Whats Wrong with My Hops? (first time grower)

[KobayashiMaru]

I've got 5 buckets each with a bine or two. The tops look healthy but the bottoms....not so much. I'm assuming they have some kind of deficiency? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Pictures arent showing up for some reason so I've attached them.

 

[Grod1]

they want a lot more water then you think. It doesnt seem to a deficiency other than a general lack of nitrogen but it is what it is, in those tiny lil buckets. I would suggest an even NPK fert but those things really want to be in the ground and watered, more then you think.
can you take a clear picture of the bottom of the leaf? I think i see white dots that would be from some sort of aphid.

 

[Ruint]

Those white dots could be mildew...depending on where you live, it could be downy mildew or powdery mildew. If the white spots go dark grey or black...It would be downy, Grod1 is right in the fact that those plants are starving...you need to feed them some fertilizer...if there are not holes in those pots that allow sufficient draining, you'll also drown the crown with results that look similar to what you have. They like lots of water, but they don't want to be soaking in it.
(Edit: white dots on the leaves, not in the potting mix)

 

[mirthfuldragon]

I presume they are new plants, and it looks like you used a commercial potting mix (white dots of perlite) in the planters? If so, then I wouldn't worry about fertilizer. I would suspect water - either too dry and getting scorched, or being left with wet feet and drowning.

Your pots are too small also. They look like 10" or 12". I would look for something at least 10g or 18". Bigger is better; in the ground hop roots can go down 15'. They look really nice in half-whiskey barrels.

For pots, make sure there are lots of drainage holes - like five or six holes per square foot. Too much drainage means you have to water more, where too little drainage can drown your plant. I like to line the bottom of my planters with landscape fabric. Don't use gravel or rocks in the bottom - just about any potting mix will work. If using a big planter, feel free to mix the potting mix with some compost and cheap topsoil.



Where do you live? If you get significant cold and snow (USDA zone 5, maybe zone 4), there is a risk the plants won't store enough energy in their roots to survive the winter. The growth in the picture is more typical for mid-May than late July. I am a little surprised you found rhizomes this late in the season.

 

[KobayashiMaru]

Thanks for the help everybody. I water them everyday but maybe I'm just not giving them enough at a time. I used commercial potting soil and have added some 8-5-5 fertilizer since the beginning of the summer, but like the water, not sure if I added enough.

I would have liked to have planted them in the ground but just moved into the house last fall and wasn't sure which part of the yard gets the most sun. It's hard to tell from the pics but the bucket is 14 inches.

It took a while for the weather to stay consistently above freezing so I didn't get to plant them until late April. A few pots are around 20 feet tall and the others around half that.

Most of the bines are developing cones at the top. It just seems weird since the top halves of the bines look really good but like I said I'm a novice and don't know anything. I'll take more, better pictures when I get home from work today. Thanks again for the input!

 

[KobayashiMaru]

Here's some better pictures. Looks like some of them might have a nutrient deficiency.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

The second one from the right on the picture looks healthy - short, but it is throwing out sidearms and looks fine for a first year plant The other four look scrawny. It might be Verticillium wilt - check https://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/php/research/2012/hop/.

Are you really watering every day? That could be excessive depending on your rainfall. Then again, it might be necessary given the size of the pots. Pull one of the plants out and check the bottom of the pot. If it is soaked through like mud, I would suspect overwatering.

Where did you purchase the plants from, and what variety? I have heard rumors of some sellers selling off old field rhizomes from diseased fields; especially if it is verticulum wilt, that is on the seller for giving junk plants.

Where do you live? Different areas have different diseases and issues with growing.

 

[KobayashiMaru]

They are cascade hops from buyhoprhizomes.com. I live in Massachusetts and water them whenever the soil looks dry which is almost everyday. I'll pull one of them up and take a look to see if the pot is draining enough.

It does look like it could be verticillium wilt in which case i'll message the sellers.

 

[Kent88]

I doubt it would help with this much, but maybe you should prune the lower 4 feet (or so) of your bines. That section probably wont give you much for cones, and from what I've read those leaves are most susceptible to molds and fungus as they're close to damp soil.

At this point in the year you might not want to give a fertilizer with a *lot* of nitrogen or phosphorous. Potash is good for them as they form cones and prepare for dormancy.

Not sure when you are planning to cut the bines down. Make sure they have some leaves to photosynthesize as late into the fall as they can go.

 

[TLaffey]

I've got 5 buckets each with a bine or two. The tops look healthy but the bottoms....not so much. I'm assuming they have some kind of deficiency? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

.

OK, I'm not expert here--my hops are on their second year and I'm in the (currently VERY hot) Sacramento area. But I see hops planted in pots and I think if you want production, that's not going to work.

https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/hop.html says that hops plants put roots down 15 ft. I saw another reference that says something like more than 7 ft. So I think your plants will inevitably be very stressed in a pot.

 

[Apimyces]

Something I like to do with pots, when possible, is to half bury them (at least) in the ground. The roots can adventure beyond the capacity of the pot and water goes up by capillarity. Makes the plant less needy/fragile.

 

[KobayashiMaru]

Dug down to the bottom of one of the pots and it was pretty dry so I don't think im overwatering. Someone mentioned pruning the first 4 ft - once you go above 4 feet the leaves look pretty good so I think they are doing alright.

I'm definitely going to plant them in the ground for next season but what should i do with rhizomes over the winter? Should I leave them in the buckets and put them in my shed? Plant before the ground freezes?

 

[Kent88]

Can't stress this enough, I don't know. My containers are about as small as yours and I'm planning to just put them in the garage over winter. Not sure that is the best thing to do for them, though. I live pretty close to a boundary between growing zones 4 and 5. I have purposefully left water bottles in the garage to gauge whether it is below freezing, and those suckers stay frozen for a few months.

I am also planning to plant them properly in the ground next year.

Am interested to hear what advice people can come up with for you.

 

[Ruint]

I live in upstate New York. At the end of the growing season last year (2016) I had 5 plants in pots half the size that you are using, that I had planned on putting in the ground. That still has not happened...they are still alive and growing to this date, and all I did last year at the onset of winter was to bury them in mulch. I spaced them out like the number 5 on dice, with 4 to 5 inches between the pots, and covered them so they had about 4 inches of mulch all around them and on top of them. I also put them in an area that was somewhat protected from the wind.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

Winter storage is always a gamble. First, plants can and do die; it happens, even in the best of circumstances, so accept it as a fact of nature.

The issue now is that we are pretty late in the growing season, so the plants have shifted into flowering mode from growing mode. Putting them in the ground is going to stress them; early in the season they put on more foilage and root growth, later in the season it is all about flowering cones (the cones are technically flowers).

To me, the best course of action would be to leave them in the pots for now. I would not bother to try to harvest anything either, unless you can get it without cutting down the bines. Leave the bines up, growing, and storing energy as long as possible. Once it gets cold enough to wither the bine, cut it off at the ground and put the pots in a sheltered location, like an outdoor shed or detached garage. You can bury the pots in the ground too.

Once the freeze threat is over next year, pull them out in a sunny spot and see what grows. Hopefully all will sprout back, but if not, well, that's gardening.

Also, be prepared next year to get everything set up and planted once the weather isn't terrible. Personally, I prefer raised beds because they look nice and contain the hops to some extent.

Next year, I would let them do whatever they want - let the plant do its thing. In year three you can trim the bull shoots and focus on getting a good crop.

Gardening with perennials is a long game.