2017 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

[goatus]

The growth this year has been amazing if not a little scary. First year fertlising them after 10 years of thinking that horse manure in winter was sufficient.

What are you feeding those monsters and how often?

 

[drsmurto]

What are you feeding those monsters and how often?

Dynamic lifter once a month. I'm sure the commercial growers can jump in with what they use. It's been a wet spring so far so no doubt that is helping.

 

[HopAssault]

I've noticed these small brown marks popping up all over my plant, they start off a mottled brown colour then slowly turn to small holes, is this caused by pests or do I have something else on my hands?
The white powder on the leaves is just veggie dust that was applied prior to the photos.

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

I've noticed these small brown marks popping up all over my plant, they start off a mottled brown colour then slowly turn to small holes, is this caused by pests or do I have something else on my hands?
The white powder on the leaves is just veggie dust that was applied prior to the photos.

Looks like they are being munched on by something. Check the underside of the leaves for the culprit.

 

[HopAssault]

Looks like they are being munched on by something. Check the underside of the leaves for the culprit.

Thanks mate. Found this little ****** and his whole family tucking in to my leaves. Fed 'em to the ants.
They are good at blending in, took me a while to find them all.

Aside from physically destroying these guys, is there another way of keeping them at bay?

 

[Rocker1986]

I use a spray called Success from Yates. It kills them on contact but also (so the packaging says anyway) absorbs into the leaves and acts as a residual control of them as well. I usually spray it on the plants about once a week or so but once they start going strongly I don't worry too much about it.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Thanks mate. Found this little ****** and his whole family tucking in to my leaves. Fed 'em to the ants.
They are good at blending in, took me a while to find them all.

Aside from physically destroying these guys, is there another way of keeping them at bay?

I use Dipel (Yates Caterpillar Killer) because I use it on my aquaponics and food garden and its Organic certified. Non Toxic.
Its also absorbed into the plant. The caterpillars die after eating it but if you use it say every 3 weeks you wont have caterpillars.
But its only harmful to caterpillars.

 

[ScottyDoesntKnow]

I bombed mine with a tomato and vegetable caterpillar and insect powder, hopefully it works because they started strong but growth had been pretty much non existent the last month. It was probably a mixture of the caterpillars and no watering for the week every fortnight im away at work. I noticed the top of one of the rhizomes has been exposed in the soil, must have been at least 10-20 nodes there! whereas when I first planted there might have been maybe 3 or 4 on the entire cutting.

 

[BottloBill]

Since when do laterals sprout and grow six inches overnight :blink:

 

[BottloBill]

I spy with my little eye something beginning with B

 

[Mardoo]

So do I need to get little eyes installed for burr spotting? I'm not sure I have the right equipment for growing hops. [emoji15]

 

[Camo6]

Since when do laterals sprout and grow six inches overnight :blink:

I spy with my little eye something beginning with B

Is that what six inches looks like? (TWSS)

 

[BottloBill]

Is that what six inches looks like? (TWSS)

That's the very top. I will get a piccy of the laterals located lower down, which are now an easy 12 inches

 

[BottloBill]

Laterals stretching out

 

[Rocker1986]

My Fuggle plant has a number of laterals at various stages of growth. The lighter coloured leaves in these pics.

 

[LiquidGold]

I've had an outbreak of little green grasshoppers which are chewing holes all through my leaves. Only retaliation so far has been the two finger squeeze method. The plants are growing so quick I'm hoping it won't be too much of an issue but I've read a bit about neem oil working against chewing and sucking insects while not harming beneficials (unless directly sprayed). Anyone have any experience with it?

 

[Matplat]

Righto, my Victoria is just starting to make some serious tracks, bloody glad I put the string lines up over this weekend. I noticed this morning that there is one bine that looks decidedly thicker than the others, and I've read about trimming back the lesser bines.

Last year when I did that the plant seemed to then focus on growing new bines at the base from where I had trimmed them, and pretty much stopped growing vertically, so I'm a little hesitant to start hacking. I'l post a photo this afternoon, but just wondering peoples thoughts.

 

[Matplat]

The aforementioned Victoria.... note the size of the bine on the left compared to the others....

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

The aforementioned Victoria.... note the size of the bine on the left compared to the others....

The larger bine could be a bull shoot. If you have enough bines to train and plan to cut back the rest, cut that one off. Bull shoots tend to break easier and have a farther distance between nodes so will produce less of a yield.

 

[Benn]

The larger bine could be a bull shoot. If you have enough bines to train and plan to cut back the rest, cut that one off. Bull shoots tend to break easier and have a farther distance between nodes so will produce less of a yield.

