.5 -8.0 range I am on the fence about the Ironite but I may get some. I am a hands on gardener. I have the hops ans SWMBO and I have 2 vegetable gardens that do require some regular care. With produce prices what they are these days I will be a hands on gardener

That yellow on the Cascade does look like fertilizer burn.
But don't know-- what are you growing your hops in?

Great resource with pic's--
USDA Hop Handbook 2010
http://ipm.wsu.edu/field/pdf/HopHandbook2010.pdf

jar1087 said:

I've fertilized I believe twice this year, maybe three times. Each time I use one tablespoon of MiracleGrow in about 1.5 gallons of water and split it between two plants.

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How often are you watering and do you amend your soil at all?

I started them last spring in planters with organic MiracleGrow potting soil and in late spring transplanted them into the ground; pretty much standard northeastern US topsoil. I'm wondering why only one of the plants would get it and why it would appear to spread from one to the other. I should also mention that on both plants it appears to have spread from lower leaves to higher leaves, if that helps at all.

I don't often water, only when we haven't had rain for at least 4 or 5 days. I haven't added anything to the soil, but did mulch around the hops this June to help keep weeds down.

Sounds like wilt to me, but whether it's that or fert burn so in either case you should stop fertilizing. Maybe you could take a pic of the bines and the actual plants? That would help further.

Zman - I know its a few years late, but I noticed you kept leaning towards the posts that suggested a deficiency over a toxicity. For many years of my plant growing career I was the same way. When adding more and more fertilizers didn't work, I FINALLY decided to cool it. I've learned a deficiency is always more treatable than a toxicity.

You were undoubtedly over feeding your plants. Those chemical fertilizers are VERY strong. Miracle grow contains about all the essential macro and micro nutrients. When you use a complete fertilizer like that you shouldn't need to worry about being deficient in anything: especially micro nutrients like iron. You know its in there. Adding more supplementa like that just compounds the problem.

So if your having an issue such as this, and your using a complete fertilizer containing chemicals other than those that supply N, P, and K then you know its not a deficiency.

Less is best.