Whats Wrong with my Hops

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Schnupp

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I am growing first year centennial hops. They were planted about 5 weeks ago. This morning they were fine and now it has fallen over and feels limp. The potting soil I used was miracle grow and fertilized with a small amount of blood meal last week. My plant gets only about 6-8 hours of sunlight per day. I have been watering every other day. This week has been very hot. Could this be from not enough water? Here are some pics. The first pic shows the hop looking healthy about a week ago. The second and third pictures show the current situation.
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coming from a nursery background, looking at your picture alone, it’s seems that the plants didn’t receive sufficient water. To have a plant droop like that from being over water, it typically will show browning because the cells of the plant will actually burst and will die. It also happens over a period of time, not just one over watering. Also the leafs themselves look wilted in your hand and the top of the soil looks very dry, both usually clear signs of underwatering. Very fixable but I’ll point out things for you for your next season growing hops.

1) If you’re going to grow hops in a pot, make sure your pot Is at least a 10gal but a 15gal would be better. When the plant gets to some size, it will need substantial amounts of water and you’ll drive yourself insane trying to keep a smaller pot watered

2) no edible plant should ever be grown in miracle grow. Not formulated correctly and it’s jot organic. It’s also pre fertilized so by adding bone meal you are over fertilizing at the early stage which isn’t good.

3) hops need full sun. That’s literally at minimum 8 hours of direct Sun.

Anyway looks easy to fix your current problem. Don’t forget to start training the plant to climb soon.
 
more direct sun.
hops like water but dont like to sit in it...so make sure you water enough but your half barrel drains well. The rule of thumb is water until the water pools on top of the soil surface then allow to drain.
where is your water coming from...if you have city water it might be overly chlorinated or if you have a water softener it could be salt content.
assuming you planted rhizomes. where did you get them.
hops fertilizer requirement is a 3-1-2 proportion. so (it always lists as N-P-K in that order.Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium/Potash) 9-3-6, 18-6-12, 24-8-16 ...
I use shake n feed that has kelp and such in it .
I built myself a 55 gallon plastic drum drip system for my 4 hop plants. I fill it up , crack the valve and it waters them all day , here in North Alabama we've been seeing days in the mid to upper 90s , my hops are doing phenomenally.
 
Thank you everyone for the advice. Here is an update after 2 days. The plant has not gotten any better. If anything I think it curled up a little more. I am thinking I did not give the plant enough water because I have never watered enough for it to pool at the surface or drain out the bottom. I have been scared of overwatering as that seems to be common problem on the forums. Last week was also in the 90's every day. If the cause is under watering then how long will it take to recover? Here is a pic of the hop today.
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Also here is a pic of the soil I used. I also used a 4-6-3 fertilizer when I planted my rhizome. I purchased the rhizome from morebeer.com.
 
So you bought it as a bare rhizome, and not as a small rooted plant? And planted it in late May, which is getting kinda late.

The way those leaves have gone floppy looks like the leaves aren't getting enough water. That's probably just the effect of putting a plant in 90+°F heat when it hasn't even developed any roots yet. Remember that hops are temperate plants, they're used to getting some frost on them.

You don't say where you are but it would be much happier somewhere that's more like 70°F and reasonably well lit without ferocious sun on it, just for a week or three to allow it to establish some roots. Bright sun is nice for established plants but they need to develop a root system first.

I would just check the base of the stem though, where it enters the soil. Just make sure that you have healthy tissue there - bacteria in particular can fill the tubes that transport water up the plant and block them, starving the leaves of water. It's probably not that, but it's best to rule out all possibilities.
 
Yes I bought it as a bare rhizome and planted it late May. I am located in PA and it has been in the 90s the last 2 weeks. I dug around the stem and noticed several gnats and small aphid looking things crawling around in the top soil. I have noticed the gnats for weeks crawling in the soil but didn't think they were trouble since they were more interested in the soil than the hop leafs. I also found this guy... Anyone know what this is or could mean?
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Gnats could be chewing roots, preventing the plant from establishing itself. But that's typically in overwatered pots.
 
Thank you everyone for the advice. Here is an update after 2 days. The plant has not gotten any better. If anything I think it curled up a little more. I am thinking I did not give the plant enough water because I have never watered enough for it to pool at the surface or drain out the bottom. I have been scared of overwatering as that seems to be common problem on the forums. Last week was also in the 90's every day. If the cause is under watering then how long will it take to recover? Here is a pic of the hop today.
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Also here is a pic of the soil I used. I also used a 4-6-3 fertilizer when I planted my rhizome. I purchased the rhizome from morebeer.com.
check the actual source of that potting soil. if it is the shredded coconut husk (Coir) use something else. I made the mistake of using that for my tobacco plants and everything died. Switch to a peat based potting soil ,no problems. Coir is fine for the twine for hops to climb but it doesnt have much nutritive value ,IMO
 
Here are some update pictures. Things are still getting worse so I dug a little into the soil to expose the roots. Any advice?
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Like grapes, they like to drink, just don't leave their feet wet all the time. I always use 3/4 Gravel at the bottom of my holes before setting vines and bines.
 
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