I know its an old thread, but I could sure use some advice. My cascades (all my vines are first-year) have some browning on the tips of the petals of the cones. Have to get a photo tomorrow and post it -I wasn't expecting to have to pick them until late august or early september -but its been hot as hell here in Florida, and add the humidity and quite a bit of rain to the mix, I wonder if they just came along earlier than expected (PERHAPS I will get 2 harvests out of them? It won't get cool or cold around here until late october to early november).
I have 4 mt. hood vines that look pretty good (one vine was stunted when I accidentally damaged it early in its' growing period, its sending off side shoots and the main vine is thick, but short is short and thems' the breaks) 3 cascades, and 2 williamettes (the williamettes evidently just don't like this climate -these two vines have just looked stunted and kind of sickly from the start -I tried adding wood ash because I thought it was an iron deficiency, but there really was no reason to believe this -all the vines are in 20gal. buckets with good drainage, and the buckets were filled with potting soil, topped with cypress mulch, and while the soil was pre-fertilized, I added a good general fertilizer balance 2 weeks ago, and before that was a weaker liquid fertilizer mix. The granular fertilizer was added when the buds appeared and began to form into the first cones -so I felt comfortable adding a little then as the vine was entering a different growth phase.
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Greets out to those of you I know, who missed me for a while -been working through some heart issues so the brewery has been down for a while (too doggone hot for me to spend any length of time outside to solder and assemble the rig, and I can only get so much done indoors before the wifes' tolerance levels begin to peak and I get reminded that this is an 'outside' project).
Expecting to take a few days next weekend and finish this thing, run some sanitizers and boiling water through to check the fittings and clean it, and then I have some SERIOUS brewing to do!