Termites

[dunnright00]

So I planted 3 rhizomes, one Brewers Gold, one Cascade and one Goldings.

The Golding popped up first, the next day followed by the Brewers Gold.

It's been about about a week and nothing with the Cascade, so I decided to gently dig it up to investigate.

Not only is there no shoots, but it practically fell apart in my hand, and a bunch of little bugs fell out.

Termites!!!

The whole rhizome is practically hollow. Definitely dead.

Anyone else ever experience this?

 

[dunnright00]

BTW, the thread title was supposed to be TERMITES!!!!

Needs more emphasis.

 

[dunnright00]

Termites!!!!!

 

[ashford]

That sucks. I guess termites like cascades more than the others.

 

[dunnright00]

So, I'm guessing by the lack of comments that this is common?

It seemed like a nice healthy rhizome when I planted it. Did it get the termites after I put it in the ground?

 

[jessup]

hmm i had termites living in the woodchips in my hop hill, but they didn't affect the rhizome itself. not as far as i can tell at least... i'll have to watch out for this thanks for the warning.

and sorry to hear the bad news...

 

[Retrofit]

I have no experience with this, but perhaps your problem (TERMITES!) is much larger than a dead rhizome. Good luck.

 

[dunnright00]

I have no experience with this, but perhaps your problem (TERMITES!) is much larger than a dead rhizome. Good luck.

Yeah, most likely. But I rent, so it isn't much of a concern to me.

I'm thinking that the rhizome must have been dead, or already have the termites in them, no? I mean, do termites eat into living or dormant roots/rhizomes?

 

[StAnthonyB]

That sucks. I guess termites like cascades more than the others.

I planted a moldy Goldings rhizome and it was the quickest of all 10 varieties. Life is funny like that.



I didn't realize there were even insects in San Diego! I still remember the time I saw my first mosquito in Carlsbad. I found it very odd at the time as I grew up on a blueberry bog, out here in Mass-alacky, with mosquitos and water moccassins up the wazoo!

Termite larvae also like to eat those new fangled plastic natural gas pipes.... We've spent a ton of money laying them. Back to cast-iron we go.

 

[Rick500]

I'm surprised at that... There are termites *all over the place* out in the woods behind my house.

In fact, when I bought my house about eight years ago, the house inspector found termites starting to chew on the wood under the front porch and I had the sellers get the support structure of the porch repaired and have the whole property treated for termites before I bought it.

There are termites in the tree stumps and dead wood in the woods a few yards from where I have my hops planted. But they have not bothered my hops.

 

[businesstime]

Wow! I discovered this today with my hops. I planted Centennial, Cascade and Magnum. The Cascade pot was filled with termites. They'd even begun to burrow into the ground where holes in the pots let them through. In a matter of 5 days, they had covered an area 3 feet x 3 feet x 2 feet deep

The Centennial also had some termite larvae inside, but I find no signs of infection in my Magnum pot.

Where did you get them from? Mine came from Norther Brewer, who gets it from some other supplier (I forget where).

 

[Retrofit]

Well this is interesting and potentially a big issue. My question is where did Northern Brewer get their hops from? They are obviously a middle man. If their source had termites, they may have been shipped accross the nation. I don't want to start a rumor, but I wouldn't want to have termites in my home or rental unit.

For the guy that rents, have you told your landlord? You could tweak the truth and say you noticed termites, never mentioned the hops part. If I was a landlord and my tenant knew I had termites I would want to know.

I recieved this years hops from Thyme Garden, and haven't noticed any issues, but I'm going to check anyway. I wouldn't wany my hobby to ruin my home!

Edit: My first year hops came in plastic bags and it was very clear to me that there was no termites/bugs on the rhizomes. I'm curious if maybe the bugs were already in the ground and you noticed them because your growing hops. Rather than the rhizomes having termites on them. I would think you could spot something like that if you recieved a rhizome in a clear plastic bag. Could that be missed? Could they breed from just one or two on small stick in a bag?

 

[dunnright00]

Where did you get them from?

Got mine from a LHBS, not sure where he got them from. That's my next step.

I wanted to see here first, if this is a common problem, then I was going to go to him to see what he says.

 

[businesstime]

UPDATE: I work for an agriculture university, so I called the extension office to get more information about this. They believe the most logical explanation is that the termites came from the ground and by supplying water and woody material (the rhizome), they flocked there to feed.

Termites are everywhere- I think someone said there's not a square acre on earth that doesn't contain a termite. However, it would be difficult, if not impossible for termites to live inside the rhizome and distributed across the country, away from their colony.

For treatment, he recommended dusting the area with ditomacious earth, an organic "powder" that contains very small sharp matter. Insects will feed on it and will be shredded up from the inside.

 

[dunnright00]

For treatment, he recommended dusting the area with ditomacious earth, an organic "powder" that contains very small sharp matter. Insects will feed on it and will be shredded up from the inside.

Interesting.
I've used diatomaceous earth before, to keep away fleas but my understanding was insects like fleas and termites breath through their exoskeleton, and the DE basically suffocates them.

Either way, I know it works on fleas.

 

[StAnthonyB]

Interesting.
I've used diatomaceous earth before, to keep away fleas but my understanding was insects like fleas and termites breath through their exoskeleton, and the DE basically suffocates them.

Either way, I know it works on fleas.

That's an interesting and incredibly useful bit of knowledge.