Help Identify My Hop Problem

[rockgineer]

I put 100 plants in the ground this year to start my endevour into hop farming and get my feet wet with experimenting with larger scale trellising than what I used in my home garden of 16 plants.

I have a few plants that have had a strange appearance since they sprouted a few weeks ago. Below is a picture of a Willimate or Northern Brewer with the issue in question (both have one or two plants with a similar looking problem)

the rest of my plants are healthy looking so I have ruled out nutrient deficiencies even though some of my nutrients were a little low according to my soil test. I will be adding nitrogen in the coming weeks but there should be enough in the soil now to support a new plant. Also PH of the soil in this field is 6.5.

I remember hearing about a compilation of hop pests and diseases in a book but can't find the book. Does anyone have a good resource that will help me identify future problems?

Thanks for the help,
Brad

 

[ctheis]

By the pic it looks like you have a nitrogen deficiency. Not certain how much fert you are using but I use a 20-20-20 every 9 days (liquid).

Youll also note that when you order large quantities of rhyzomes you will inevitably get some bad ones. Cull those that are problematic and replace them with your most vigourous stock when you start getting rhyzomes (End of year 2 normally -although you may get a few at the end of your first year depending on variety). You can also replace with cuttings as long as you are careful with the rooting hormone.

You can also make rhyzomes your first year - take a number of the bines that you are not going to string and cover them with dirt and leave the tip exposed - wait a week or two and then uncover them and they should have started making roots. Cut them off as close to the crown as you can and plant them....this should work well (at least it does for me). Use a very light rooting hormone to help things along.

Cheers

 

[Strave19]

While it could possibly be an N deficiency, my vote is for an Iron deficiency and/or too high of pH. It looks to me like the younger leaves are chlorotic and that the veins are still quite green which indicates an iron deficiency. N deficiencies usually start with the older leaves yellowing. Its tough to tell from just one photo, but thats my best guess... but it certainly could be something else or a combination of things.

By the way, I think that the book you mentioned is the Compendium of Hop Diseases and Pests by APS press. Its pretty useful, but runs about $65.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Your first problem is you have 100 plants, dreams of Green Acres, and yet haven't ponied up the $35 to a co-op for a soil analysis to begin to understand the legitimacy of your theories.

http://www.hgic.umd.edu/_media/documents/hg110.pdf

 

[rockgineer]

Well I welcome the possibility of nutrient deficiencies compared to some terrible disease. Here is my soil test. I am meeting with my fertilizer guy but he doesn't know much/anything about hops we are going to figure out what I need to add now and what I need to add mid-season. I was hoping to have my soil amended by now but farming is not my day job and time got away from me.

That was the book I was thinking of. Just ordered it. Thanks.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Brad

 

[Hopfarmer]

Looks like frost damage or Boron Def your sulfer is very low also Cheers Glen

 

[Hopfarmer]

Get some borax

 

[rockgineer]

Thanks Glen, what does the borax do? I'm guessing it has boron in it. I did a google search and it looks like it kills weeds/plants. Any recommendation on how much to add?

 

[B-Hoppy]

By any chance did you apply any non-selective herbicides recently? The reason I ask is that once mine are all strung up, I usually go into the garden with Round-up to clean up any weeds poking through. Sometimes I'll hit a new shoot just as it's coming up (hard to see) and when those that were sprayed begin to grow, that's almost exactly what they look like. Just wondering.

I'd actually leave the borax alone until you talk to the folks who did the soil analysis to make sure. Or talk to your local cooperative extension specialist who can give you an educated explanation of how these micronutrients actually work. It's a little more complicated to be able to be explained properly on a forum like this. It doesn't really look like a disease/virus problem though. I could be wrong though. Good luck.

 

[B-Hoppy]

Here's the link: http://www.usahops.org/userfiles/file/Research Reports & Presentations/HopHandbook2009.pdf
Check out the pic of glyphosate damage on page 78. I just wish the pic was a little closer but you can see the similarity.

 

[rockgineer]

That does look similar. I haven't added any chemicals to this field in 7 years so I hope thats not the problem. Thanks for the link to the hand book. I have it somewhere but couldn't find it.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I was hoping to have my soil amended by now but farming is not my day job and time got away from me.

Brother, I hear THAT. I am a hobby gardener with only about 2000 square foot of garden area. Between the day job, parenthood, and life in general I can't keep up either.

 

[slomo]

Looks like you have no iron in you lab results, and your magnesium is through the roof. Iron deficiency and too much magnesium can look the same. Though you did say that all the other plants are doing well so maybe you got some bum rhizomes. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Jagdad]

Sometimes a rhizome has a disease /virus load that is stressing it - coupled with cool wet weather it can set back root development to the point where micro nutrients aren't taken up properly. As soil temps rise the symptoms will often disappear -
A foliar leaf tissue analysis is about the surest way to pin down the exact micro def/toxicity. But it still won't tell you why the plant isn't absorbing them properly. Could be a bunch of things from planting the rhizome too deep, too wet, disease . . . .

 

[extra_medium]

i had a plant last year that did something like that for a couple of leaves when it was young, it did eventually start putting out normal leaves as the roots became more established. the only extra thing i did to it was to feed it some Miracle Gro for tomatoes. good luck.

Edit:
I think it was 18:18:21