Distance between leaves

[BGBC]

What impacts the distance between leaves on the bine? Is it a function of the variety? Or external factors (sun, water, nutrients, etc)?

I've got two plants growing for the first year. The Cascade is currently putting 8-9 inches of bine between each set of leaves (started closer together but has taken off in the last month). Brewer's Gold started off with 4-5 inches between leaves, but has slowed down and is now only 1-2 inches between leaves. The two plants are a couple feet apart on the same side of the house and get about the same amount of sun and received the same soil treatment when planting and any subsequent fertilizer additions.

I've been having a hard time finding any information on this, so I'm curious what others have found.

 

[B-Hoppy]

Internode distance is basically a function of the variety that's being grown and may be influenced by a few other factors over the growth cycle of the plants. If I recall correctly the measurement is generally taken at a certain point above the ground just as DBH with trees and is part of the criteria included when filing for a patent on that particular variety.

Too many folks try to draw conclusions as to how their plants will perform before they give them enough time to fully mature, and depending on the growing situation they are currently in, may never reach their true potential as the optimal conditions for healthy growth may never be provided. When you realize something like the fact that their root systems can go meters into the soil, any small issue that can interfere with that growth can have an impact on how that plant performs. In general, don't judge too much about their performance in their first season because they can and do do some wonky things until they build up a decent root system. Also, take your growing location into consideration and pay attention to how many hours of daylength your latitude provides as it really looks like about 16 hours daily gives the best yields which is what Yakima gets whereas Miami is about 14 hrs. Those extra 2 hours daily over the course of the growing season have quite an impact on how the plants will perform.