2010 Hop Plantations

[drsmurto]

My mt hood is being eaten by something. It's going climbing at a good rate but some of the leaves are being eaten. Is it to late to look into companion plants? I'm not keen on the idea of pesticide. A photo would probably help someone to help me but it's dark at the moment. I had a look on the effected leaves but couldn't see any bugs.

Could be spider mites. Very hard to see and like to chew holes in the leaves.

You can buy organic sprays that use natural pyrethrums. I had a pyrethrum plant that i used to make a spray with chilli and garlic added. Now i just buy a pyrethrum concentrate and mix some chill/garlic into it. Its good for most bugs except earwigs/caterpillars and harlequin bugs. I swear the latter thinks i am spraying them with aftershave.

Have a look for 'Beat-a-bug' next time you are at one of the big hardware stores.

Or you could try white oil.

 

[devo]

Lets hope that this year goes better for my Tettnang than the previous no thanks to spidermite madness!!! It's the 4th season now since planting and the early signs are good. I had to cut back about 10 shoots and plan to keep it at just the 2 dominant shoots this year.

 

[cdbrown]

These two are either Cluster or Tettnang

I think the one on the left is EKG and the one on the right is POR

 

[mckenry]

Saaz B is going crazy, first year and I have 8 bines and 2 of those are 1.5m long. Cascade is trailing behind but is starting to get a move on.

Hey outbreak,
Where did you get a saaz B from?

 

[Nick JD]

My mt hood is being eaten by something. It's going climbing at a good rate but some of the leaves are being eaten. Is it to late to look into companion plants? I'm not keen on the idea of pesticide. A photo would probably help someone to help me but it's dark at the moment. I had a look on the effected leaves but couldn't see any bugs.

Look closer. Small green caterpillars about 8mm long and exactly the same colour as the leaves.

Solution: squish.

 

[MarkBastard]

These two are either Cluster or Tettnang

I think the one on the left is EKG and the one on the right is POR

Good luck with that mate. Those pots won't stop the hops from rooting into that garden.

 

[cdbrown]

They're going to be moved shortly into some more sunshine for a little while, when they go back I'll put some pavers or slabs under them. I'll keep my eye on the roots though so thanks for pointing it out.

 

[MarkBastard]

No worries, just be careful, if you didn't see my prior post I used the same pots and had them on concrete and one certainly broke free.

 

[Florian]

My POR has reached the 4m mark already, with Chinook following closely. If they continue like that I would have to either build another few levels or lower the plants a bit, so that they still can continue upwards.









The pots have been used in last years veggie and herb garden, so there are still plenty of seeds in the soil, making good companion plants. Mostly Thai basil, but also some lettuce, carrots and tomatoes.






I spoke to my Dad in Berlin the other day on skype. There is plenty of wild hops growing in and around the parks and sports grounds in the city. he has collected and dried 4 whole shopping bags of them. Thinking of a way to get some of them over here, might have to press them into pellets manually or something like that. No idea what they are, but them being from Germany I am keen to try them. Took a photo of the skype screen:



:icon_offtopic: How do I get my pictures displayed bigger?

 

[Bribie G]

:icon_offtopic: How do I get my pictures displayed bigger?

:icon_offtopic: Do you mean displayed on the post as full size to start off with, as opposed to having to click on it to display the full size image?

What most guys do is to open an account with Photobucket or one of the other photo sharing sites and upload your pics to that, and post the img code straight into your AHB post.

Example: uploaded to this post on AHB:



the same file on Photobucket

I shrink my forum photos using a jpeg compressor proggie, several available, so they don't annoy by filling the entire screen

 

[Florian]

:icon_offtopic: Thanks Michael, will do that in the future. Enough OT now, back to business...

 

[Nick JD]

Here's my caterpillar damage.

And the solution :beerbang: .

 

[Jaissy]

Hi Nick,

Put the caterpillar nest out of the trees or prune the affected areas,dropping the caterpillars into the bucket of soapy water.Start early in the spring,as soon as you begin to see evidence of caterpillars.They will be easier to remove and the damge will be less serves.
Spray the leaves with the BTK mixture,a natural biological control for caterpillars.

 

[felten]

Do you have a source on good quality spiders nick? Maybe we can get a bulk buy going

 

[wakkatoo]

Do you have a source on good quality spiders nick? Maybe we can get a bulk buy going

I've got on to a good supplier. Located over in China. I've been assured that these spiders are as good as the Aussie ones but a hell of a lot cheaper. In fact they are so good, some big-name hop growers are interested in purchasing some off me (but I can't tell you who they are).
That being said, if they don't work for you, don't blame me. You obviously planted the hops wrong so its all your fault.




h34r:

 

[Nick JD]

Do you have a source on good quality spiders nick? Maybe we can get a bulk buy going

I've got some big black hairy ones. They live in cute little fluffy tunnels on the side of the trees. Shall I send you some?

I thought they were trapdoors "coz funnelwebs live in Sydney" - then I looked 'em up on the Google...

...oh dear. Northern Rivers Tree Funnelweb. If possible, nastier than the Sydney one.

But my hop guard-spider doesn't seem aggressive.

 

[felten]

I've got on to a good supplier. Located over in China. I've been assured that these spiders are as good as the Aussie ones but a hell of a lot cheaper. In fact they are so good, some big-name hop growers are interested in purchasing some off me (but I can't tell you who they are).
That being said, if they don't work for you, don't blame me. You obviously planted the hops wrong so its all your fault.




h34r:

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Wolfy]

Thinking of a way to get some of them over here, might have to press them into pellets manually or something like that. No idea what they are, but them being from Germany I am keen to try them.

When they are dried and vacuum sealed they'll take a up a whole lot less room.
But a piece of small diameter PVC pipe with a wooden broom handle (or similar) makes a cheap and useful home-hop-plug maker. Just fill the pipe with about 20g of hops and compact/crush them down with the wooden handle.

 

[Florian]

They are already dried, and I told my dad to compact them so they are less exposed to oxygen. I was more worried of Aqis, as I'm sure they would not like a parcel or suitcase full of hop flowers. Whereas if we could make them look like commercially manufactured pellets... Or are plugs not considered harmful?

 

[drsmurto]

Yay, hop trellis built and I didn't hit myself with the hammer once! :beerbang:

Just need to run some twine down to the fence and the hops will be on automatic pilot.