Dead hops.

[pndubber]

Help! My hops seem to be withering away, good soil and water but not growing nearly as fast or really at all. Anyone have any ideas? No signs of insects just withering.

 

[Rivenin]

Have you been feeding them? Too much water?

 

[pndubber]

Light fertilization and the soil was all imported from a nursery so it should be good. No watering issues, up in NW Washington.

 

[lgilmore]

Probably too wet just from rain up here. I have new first year hops. I lost a Willamette simply because the rain kept it too wet. The only hops are are going great guns for me are the Glacier's. They've hit 12 feet so far with 6 vines. Looks good. the other 3 haven't hit 5 feet yet. A little dry, a little more warm and things should pick up.

 

[theredben]

Can you post a picture? Withering could be indicative of a root-rot disease, but it depends on what you mean by withering.

 

[pndubber]

Here is a decent photo. This is also not a new plant, I have it for around 5 years and lat years yield was weak and this year I may not see one.

 

[B-Hoppy]

You might be able to find something in here to help identify the problem: http://ipm.wsu.edu/field/pdf/HopHandbook2010.pdf . In Agriculture, these types of problems are very hard to diagnose, especially if you don't really know what you're looking for. I've been dealing with plants for about 30 years now and just about every day something comes up that stumps me. Some things may never be confirmed unless tested by a lab but this goes back to knowing what you're trying to test for to determine what type of test should be done - many of which are pretty expensive. If you read through the symptoms of the diseases, this will give you an idea of some of the things to begin looking at. Sorry about not being much help but just figured to offer some info. that might be of some assistance. Good luck.

 

[BrunstuckyJoe]

Buy some liquid ironite.....capful in a gallon and dump a gallon near the root zone....looks like a deficiency.

 

[pndubber]

Thanks for all the advice, I am by no means a hop farmer so any advice is fantastic. Should I test the soil before using anything like ironite?

 

[B-Hoppy]

Knowing where your baseline is for as many nutrients as possible is a great help in making sure you're not over dosing any particular one. Kinda like having high cholesterol and being overweight and deciding to go on the Atkins diet. You may lose weight but your risk of poor health from the cholesterol problem could have a much bigger impact on your life in a negative way. Probably not a good thing in this particular situation. Your iron may be fine, but without a test you may over do it - kinda basic stuff that lots of folks overlook when getting into gardening. Hop on!

 

[pndubber]

Agreed. The soil the hops are in a 4-way compost mix that I got from a local nursery but it has been a few years since that bed was built. I will pull a sample and start there.

 

[Stevo2569]

+1 deficiency.
I had some look like that. Hit them with Epsom (MgSo4). And some micro nutrient. (Bougain)And they look much better. Growing great.

 

[ColumbusAmongus]

Check out freshhops website.
http://www.freshops.com/hop-growing/hop-diseases-and-pests

They have some good descriptions and pics to help troubleshoot issues

 

[stonebrewer]

Looks a little like verticulum wilt...

 

[david_42]

My hops aren't doing well this year either and they are all 6-7 years old. Yesterday was only the second day over 80F this year.

 

[pndubber]

Checked out the Fresh Hop site and going by picture, it looks like a soil deficiency. I am going to try a fertilizer and see what my results are. If it starts to come back then I know what to do for next years batch.

 

[Rocky71]

I planted mine and then the kids flooded the pool, which them flooded my hops, and killed them.