Whoops, I must have read read your post wrong the other day when I was asking about my Victoria. I cut all the thin bines off in favour of the thicker darker bines I just cut back some more new shoots last night. The thing is going crazy.

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

Whoops, I must have read read your post wrong the other day when I was asking about my Victoria. I cut all the thin bines off in favour of the thicker darker bines I just cut back some more new shoots last night. The thing is going crazy.

You want the healthier, thicker bines, but not the bull shoots. From the photo, it looks like a bull shoot as the node distance appears to be much larger than the others. You'll be fine, the other 2 bines appear to be normal. If you have a third like that, train it and cut the bull shoot. If not, no big stress.

 

[Benn]

Cheers BB, I'll post a Pic tonight.
..I promised myself that this season I wouldn't obsess over my hops like I did last season. Just water them, feed them and let them do their thing.
That went out the window weeks ago, I can't fucken help myself!

 

[Matplat]

The first growth longer and faster growing shoots on second year plants and older are bull shoots. They should be cut back as they are fast growers which have a more hollow center and a longer distance between nodes. They will still produce hop cones, but have a tendency to break easier and produce less cones due to the longer node distance. Train the second growth and cut the thinner bines as they come out. You are wanting to force any growth into the ones you train up.

On first year rhizomes, let most of the bines grow to assist in root development.

So am I to understand, you spend most of the season cutting back new growth at the base, to promote growth in the 3-4 bines that are growing in height?

Last year it really seemed like it never stopped trying to grow new bines... but perhaps that was because I wasn't ruthless enough in cutting them back?

I will cut off that bull shoot this afternoon.

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

So am I to understand, you spend most of the season cutting back new growth at the base, to promote growth in the 3-4 bines that are growing in height?

Last year it really seemed like it never stopped trying to grow new bines... but perhaps that was because I wasn't ruthless enough in cutting them back?

I will cut off that bull shoot this afternoon.

Last year was my first year so I let everything grow to help establish root development. The plan this year is to cut everything back except what goes up the strings. I'll just do that as part of my weeding management over the growing season. I've gone 3 bines per string, 2 strings per plant, and left a spare in case one gets damaged. I spent 10 hours this week cutting back 120 plants. My plants are in mounds though, not in pots.

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

Cheers BB, I'll post a Pic tonight.
..I promised myself that this season I wouldn't obsess over my hops like I did last season. Just water them, feed them and let them do their thing.
That went out the window weeks ago, I can't fucken help myself!

Good luck not obsessing. LOL

 

[Rocker1986]

Mine's going along reasonably well. The Fuggle plant has a number of laterals on it now, and the Hallertau "second coming" shoots are coming up quite quickly as well. Not sure what's going on with the Cascade but being a first year rhizome I'm just pretty much letting it do whatever it likes. It has a lot of lateral shoots poking out of it, plus 2 or 3 new shoots coming out of the ground (which can't be seen in the pic)

Not the greatest of pics but here goes; Fuggle first, Cascade second, Hallertau third

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I promised myself that this season I wouldn't obsess over my hops like I did last season. Just water them, feed them and let them do their thing.
That went out the window weeks ago, I can't fucken help myself!

Let them go feral but attend to them when you can or they go a bitty crazy ha.
Gotta post some pics but the variables are freaky in my garden at the moment.
First to pop up 8 weeks ago were 1st year Red Earth that has been dormant ever since. In total contrast is the last to pop up was a second year Chinook. A very late start to break out of bed only 3 weeks ago. It has gone berserk as the most growth in like a few weeks. 7mm thick multiple climbers with multiple laterals. It is totally freaky.

 

[Benn]

The Victoria Rhizomes I got of you are flying along for 1st Years, Combined with Belgrave Brewers Vic from last year they are slowly forming a "neighbors be gone" screen across the back yard.
Red Earth; 2017 season is still in it's infancy but, I wouldn't mind a snippet for next years crop if you end up harvesting Zhomes.

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

Let them go feral but attend to them when you can or they go a bitty crazy ha.
Gotta post some pics but the variables are freaky in my garden at the moment.
First to pop up 8 weeks ago were 1st year Red Earth that has been dormant ever since. In total contrast is the last to pop up was a second year Chinook. A very late start to break out of bed only 3 weeks ago. It has gone berserk as the most growth in like a few weeks. 7mm thick multiple climbers with multiple laterals. It is totally freaky.

Yeah, that's Chinook. So different from other varieties. Late to the party and then 1st to hit the top wire.

 

[tugger]

What do u guys recommend I spray with.
I have small green caterpillars eating my leaves.