Homegrown Hops Stunted And Gone Yellow. Help!

[phoenixdigital]

I have recently (about 2 months ago) purchased some hop rhizomes from two different people on ebay and planted them.

Location is Brisbane averaging about 20deg during the day.

Due to hot Brisbane summers I have planted them in a location where they will get sun for half the day.

Now however the leaves are going yellow on two of them. Saaz and POR planted in same bed and have not been moved since planting.

The other 3 are cascade and are above ground but haven't really done much since. Note I did move them after they had poked their leaves up. But that was over a month ago.

My parents said yellow leaves were due to iron deficiency. So I got some iron sulfate from the hardware store and put some on... nothing... then put a fair bit on.. still no joy..

All hops have been receiving enough water and soil is moist 4-5 days of the week.

Any ideas why they have stopped growing?
More importantly whats with the yellow leaves?

See pictures

POR (The worst looking one)


Saaz (Bit of yellowing)


Cascade (Stunted)

 

[edschache]

Your folks are about the Iron I think. Yellow leaves with green veins. If you've already applied Iron maybe check the soil PH and give them a decent dose of powerfeed or sheep manure?

 

[Nick JD]

Check out Chlorosis. And its causes. Poor plant's having a hard time making chlorophyll because it doesn't have the required ingredients, or those ingredients are there but not available to it because the pH is wonky.

Bung on N:K (heavy on the N) of some type - chemical or organic - the root membrane isn't a hippy. Get something with trace elements in there too and that'll fix any magnesium, iron, manganese issues at the same time.

If the iron hasn't fixed it then it's one of the many causes of chlorosis - check the pH and nail it with a complete fertilizer.

 

[Greg.L]

Could be due to overwatering. It doesn't matter if they don't grow much in their first year, the root system is more important at this stage. A decent slow-release fertiliser should be all that is needed.

 

[felten]

^ They can be very sensitive to overwatering when young.

Did you do much to the soil before planting? Hops are gross feeders, the recommendation I got from a few sources was to dump an entire bag of mature sheep/cow/whatever manure in the hole before planting your hop out.

 

[Feldon]

Check the pH first. Without the correct pH the plants can't extract and use the nutrients in the soil. Sort of like starving in a sea of abundance.

If you chuck on fertiliser that the plant can't use because the pH is out of whack, other organisms in the soil (bacteria, fungi etc) will use it and multiply, and may cause your hops to rot from below.

 

[phoenixdigital]

Ok thanks for the responses everyone.

I tested the PH with one of these
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3-in1-Plant-Flo...=item23104f83a4

and I seem to be at about 4.5... Is that too acidic?

The garden bed the hops have been planted in is about 1-2 months old and has fresh garden soil from a gardening place. Moving 3 cubic meters of soil is not as easy as you think.

So what would I do to neutralise the PH?
Will adding fertiliser as many here have suggested bring it up to 7 pH?

 

[Nick JD]

and I seem to be at about 4.5... Is that too acidic?

Whoa! There's you problem.

There's 2 ways things get through the root and into the plant. Depends on whether they are positive, or negative - but that aside, some things can't get in there through the root when there's way too many H+ (acid) or way too many OH- (alkaline).

I'd say that your poor little hops just can't suck any magnesium in through their roots because the pH is too low. Without magnesium, they can't make green. Actually, at 4.5 they can't really even get hold of nitrogen, but then you'd have yellowing without the green veins.

You need to bung on a shit load of alkalinity ... lime flavour the feckers. Get it up to somewhere in the 6s.

 

[Feldon]

Lime will do it. The amount is critical. Too much and you will stuff the soil. if I were you I'd re-pot the hops or replant them somewhere with good soil while you fix up the hop bed. Lime near the plants could burn them.
That load of soil was pretty poor stuff.

 

[hoppy2B]

Your soil is fairly acidic. Adding fertilizer won't help. Chuck on some lime if you want to bring the ph up. You might actually be ok as is though.
It's early days as far as growth is concerned. A lot of people around the country have hops that look like yours. Give it a few more weeks and things should start to improve.
If you didn't use manure when you put them in you can still top dress with something like chook or dynamic lifter. Put it under your mulch.
Try and train your hops up into the sun.

