Hops - Bottom Leaves Turning Yellow

I have a second year Cascade that was doing quite well until recently. In the past couple weeks some of the bottom leaves began to turn yellow, dry up and die off. Also, I've noticed some of the lower sidearms have dried up. Any ideas?

Picasa Web Albums - Billy - Hops

Not enough water??

enderwig said:

Not enough water??

Click to expand...

no, probably too much. yellowing leaves is usually too much moisture. not a huge concern, but something to be aware of. If you've had the amount of rainfall we've had in Jersey, that's likely the culprit.

Thanks for the quick reply. I've been pretty good about watering and lately we've had quite a bit of rain so I've held back. I'm just hoping it's not a virus.

Looks exactly like pretty much every hop plant that I grow right now. My mature cascade has done that every year as it puts on flowers. The younger plants that are flowering are following suit. Not sure if I've been doing something wrong but I can tell you that it won't stop the plant from producing cones suitable for brewing.

fineexampl said:

no, probably too much.

Click to expand...

Yellowing leaves can go either way, too much or too little watering both cause the same problem. Also check your soil ph, soil ph meters are relatively cheap at garden centers. Have you been fertilizing? If so, what are the numbers from your fertilizer, what schedule have you been applying?

BTW, I've had years where I got serious about watering and years where I let the plant go. It seemed to forget about sending nutrients to the lower leaves regardless. Most years just before harvest time new sprouts emerged from the lower leaf nodes.

I have a Willamette within a couple of feet and it looks great. I guess I expected the Cascade to look the same. I haven't added any additional fertilizer since the spring and sadly, I have no means of taking a PH test at the moment.

Mine turn yellow more than I would like but a good soak usually turns the the leaves green again.

bottom leaves yellow on all of mine, just pull them off
RDWHAHB

With most plants, all the energy is going to the growing points, and the oldest stuff is not supported anymore. If these are advanced plants near to cone set, that could be what is happening. Don't worry about it, just shows that things are going in the right direction. If these are relatively new plants, there may be other issues as said before.

I know this is a pretty old post folks, but to avoid starting a new one I would like to say that all my plants have shown this behavior, the yellowing of the bottom leaves. These are 4 first year plants. I live in San Diego towards the east, which is known to be one of the hottest areas in the county (when it gets hot). For the first 2 month I would say I noticed NO problems of any kind until now. One plant's leaves have had browning of the leaves starting with the tip and also curling. I mention this only because they might be related, at least for this specific plant. I was told to use gypsum a few days ago so that's what I am working on.

Did the gypsum help any?