I have been using my fingers to keep tabs on the soil moisture and used blood and bone at the beginning of the season. I am wondering if i need to add more nutrients or change the amount of water. Also been using neem oil to slow little critter damage. Any ideas on the cause? Here’s my setup the cenntinel is in the left barrel.
It doesn’t look like a fungal disease to me. My guess, especially since they are in containers, is that it is a nutrient deficiency. I would give them a balanced organic fertilizer regularly and make sure they are well watered. Also make sure there is as much soil as possible and that they are not mulched with wood chips or other non-composted organic materials.
Check around for spider mites. When they start attacking plants the first sign is yellow stippling on the leaves. It looks like a deficiency or disease at first.
We have had 10 to 15 degree temperature swings here in Raleigh NC every 3 or 4 days over the past month. Is epsom salt the best way to add a little magnesium? I searched this evening and couldn’t find any spider mite webs. Thank you for the advice.
When I had yellow leaves I dissolved Epsom salt in water. Forget the ratio, a couple of tsp in 5 gallons sprinkled on about 5 plant. It seemed to help, but could have been due to another variable.
The reason why I asked is because I have been experiencing slow growth and the same kind yellowing. The day and nighttime temperatures here have been swinging wildly enough the I am positive that my hop hills cannot decide if it is spring, summer, fall, or winter. I believe that Lynn Kemme mentioned something about hops turning yellow when the temperature goes from being unseasonably hot for a few days followed by unseasonably cold for a few days in a cyclic pattern, which is what we have experienced over the last month.
With that said, I tried NPK and mineral additions with no joy. The only thing that has helped has been the warm weather for the last few days. I believe that the problem may be soil temperature related.
Mark, I’ve been seeing daily temp swings of about ±15º as well, and so far don’t have any yellow leaves…plus my hops are in planters, I’d imagine they’re more sensitive to temperature changes than ones in the ground.
Phil, I believe that you mentioned that you live in far Southern Maryland. If so, we are in different hardiness zones. The weather has been crazy. Instead of the slow and steady rise in ground temperature that we see in April and May, we have had sustained periods where the low temperature at the night was just above freezing followed by short periods of hot and hazy weather during the last 30 days or so. I knocked my mature plants back around the time that this crazy weather pattern hit.
It’s hard getting a good idea of the amount of yellowing from the pictures but the individual leaf shown may just be a fluke as the discoloration appears somewhat random. Your fertility looks to be good as the dark green grass at the base of the pots suggests a little N leaching (possibly).
We’ve had spells of about a week here and there where the daytime temps would reach 70-75F and nights down as low as 30F. This brought growth to a standstill and did cause some of the new growth near the tips to discolor somewhat but the recent increase in temps have things back on track. Every year brings new issues!
Yeah, we went from highs in the mid 80’s followed by a night in the low 50’s. Really weird spring so far, seems we’re running about a month behind down here.
I doubt that the plants are in any way confused about the season. Temperate zones have very predictable day lengthening in Spring no matter what the temperatures do. My plants in Vermont see huge swings in temps (frost to high 80’s) and don’t exhibit these symptoms. I don’t know what the cause is, however. Because I’m not a commercial grower, I tend not to stress too much about pests and diseases on my plants.
Actually, my soil is considered to be prime farmland by the USGS. It was an active dairy farm up to early seventies. Dairy farming is a tough business.
I only added tiny amounts of micro-nutrients as a mix, and I switched to an organic source of NPK. I had a heck of time with Japanese beetles last year, and I read somewhere that Japanese beetles attack the weakest plants first. I do not know if this claim is true, but I figured that adding small amounts of everything wouldn’t hurt. From what I experienced, it appears that Japanese beetles attack the least bitter cultivars first.
That’s exactly what I experienced. First, the plants appeared to shut down, and then the newest growth turned yellow. The established cultivar that took the hardest hit was Cascade, which is strange because I consider Cascade to be cockroach of the hop world. One of my Cascade hills looked like it had bitten the dust, but it has been sending up new healthy shoots now that the unseasonably low night-time cold fronts have passed. The hop with no name and Spalt Select slowed to a crawl. I replaced Santium, Horizon, and Fuggle with Early Cluster, Southern Cross, and Wye Yeoman field-grade plants last fall. The new cultivars were really struggling with the weather.
Another complicating factor has been the lack of rain. I was late installing my revised drip system. I usually do not have to supplement rainfall until mid-June. We were in drought by April this year.
The problem not only affected my hops. All of the crops that are grown in my area appear to be much smaller than they should be by this point in time.
I believe my yellow leaves were due to much water. I stopped watering this week and let the soil dry out and the cenntinel is much happier. So of course these guys decided to join the party.