 

[Hippy]

If pH is the issue try dolerite lime good shit, doesn't burn

 

[Nick JD]

Your pH was probably only a little bit low. It's quite likely when you nailed it with iron sulphate that you made it acid.

I reckon your first issue was a trace element lack (like magnesium or manganese), but then adding all that iron sulphate made it worse by lowering the pH until it just couldn't suck anything up.

Whenever you have water and things wanting nutrients from that water ... pH is really important.

Like how tannins don't get into your wort from the grain husks when the pH is acid. Those protons are POWERFUL. You can use the acidity or alkalinity of a solution to keep things in, or drive them out.

 

[hoppy2B]

Microbes and soil fungi in particular can help make nutrients available to your plants. Adding organic matter like manure can stimulate your soil life and make it work for you. :lol:

 

[Brewers Choice]

If you want some good tips on growing hops in Queensland, grab a ticket to the Queensland Homebrewing conference next Saturday. there will be a guest speaker talking on growing hops in Queensland and you should pick up a heap of ideas from him

Tickets available at www.theqhc.com.au

 

[drsmurto]

A $4 pH meter :huh:

You have a more accurate reading using your finger to measure pH.

I highly doubt your soil pH is 4.5. That's super low.

Add some seaweed solution, wait a week than add a high nitrogen based fertiliser.

Looks to me to be lack of nutrients rather than an imblance of a particular metal ion.

 

[mmmyummybeer]

Did you grow any other plants in that area before you put the hops in? Sounds like a lot of plants would have trouble growing in that soil pH. I'm sure garden places would be happy to help you fix the soil no matter what the plant is, because if that's the case it would greatly affect most the plants in your garden. Is the soil pH only that low in that area or are other area's the same if not you might be better of putting them somewhere else if you can. Another tip I found useful when I planted my rhizomes is to dig the hole and fill it full of a good fertilizer and potting mix to give the hops a great start.

 

[phoenixdigital]

A $4 pH meter :huh:

Yeah I posted what I was using as I suspected it could be measurement tool which was crap :lol: I do have some ph strips I use to test my starsan so maybe I should mix up some soil in some neutral water and test it with that???

I did test the soil at the front yard though and it was about 6 so it seems it works. Note the 6 soil what where the hops were originally planted while I built the garden bed out the back. They seemed happy in that soil. Also there are a lot of worms in the soil that claims to be 4.5 so not sure if they can tolerate soil of that PH.

As for the other questions asked yes I have planted a heap of other herbs from seedlings in the garden and they seem to sprouting so maybe its not the PH <_<

The hops that is stunted when it was transplanted I mixed in a large amount of blood and bone with that soil prior to re-planting.

Anyway I bought some dolomite today and sprinkled it over the whole garden bed. I dug around the hops and worked it into the soil. Will keep and eye on it and hopefully the whole garden bed doesn't die

 

[Lillywhite]

I'm at Peak Crossing, South West of Brisvegas, my hops have been in for 3 years. This year thus far isn't looking as good, my hops stuck their heads out of the soil about a month or so ago and have only grown an inch or 2 at most, I do have a little yellowing on some leaves, majority are good. I did chuck on a heap of chook poo and blood and bone at the start of Spring but it could just be a slow start to the season for South East QLD, anyone else in the region having a slow start?

 

[Tony]

Chilli plants do this too.

Its a deficiency of some sort........ or could be moisture related...... or could be soil pH related.

I had problems growing vegies nad herbs in my garden..... stunted plants. cheap soil pH kit showed me my soil pH was up around 9.5.......... OUCH

Added a heap of sulphur and BOOM....... plant and crop explosion!

here is a bit of reading:

http://www.growinghopsyourself.com/growing...hops-beer-hops/

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/fg/fg79-e.pdf

 

[hoppy2B]

I was looking at a few US university studies undertaken on hop farming. I happened to notice that hops do pretty much all there growing and flowering in something like a 3 month period.
If the average harvest time in good hop growing areas is presumed to be early March, then December, January and February would be the time to expect maximum growth.
I think it's just too early in the season to worry about hops not growing. :unsure: