Zeus planted around March 3rd (maybe 5th):
Cascade planted April 9th:
I have to spray them with insecticidal soap at least once per week. The leaves on the bottom 5 feet of the zeus bine look horrible. Not sure if it was critters or what, but it seems to be doing fine now.
What is a good fertilizer/plant food to use for hops?
compost. twice a year, in spring and late summer before infloresence side dress with about 3-6 inches of good compost about 3 inches away from the bines themselves and then water well. depending on your climate you could probably also plant a green manure cover crop (like clover or alfalfa) in the fall and let it grow before chopping and dropping as mulch.
mine just grow. i do pretty much nothing for them 
you’ve got that good midwestern top soil
Something is just loving my Cascade and Willamette shoots, they look like hell. The Mt. Hood and Columbus are taking off just fine.
No miracle grow?
I remember a talk at the NHC in MN in which Gorst Valley Hops recommended lots of nitrogen, but I can’t find the link to it right now.
Since I planted mine in pots I used Miracle Grow potting mix that is timed release. Not sure its the correct amount but they are doing OK. I figured that would get me until August before I have to start adding something.
Nitrogen is the element they want during the vegetative growth stage. A balanced N-P-K fertilizer will suffice. There are many strategies to “fertilize”.
Just complete my hop farm for the year
http://www.ahaconference.org/past-presentations/2010-presentations/
Open the one by James Altweis. That was an excellent presentation.
Too bad they are not putting more newsletters up. There is some more infromation on fertilzer there if you look those over. I do not have that good Midwestern topsoil.
http://www.gorstvalleyhops.com/newsletter.php
Ok so I did a little investigating of my hops that weren’t growing. I pulled one out from the ground and found no signs of growth so I looked at the other two and same thing.
I got 3 bad rhizomes out of six one was a hallertau and the other two are cascade. I am a little disappointed. Would it be too late to try to plant some more?
I had the same issue with cascade and ordered 2 more last month. Now 1 is growing and the other isn’t. Seems like a crap-shoot.
I picked up a big bag of old coffee grounds from Starbucks today. Any idea how much to put on top of the soil?
Would it be too late to plant another rhizome if there is any left to buy lol
I would say yes, its to late.
I think you could plant one now. You’re really only trying to establish a root system the first year.
+1
