Drastic measures!! Help

[tchuklobrau]

Normally I dont trim any of my bines, however in seasons past I have been able to get to them and train before I had a mess. This year has sucked. When we had the spell of nice weather none were ready to train. 3-4 weeks of crap weather and more important projects(getting house ready to sell) have left me with a huge mess. Most all of the crowns are so overgrown and snarled I'm at a loss.

So for the drastic measures, I'm contemplating trimming everything off and starting over. I'm not sure what this will do to em. It is still very early, and traditionally(had we had a normal winter) they would only just now be begining to emerge. Unfortunatel the way the next 2 months are set up I dont see me having the time to carefully untangle and trim so it looks like this is my only option.

 

[robbiex0r]

Why not just cut back or thin to 4-5 bines per crown?

 

[tchuklobrau]

Easier said than done. I have 20 more like this.

 

[badbrew]

I think if you mowed them then you would be back here again in a couple of weeks.

Pull back the rug and inspect at ground level. How many shoots are emerging from the soil surface of each plant? Are we talking dozens or a dozen? If only a few, then pinch half of them to the ground, wait a couple days and pick out the wilted plant material. Then reevaluate.

 

[tchuklobrau]

the mass in that picture has 20+ shoots(got sick of counting)

 

[blawjr]

I would just let them goon as is, they'll look pretty once they cover the fence

 

[B-Hoppy]

T,
There have been a few years that I got that far behind and it's really no big deal. Like you mentioned it's best just to go in and lop everything off and let the next flush of growth take over. When they get that dense and tangled it's a real nightmare to try to save certain ones without busting them all up so let the beatings begin. Believe me, they'll grow back. Also, make sure you have some beer handy!!

 

[likwidbliss]

They look like my bines. I get great yields and I love how they cover the fence.

 

[blawjr]

They look like my bines. I get great yields and I love how they cover the fence.

Agreed, hops are after all wild plants that know what their doing, from a homebrewing perspective, theres really no need to interfere as much as we do and try to maximize yeild. But thats just my opinion...

 

[B-Hoppy]

Don't get me wrong, they'll grow like weeds if you let 'em- that's what they are after all. But, once you get a little downy mildew down at he base where all that vegetation is blocking airflow and it just festers because you can't notice the problem until it's a MAJOR problem, you may be crying in your beer. It's never gotten out of control for me but I've seen situations where it has and it's kind of a bummer because once you have it there's no telling when or where it'll pop up again. Once bitten twice shy.

 

[tchuklobrau]

....... But, once you get a little downy mildew down at he base where all that vegetation is blocking airflow and it just festers because you can't notice the problem until it's a MAJOR problem, you may be crying in your beer.......

What I'm worried about as well. notice the white leaves in the upper right of the pic above.

 

[B-Hoppy]

T,

The bright spot in your situation is that powdery mildew is made up of a bunch of different organisms that are pretty much 'specific' to certain plants, meaning that different types of powdery mildew will cause damage to those plants that they were intended to damage. Sometimes, certain diseases can show up on plants that they were not specific to, and not cause too much of a problem. I only had one or two plant pathology classes so I'm not an expert, but I've seen some powdery mildew on hops in my area and it has come and gone without causing much, if any, of a problem. I'd imagine that it was a type specific to another plant and just tried out the hops to see if it could make them cry.

Found some more info on the matter that might help: http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/php/research/hop/ , http://powderymildewremover.com/understanding-powdery-mildew/ . The first sign of Downy Mildew I see, I usually take a couple of those plastic grocery bags and carefully pull the affected shoots then place in the bags to be burned in a very hot fire. Try to do the best you can to contain the spores and destroy, then make sure you wash your hands and any other pruners/tools that you used to remove the infected plant material. Disease management can be pretty tricky.

 

[tchuklobrau]

Well, armed with beer and pruners I started my endeavor. Sure am glad I decided to mow it all down. 3 hours spent 2day, and that was just going at it with the attitude of violent removal of everything. Hate to think how long I woulda been trying to thin it out.

At the begining I was making a game of it had planned on taking 1 sip of beer for every 5 bines I removed. Weeelllllll after killing my 1st beer and not even being half way through my 1st crown I decided this was not such a good idea.

Still have 10 to try and get to 2morrow, however these were all rhizomes just planted last year. they are not so crazy, should be able to just clean and thin those.

Hoppy, after further close examination It is not mildew(I think it may be some frost burn)
, however seing the amount of eggsacks( you know the ones that look like a gob of spit) I am sure I was set up for catarpillar and bug overload. So I am happy all in all with my decision

 

[SGFBeerBuzz]

If you've got egg sacs and possibly mildew, I say burn those bines you cut off. If you compost them, you run the risk of the bugs coming back or contaminating your compost with a nasty organism.