How much water?

[MetuchenBrewerNJ]

This may seem like a simply (even stupid) question, but how much water should I be using a day? I have 5 hop varieties (Cascade, Centenial, Fuggle, Kent Goldings, Willamette). They started out very well (sprouted a few inches within 1-2 weeks) and the Fuggle is doing well (about 3 feet high, planted on Mother's day <1 month ago), but the others have somewhat stopped at around 6-12 inches, and I wonder if it's a water problem. I didn't want to over water them, since I do not have a good drainage setup, so I watered them once a day (a good amount of water, I think). But if it's hot, should I be doing more? How much more? I'm in NJ, and lately we've had good sun (about a week now, following almost 2 weeks of straight rain). Should I be doing them several times a day?

Any advice is appreciated. As always, thanks for the help everyone.

 

[Nickeldeposit]

You don&#8217;t want to drown them. I'd say not knowing really how the weather is where you are just make sure they get a nice soak once a week if no rain. Take notice that just because the ground looks cracked and dry the soil a few inches down still has moisture in it. You want to balance keeping things watered without making it a bog so that they are encouraged to drive that tap root down to water and establish a nice root system.

Good Luck

 

[ForerunnerBrewer]

I'm having a similar problem. I have 2 Cascades side by side. I put them in around 5-10 and by 5-13 there were sprouts on both plants. One is doing well around 4 feet, with 3 main bines. The other has slowly grown only 8 inches with 3 almost equal bines. The only thing I can think of is maybe the smaller one has a smaller Rhizome and therefore less energy/stuff to grow from. Thoughts?

Here is a pic

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/c04ew3zcs_pnQfa34kSwlCfjJSl6YutMjV3XkQQZLNA?feat=directlink

2 other things if I may, the shoot (where the leaves bud from) of the top bine popped off in a recent storm and since then it has sent out a bunch of lateral shoots have gone out all the way down the 3.5' stalk. I trimmed the bottom ones since eventually I plan to snip off the bottom leaves to keep insects off. I was thinking of pruning the rest of them except for the strongest ones or the top ones to save the energy for growth. I think if I don't then this bine will be sucking alot more energy to power 6 bines from 1 stalk. And the rest of the plant might suffer. -Should I keep the laterals to a minimum or would it be good to keep them and train some of them on another rope?

Here is what I am calling laterals:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/tXIe_mcyEruNsVum6v4EfCfjJSl6YutMjV3XkQQZLNA?feat=directlink

The next is pretty simple. The other plant is growing at a snails pace. I put some miracle grow on it a few times over 3 weeks. The bines on it may be a bit thin and I'm wondering if it is because I am forcing them to grow too fast with Miracle Grow.

The Soil drains fairly well and is nutrient rich with humus so I am thinking of laying off and letting it take it's sweet time. With all the sun I've had in Charlotte NC in the past couple of months (80%) can anyone think of a reason why this small one is taking so much time?

This is the small one

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/oDdug_K9pKMBJTEZXMWjXyfjJSl6YutMjV3XkQQZLNA?feat=directlink

Thanks everyone!

-John

 

[leurne]

I water a little every day (but in France we suffered a drought)
Otherwise preferably, I water thoroughly when soil is dry
But I'm not an expert

 

[BlackDogBrewhouse]

ForeRunnerBrewery, I'm having similar problems. I have planted about 5 feet apart Cascade, Centenial, Fuggle, Kent Goldings and Willamette. My Fuggle is doing rather well, about 5 feet in a month; the others were around a foot and seemed to have stopped. I have one of each in my front yard as well. There, the Fuggle again is doing well, the Centenial pretty well and the Kent Golding well, but my Willamette stopped around a few inches and the Cascade is nothing more than about an inch and looks like a weed.
Very odd that with the same soil (I bought soil to plant in) they are all doing differently (Fuggle is doing well in both, but the front ones seem better than the back, except the Cascade.) They get the same amount of water and sun.
This is my first year growing. I guess I'll just hope for the best this year and adjust accordingly for next year.

 

[eelpout]

I remember listening to the Gorst Valley Hops show on Basicbrewing, and if I remember right, they were talking that each full grown plant uses like 30 gallons of water a week.

 

[ForerunnerBrewer]

In the past week I reduced my watering significantly. At first I watered every other day to let them drink in the water in the soil, and now I am lightly watering with maybe 2 cups a day and I am watching the leaves because when they start to droop a little I know it needs water. The mulch on top seems to be keeping a significant amount of water from evaporating.

Both are really taking off perhaps the conditions I created, unique to my planter, cause the growth to be slower when there is too much water. Even though the soil never felt muddy.

I think 2 things may be factoring into this:
-Less water maybe encouraging more root growth, or I was just watering too much
-Or, now that They have been in the ground a month and a half they have had time to establish themselves and develop a root system.

The tip of the one on the left is an inch from the top of the pict.

Oh yeah, does anyone want that ragged bike on the right side of the pict? Someone left it at my house!

 

[the_merlin]

Looks like a combination of too much sun and too much water - on the bicycle seat!

 

[Nickeldeposit]

I remember listening to the Gorst Valley Hops show on Basicbrewing, and if I remember right, they were talking that each full grown plant uses like 30 gallons of water a week.

I think that may be a bit much.

 

[BlackDogBrewhouse]

Our hops are all in their first year. For the first 3-4 weeks we watered with a few cups of water a day, helping them settle into the soil and establish themselves. The past 1-2 weeks we have significantly slowed down with water, to a few cups every few days, hoping to encourage root growth. Hopefully that's the case, and in the next couple of weeks they'll begin to really shoot up.