First Year Cascade - Couple questions/problems

[hoaxci5]

The bottom of the plant only, seems to be dying, growth is still happening up top though, should I worry? Is it something I can fix?

Maybe related? There isn't a lot of this, but in a couple of places.. Any ideas?

The only bugs I can see on it, are ants, spiders, and this guy which I scared off, but I think it's only some kind of moth? I'm new to growing anything, and new to this area (DE) so I'm not familiar with what bugs are..

Whole hop plant, and a little view of the rest of our ecoscaped front landscaping

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

First year grower here also and im having the same white cotton on my bines aswell as the yellowing lower leaves.

I think it might be from deficiency's in either K or N.

Those shoots are very nice! mine are only 5-6feet as of now but I did get a late start on the season.
Don't expect much till next year anyway.

Cheers!

 

[johngaltsmotor]

Most people remove the leaves from the bottom 3feet anyway to improve air circulation, just snip them off. It's likely nothing to be concerned about, I'm mostly a hands of hop grower and this is the 3rd year and they keep getting stronger every year. They're incredibly resilient plants.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Most people remove the leaves from the bottom 3feet anyway to improve air circulation, just snip them off. It's likely nothing to be concerned about, I'm mostly a hands of hop grower and this is the 3rd year and they keep getting stronger every year. They're incredibly resilient plants.

This, I didnt just go full force and remove all the leaves on the bottom area though.

I purposefully let the leaves stay on the bottom bit until they reached a point where i deemed them worthless.

Any leaves you can leave to soak up that sweet sunshine is a good thing especially on first year plants, once they got overly eaten by bugs or were severely yellowing i'd pinch them off.
It seems to work pretty well.