Something eating hop buds...?

So with my cascade and Nugget hops, which are on one side of my hop yard, and, interestingly, not with my Williamette hops which are on the other side, it seems that something is gnawing off the buds on the top of my hop bines. However, one of the bines of the nugget hops which is twirled around a pole doesn't have its buds bitten off or whatnot. However, the other two bines, and the bines of the cascade all have their highest buds bitten off, or so it seems. The leaves and the rest of the plant are unaffected.

What should I do about this? Also, is there any sort of pruning I should do in light of this to encourage the further growth of the bines that is now stunted because of the bud removal?

Hello...an old trick I learned growing up, was to spray your plants with water (when its not super hot out) and then lightly dust with baking flour...once the bug eats your plant the flour will turn to glue in there mouth. Additionally you can place coffee ground and egg shells on your soil and that will repel some insects and the coffee will help stimulate growth.
The only pruning I would recommend is to prune shoots near the ground (because they wild mold), other than that, just encourage them to grow up the trellis.

do you suspect an insect, animal could they have been whipped around in some of the storms that passed through your area? after one thunder storm here in the ohio valley i had the top 2" of one of my willamettes get whipped off from blowing in the wind, the other 5 plants were untouched.

extra_medium said:

do you suspect an insect, animal could they have been whipped around in some of the storms that passed through your area? after one thunder storm here in the ohio valley i had the top 2" of one of my willamettes get whipped off from blowing in the wind, the other 5 plants were untouched.

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I somewhat suspect an animal or some kind of insect is doing it, especially because one of my hops is just a small rhizome starting out this year, and it is down very close to the ground, and the top buds on it have been gnawed off. However, the rest of its leaves and bines are just fine lower down on the plant, much like my much more-matured nugget hops. I'm just not quite sure what it is really, but it definitely looks like the buds on top were 'selected' rather than just blown off by the wind from what I can see.

SD-SLIM said:

Hello...an old trick I learned growing up, was to spray your plants with water (when its not super hot out) and then lightly dust with baking flour...once the bug eats your plant the flour will turn to glue in there mouth. Additionally you can place coffee ground and egg shells on your soil and that will repel some insects and the coffee will help stimulate growth.
The only pruning I would recommend is to prune shoots near the ground (because they wild mold), other than that, just encourage them to grow up the trellis.

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Hey man - I tried throwing down the coffee grounds like you said from my coffee this morning. Hopefully that will repel whatever it is that's attacking them. I also got some dog hair from my neighbor's dog and spread it around the plants. Supposedly, as my neighbor has informed me, the animals will smell the dog and won't go near it. We'll see if this has any merit.

If not, I'll try the baking flour dusting. I don't have any flour right now, however.

dangerbrew said:

Hey man - I tried throwing down the coffee grounds like you said from my coffee this morning. Hopefully that will repel whatever it is that's attacking them. I also got some dog hair from my neighbor's dog and spread it around the plants. Supposedly, as my neighbor has informed me, the animals will smell the dog and won't go near it. We'll see if this has any merit.

If not, I'll try the baking flour dusting. I don't have any flour right now, however.

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Best of luck...I hope it works for you!