Hops have stopped growing

I've got cascade, chinook, pride of ringwood, and willamette. The willamette is the only one that is growing well. The rest of them have basically stopped growing anything in the past month and the bine is really thin. I have a couple pics of the problematic hops. The willamette that is growing well is a mere 5 feet from the poorly growing one. Same soil, same light, same water.

Here is the link to pics:
http://i.imgur.com/SwFDa.jpg?1
http://imgur.com/N92FI
http://imgur.com/zkz2Z
http://imgur.com/PsCYF

These are all 2 year hops.

That happens. I think it happens most frequently when the hops get off to a too early start. A lot of folks had an early spring, so the hops were way ahead of schedule--they got going early and then stalled out. This is why some growers cut back first growth and try to get the first bines on lines toward the start of May...then again, some plants do this even when trained at an appropriate time--there's always something to learn, and questions that remain unanswered, when farming...

If it were me, right now, I'd let them be. If you ran into this a month ago, I'd say hack them back and start over. I suspect what will happen is some lateral growth will emerge from the lower half of the plant in the next few weeks. If they're first-year plants, I might let it all come up. If they're older than that, then choose three-five of the beefiest laterals and train them up, maybe one new lines so they have an easier time climbing. Two laterals will sprout at each leaf node, but one tends to be dominant. I'd train the one that gets to 12" quickest and then snip off the other one. Good luck!

cram said:

That happens. I think it happens most frequently when the hops get off to a too early start. A lot of folks had an early spring, so the hops were way ahead of schedule--they got going early and then stalled out. This is why some growers cut back first growth and try to get the first bines on lines toward the start of May...then again, some plants do this even when trained at an appropriate time--there's always something to learn, and questions that remain unanswered, when farming...

If it were me, right now, I'd let them be. If you ran into this a month ago, I'd say hack them back and start over. I suspect what will happen is some lateral growth will emerge from the lower half of the plant in the next few weeks. If they're first-year plants, I might let it all come up. If they're older than that, then choose three-five of the beefiest laterals and train them up, maybe one new lines so they have an easier time climbing. Two laterals will sprout at each leaf node, but one tends to be dominant. I'd train the one that gets to 12" quickest and then snip off the other one. Good luck!

Click to expand...

I'll let them be. I am not getting any other bines coming out of the ground from the small plants. The big willamette has many though.

Hard to tell from the pics but it looks like you may have grass strangling out your plants' root zone.

I agree. A good weeding and cleaning up the hop bed will help alot. All that stuff at the bottom is in competition with the hops for water and nutrients.

Cultivate the soil add some nutrients. I use tomatotone because it is on hand. Throw some pine straw down and see what happens.

Your hop bines look healthy they should have some more growth in them.

Hi

A good batch of what ever you use for mulch would make life a *lot* easier. The hops are up and running, let the mulch stomp out everything else. Low effort / high reward / more time to drink beer. (I hate weeding ...)

Bob

I think you need to fertilize. The grass is probably taking the bulk of whatever nutrients are there.

badbrew said:

I think you need to fertilize. The grass is probably taking the bulk of whatever nutrients are there.

Click to expand...

Yeah I agree, clean up the bed as carefully as possible so as not to damage the hop roots when you're yanking out the grass, and fertilize.

Thank you for your advice. I've weeded the area and fertilized. I will get some mulch this weekend.

I have a similar problem with my 2 centinniel plants. Just been staying at about 1 foot high since April. But the thing is, my 2 cascads right beside them are on schedule, about 10ft high with lots of hop burrs on them. I put a layor of compost and then topped with mulch on top of all 4 at the beginning of the season.

Yeah, I don't think the stunted growth thing is necessarily due to root competition or the grass growing nearby. Sure, the hops would get more water/nutrients without the grass growing among them but I have some first-year hops growing among tomatoes, squash, beans, nasturtiums, dill, etc., and they're heading toward the stars, and then I have some Tettnanger plants that are mulched and without competition from other plants that have stalled. The Tetts started way too early, though, but I let most of them them go since they were moved and divided from one-year-old crowns.

I think it has more to do with timing and climatic conditions than competition in this case. Like Bhughes, I had some Centennial that showed early and then stalled out at about three inches for over a month (but we had a cold spring for socal). In the last few weeks, as the nights have warmed, they took off--now one is over 16' and still going. Even same varieties planted in different parts of the yard will behave differently--micro-climates. My south facing Chinook in pots are 18'+ with huge sidearms already--the ones in the ground in the backyard, west-facing, just broke ground last week. There seems to be a lot of variables in play with these hop plants...

I wonder if centennial as a are more susceptible to this behavior? I have(had) the same issue with the plant growing to 4-5 feet, then just stopping. They have stayed green and are just now (~8-10 weeks later) starting to shoot out small side bines. I do have some similarities, in that I planted them (unknowingly) in and around more grass than my other plants. Also, they are first years which I understand can happen more frequently than 2+ yr. plants.

I am having the same problem with my centennials. Less than two feet tall while crystal and glacier are shooting over the top of the trellis. I trimmed them, gave them more and then less water, and fertilized but still no action in more than a month. Last year they were the most prolific in hops, this year it looks like I'll get none. Cascade is doing the same thing but its newly planted. It's kinda bumming me out.