I have four plants, Nugget (3rd year), Zeus (1st year), Cascade (1st year), and Chinook (1st year). All 1stvyear plants are crowns from GLH. Nugget is gangbusters, so no problem there. There's 30 plus shoots flying out of the ground, and I'll be trimming her back to the top 6-8 in a day or two. Zeus and Chinook (pictures below) are doing well. Chinook took off and has only 2 bines, but lots of growth, and are nice and thick. Zeus took a few weeks to accept it's new home, but is now throwing shoots all over the place and beginning to climb. No problems there.
Chinook
Zeus
Cascade on the other hand... Is, well, the runt of the litter. It has four shoots, but the leaves are teeny, the bines themselves are super thin, and they're not growing much at all. The last few days we've had high temps, decent sun and some rain, and when I come out to retrain the ones that fall off, cascade is always lying horizontally in the dirt. This poor guy reminds me of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I think I'm going to get a big red ball ornament and hand it from one of the jute wires.
Cascade
All of the soil is exactly the same, I used 1 full bag of mushroom compost, 1 bag of manure, and mixed with topsoil in the raised beds. Judging by the other three, they are all doing quite well and are establishing themselves. Any ideas on next steps or what could be causing it to underperform? Should I hit it with some additional fertilizers, particularly a nitrogen dominant to help establish some more root and green growth? I've been hesitant to fertilize because I wanted roots to take before I did. I planted in mid April, so I should be good, right? Any help or advice is welcome. Thanks!
Chinook
Zeus
Cascade on the other hand... Is, well, the runt of the litter. It has four shoots, but the leaves are teeny, the bines themselves are super thin, and they're not growing much at all. The last few days we've had high temps, decent sun and some rain, and when I come out to retrain the ones that fall off, cascade is always lying horizontally in the dirt. This poor guy reminds me of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I think I'm going to get a big red ball ornament and hand it from one of the jute wires.
Cascade
All of the soil is exactly the same, I used 1 full bag of mushroom compost, 1 bag of manure, and mixed with topsoil in the raised beds. Judging by the other three, they are all doing quite well and are establishing themselves. Any ideas on next steps or what could be causing it to underperform? Should I hit it with some additional fertilizers, particularly a nitrogen dominant to help establish some more root and green growth? I've been hesitant to fertilize because I wanted roots to take before I did. I planted in mid April, so I should be good, right? Any help or advice is welcome. Thanks!