Are yellowing leaves a symptom of over-watering? We’ve had an ark-load of rain in the last few weeks and the bottom leaves on my zeus hops are yellow now.
could be. yellowing leaves could be a lot of things. not much you can really do though. keep an eye out for mildew, hope it stops raining. I suppose you could put tarps on the ground to try to redirect the water down hill from the hops but I suspect you would risk more mold/mildew problems if you did that. how are the tops looking? they probably don’t need those lower leaves anyway.
It also could be a deficiency of nitrogen
http://www.freshops.com/hop-growing/hop-diseases-and-pests
But if it’s like it has been around here the past week ( rain ), it’s probably overwatering.
I always remove the leaves on the bottom foot of the bines to allow for air circulation anyways.
It’s also a typical pattern as the plant matures, most of the energy and nutrients are being pushed out to the tips where vegetative growth is active and flowers are beginning to develop. If it’s more systemic yellowing I would worry about a nitrogen/fertilizer deficiency.
I’ll take a picture when I get home. The leaves on my balcony look ok, but everything below that is yellowed.
Here’s the yellowing
Here’s the hops. The little hairlike strands are browning (which I think is normal?)
So do I need to add something like nitrogen? Or is this normal?
-Sent from the future.
Those look okay, they would probably benefit from some compost or similar slow fertilization. the browning on the cones I do not know. It could be normal but I do not have enough experience with hops to know.
Is it in a pot at the ground or directly in the dirt? if in a pot it probably does need some fertilizer as they are pretty heavy feeders.
It’s a pot and I used prefertilized potting soil from miracle grow. I think it was supposed to work for 6 months but maybe that’s marketing talk for 3 months.
-Sent from the future.
yeah, it’s probably figured for a much smaller, less hungry plant though. Try some fish emulsion and compost on top.
Yep, looks to me like they just need some nitrogen-rich fertilizer. Like was already mentioned, liquid fish and compost.
+1
Try some Miracle Grow, I think this will give them a boost. Compost will help in the longer term.
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OK, got some miracle grow today and used some. Instructions say to use every 7 days. Still raining here, getting pretty sick of it.
I thought it was “…my hopes are drowning” :o
While I have grown many things in containers it is substantially more difficult. They need a lot more watering but it’s also a fine line between enough and overwatering. And, the prefertilized soil mixes usually aren’t sufficient for heavy feeders and might not suit certain type plants like hops anyway.
I’m not sure hops are suited for containers as their root systems are most likely extensive. They would become root-bound in a pot quickly and this can result in yellowing of the leaves. If this is the case they are starving and need more room to throw the roots out. Adding more fertilizer will have a limited effect and may lock-out or burn your plant.
I suggest transplanting into the ground.
Perhaps my hopEs are drowning! ;D
I don’t have the option to transplant them. If they grow, fine, if not then I’ll use the pots for something that will. I knew it was a crap shoot when I started since I’m in Florida.
Your lucky to get hops to grow in Florida! They prefer cooler regions around the 45th pararell.
I think with all the rain, the rain has washed out all the nutrients and like everybody else has suggested, add some compost/fertilizer. How much sun do they get? The leaves look a little sparse, not as bountiful as a healthy plant.
I will be the first to admit I don’t tend to my hops like I should and I’m not anexpert. Some of my early hops brown on the edges. I couldn’t tell you if its good bad or neither but itdoesnt seem to happen to all of them and I usuallyn get plentyn to harvest. You siad your hops are inpots, do you have enough drainage? They may be drowning since you had a lot of rain and the soil could be saturated. My hops in pots never grew well and I didn’t get any cones in the first year. You really need large pots. Some people have recomended rain barrels or garbage cans.
Well I ended up getting some Miracle Grow to mix with water and that did the trick. They are so healthy that I’m starting to get new growth at the bottom of the bine where it had previously lost all its leaves. And my cascade are finally up to the balcony. I harvested about 10 flowers (?) today and I’m drying them now.
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Thanks all for the tips!