Hop problems this season

[blackstrat5]

I grew some hop vines in Southern Maryland at my parents house. All seemed fine, especially my Cascades. They really did well until after the last harvest. Some of the vines turned brown and died. After closer inspection (I had been gone at school since I decided to go back for grad school) and at the point where the vines turned from green to brown and then died, had what looked like egg sacks...just a mess of tiny brown tan colored egg sacks...real tiny.

Earlier in the season I had a problem with the cones turning very light brown from the inside out and stopped growing...I should have gotten pictures but I wasn't smart enough to do that at the time. Any ideas what it could have been and preventative maint.?

If you have questions about descriptions I'l do my best to answer them to help solve this issue.

 

[JonK331]

I had spider mites and a red rust looking stuff on mine before they even flowered. Dude at the garden shop said to use neem oil for both. Tried the neem oil and it seemed to work but the vines were too far gone. No homegrown hops at all for me this year.

 

[blackstrat5]

...well dang. I have no idea what was on mine...I ended up cutting the vines about where they just started dieing. It was weird, the vines were green and healthy until somewhere along the vine, there was what looked like egg sacks and the vine turned brown and died.

 

[JonK331]

Were the "egg sacks" foamy looking? If there was a white foam then you had aphid. If there were tiny white bugs (I mean TINY, like smaller than the head of a pin) with some web looking stuff then you had spider mites. Do you have pictures by chance? I may not be the best person to ask though, while I consider myself to be a decent gardener (great tomatoes this year, peppers also) I have not yet been all that successful with hops.

 

[blackstrat5]

No photos....I should have but didn't think of it at the time. Although there might be some on there still. I'll look an see this weekend. They were tiny balls, like tip of a pencil small all clumped together. Ill see if I can get a picture.