Hop Cones Turning Brown - Help

Can any hop experts assist with explaining the browning as seen in the photo?

These are second year Centinial located in highlands region of NJ.

I didn't think they are ready to harvest as they don't have that papery crunch and they cones do not seem to be opening as I remember from last year, but I don't have the experience to really know.

Thanks

 

It could be pests, have you inspected the leaves of the hop plant? are there any holes or browning on the leaves, or is it just the cones? Also, I have seen this happen from over fertilizing, it burns the plant. I have also seen this from some spray on pesticides.

 

I had some Japanese Beatle damage to the leaves but not severe. Never sprayed anything on them. I might have over fertilized. The leaves look slightly yellowish, but still a 6 or 7 out of 10 for appearing healthy. They leaves not as dark green as they were earlier in the season.

 

It's kinda hard telling by the picture but I would lean toward Alternaria. I've seen powdery mildew on hops a few years ago but I don't think it was the hop specific type because there was no reduction in vigor and the cones were unaffected. I have had the browning on the cones in my garden before and those years were killer with humidity (it's pretty humid here most Summers though). In those years when it did happen, the problem seemed more cosmetic than anything else as the cones formed well and the quality was good except for the browning. Again, without a lab and someone who knows their way around a lab, your guess is as good as mine: http://www.usahops.org/graphics/File/2008_GENT_Cone_Browning.pdf

 

These developed into some interesting mutations with some of the hop cones sprouting leaves and cones.

 

Those are generally found near the terminal point of the vines (angel wings, cock hops). I don't know the correct terminology but if the growing season was to be extended, they would have grown into additional nodes which would have put out additional sidearms just like the normal nodes/sidearms located below. Nothing to be alarmed about.

 

Or maybe the soil is radio active. Do you notice that you have any super powers?

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Thanks for the info!

 

My Centennials are doing similar as far as the browning. Two other varietys growing adjacent don't seem to be experiencing the same effects. All had the same soil/fertilizer/water/sun/temp, etc... The Centennials don't seem to be growing as aggressively as the other either, but I think I have read that the Centennials can take a little longer to develop??

 

I'm in CT and my Centennial hops look identical as well. My Cascades look great and just about ready and don't have the same browning symptoms. Same as you, I felt they weren't ready to be picked but just started browning. The other plant I have is Nugget and it also isn't browning. All three plants are in the same garden box/soil.

Weird...

 

In in CT as well and my Cascade has been doing great but the Centennial seemed to get a slow start and some brown leaves, but they seemed to have taken off in the last week.

 

Are you guys adding any phosphates to your soil? When flowering plants in general want a lot of phosphates , thats why fertilizers like "Bloom Booster" or other ones that make flowers bigger and more vibrant are like 5-60-10 fertilizers. Hop cones have the same requirements as a pretty red rose, more so in fact because they are so large and produce so many cones.

 

I was adding an organic fertilizer up till end of July. My other two plant's cones look great (cascade & nugget). Just my centennial had this problem. I opened some cones the other day and saw some little bugs in a few of them. Not sure what they were, just small crawling bugs, I don't think beetles.


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Were the bugs red or yellow? I saw some in wild hops the other day and believe they were spider mites. Here's a link http://paddy1.over-blog.com/30-categorie-12453705.html