Fertilizers, Compost, Etc.

So what fertilizers, composts, etc. does everyone use?

And how often/when do you use it?

Fwiw, I'll use a 10-10-10 all purpose fertilizer every week with a bloodmeal slurry treatment every 2 weeks. These are established crowns that also require a ton of nutrients. I did a Nitrogen test yesterday, and it came back with trace amounts, meaning I'll need to up my N. Your soil may be different and require different amounts of nutrients.

It's usually a good bet to check your soil. With the amount that I fertilize, I was very surprised to see that my Nitrogen content was low. I would have continued with low nitrogen and may have stunted results this season without the test. The test kit I have tests all NPK samples and tells me approximate soil pH. My only surprise was my Nitrogen result.

Early season you don't really need anything. The plant is using its stored sugars. Right now it doesn't have its shallow root system to help with nutrient uptake, so you lose most of what is applied.

I might use some bloodmeal and compost in the next two weeks just to get the soil working. I won't start a fertilizer program until the plants get higher (4'-8') and then it would be once a week applications until burr formation. All nitrogen applications will then be scaled back to 0 before the flowers are half formed.

A soil test will help you decide immensely. Early season, mid-season, late season.

My rhizomes were planted 4.16, 4.22, and 4.25, so their pretty young and brand new and small.

What's bloodmeal?

Banana peels are one of the best fertilizers for roses. Are they productive for hops too?

Typically you will want a nitrogen heavy fertilizer until the hops begin to bud up. Once you notice the beginnings of the fruiting stage you should switch to a fertilizer with a higher focus on phosphorous and possibly even carbohydrates (molasses / fruit sugars). Nitrogen is very water soluble and will easily run off - which is why it may be difficult to keep up nitrogen levels. Phosphorous and potassium are much less mobile - and so if you are fertilizing with 10-10-10 to keep up nitrogen, you may want to be careful that you are not building up phosphorous or general soil salts too high. A PH and EC test will help you determine what total nutrient concentration you should use: https://www.agriculturesolutions.co...-testing-the-electrical-conductivity-of-soils A full soil panel will give you even more information. There's no one size fits all, it will depend on your soil type, current nutrient profile, and watering scheduler.

"As a general guideline however, a good soil EC level will be somewhere above 200 µS/cm and 1200 µS/cm (1.2 MS/cm). Any soils below 200 means there is not enough nutrients available to the plant and could perhaps show a sterile soil with little microbial activity. An EC above 1200 µS/cm may indicate too much high salt fertilizer or perhaps a salinity problem from lack of drainage so keeping your EC within this range. Also watch to see how EC changes over the growing season, you may see it increase as microbes are releasing more nutrients from the soil or you may see a decrease as your crops use up all the available nutrients. Either way you can fertilize accordingly."

Rypcord said:

Banana peels are one of the best fertilizers for roses. Are they productive for hops too?

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Seems like they would be good early season and after burr formation. More phosphorus early season would help root growth. During vigorous bine growth hops need more nitrogen so the peel may not be much use. But then during burr formation nitrogen applications should be stopped. The peel might help with flowering.

Try it.

Any of you have success with compost tea (either the "natural" kind, with compost soaked/steeped in water, or the more manufactured kind, where aeration, molasses, etc., is involved)? I've heard tell from folks with experience growing a similar plant that the compost tea is very good. I've got a batch of compost in my tumbler right now, and in a couple of weeks, I figure to try making some tea from it.

Anybody use worm castings?

Rypcord said:

Banana peels are one of the best fertilizers for roses. Are they productive for hops too?

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we save ALL brown bananas...freeze them...to use in the garden simply stick one in the ground beside a tomato plant...you'll see the difference in a week or so. Bet it would work for hops too.

Never used them for roses, but I prune our roses with a chainsaw....they grow like weeds....but they also attract a lot of bees to the garden.

brewcat said:

Anybody use worm castings?

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Big believer in worm castings here, have seen them working on many crops / flowers grown in soil. With worm castings you'll want to pay explicit attention to the NPK ratio and use appropriately. Castings come in all sorts and the NPK will depend on the organics used to create the castings.

The best way to use worm castings is to create a bacterial tea by placing a nylon with a small amount of castings in a bucket of water with an airstone. Add an amount of molasses proportional to the amount of castings and let it bubble for 1-2 days. Pour it on your plants and they'll love it or use it as a foliar spray.

Castings all the way man.

Robx said:

Big believer in worm castings here, have seen them working on many crops / flowers grown in soil. With worm castings you'll want to pay explicit attention to the NPK ratio and use appropriately. Castings come in all sorts and the NPK will depend on the organics used to create the castings.

The best way to use worm castings is to create a bacterial tea by placing a nylon with a small amount of castings in a bucket of water with an airstone. Add an amount of molasses proportional to the amount of castings and let it bubble for 1-2 days. Pour it on your plants and they'll love it or use it as a foliar spray.

Castings all the way man.

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Thanks. I'll have to test my soil. I'm certainly intrigued.

Grass Clippings:

Are grass clippings ok? After mowing the yard, instead of dumping the bag in with my normal compost/the grass pile I make each year, would it be ok to put some around the hops?

Grass clippings are good for the lawn and hops. It's another form of nitrogen. I went with a reel mower to help fertilize my lawn.

I've use the Scotts Plant Food with their mixer on the garden and my hops. I'll have to remember not to fertilize after I start seeing flowers.

Rypcord said:

Grass Clippings:

Are grass clippings ok? After mowing the yard, instead of dumping the bag in with my normal compost/the grass pile I make each year, would it be ok to put some around the hops?

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It depends on if the clippings are free of seed. If your lawn is well maintained it shouldn't be a problem but if not you may as well be planting weeds.

clippings will also take a while to break down and will limit the air exchange at the soil/air boundary. I think you'd be better off just buying a bag of cheap nitrogen rich fertilizer for quick application. If you want to apply once and forget it for a while just get the pelletized stuff. Note that hops do take on the flavors of the soil somewhat, heavy chemical fertilizers can give a fertilizer taste if applied too close to fruiting. If you apply now and use organic ferts closer to harvest you'll be all set.

I have a batch of compost in the tumbler for several months. I've continued to feed it, so I have not removed it just yet. Today I made some compost tea, nothing fancy, just fresh compost steeped in water. I put it on two established hop plants that struggled last year. We'll see if it makes any difference.

I use 20-20-20 plant/flower fertilizer. Assuming that I just use less than I would use if it were 10-10-10. Is this fine? Right now I fertilize very randomly - roughly about every month with additions of cow manure each month (a few scoops). No buds yet.

Should I stop fertilizing when the buds appear? I expect it will be any day now.