My hops keep dying...HELP

Ok so here is the back story. When I was in grad school (NY) I started a northern brewer rhizome in a bucket and it did well. I took the plant and planted it in my mothers garden (NH) and it did fantastic, I got a some useable hops off of it when I was around to collect them. Well I moved far away (NM) and my hops continiued to grow in the Northeast. I bought a house here in the southwest and I have a few hop plants that are doing well, so my mother dug up the northern brewer hop plant and sent it to me one winter about 2 years ago now.

Last year the plant took off, first to break ground, first to be big enough to train to the strings, and once a bine got to about 2 to 3 feet they would die back to the ground. A new shoot would appear right behind it in a different part of the plant and this continued all season. Frustrating, I improved the soil this winter (drained my fish pond into that part of my garden).

This spring, first to break ground again, first to be trained, and first to dye again! Bines wont get higher than 3 feet, all the other hops are doing fine, what is wrong with my plant.... HELP

Hmmm. I am thinking virus but, their could definitely be a much, much, more benign reason. Maybe it just doesn't like the location or clime.

I have yet to get anything worth the effort from my Hallertauer Tradition and little more from a Sterling but, I keep babying them in the hopes they'll cave in and put out. This is year 3 for them. If this year doesn't prove to be more of a bounty, they may just find themselves ground into compost flour and replaced.

My first thought is that a hop variety developed in England might not do so well in the desert southwest. I have had trouble with Goldings in Boise, I just replaced them.
-Ander

anderj said:

My first thought is that a hop variety developed in England might not do so well in the desert southwest. I have had trouble with Goldings in Boise, I just replaced them.
-Ander

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I thought that too until I found out people in the local homebrew group have grown northern brewer here with minimal problems in the past.