I’ve noticed that the leaves on my hop plants are starting to wilt and I was hoping someone could give me advice. They were planted about two months ago, in mid-late April. Each pot has about 2 cubic feet of miracle gro potting soil. I live in Northern Virginia, the temp hasn’t gotten above the low 90s, they’re in the sun early in the day until about 1pm. It’s been raining a bit lately, so I haven’t needed to water them. I’ve noticed a bug or two on them, little fly looking things, but not all the time and never a huge amount. Pics are below:
you might also have some deficiencies going on. the pale green between the veins is, IIRC sign of a nitrogen deficiency. Try some fish emulsion used in the next watering and also as a spray on the leaves.
I’d agree with the nutrient deficiency, except that you said you used miracle gro potting soil. That usually has fertilizer added into the mix.
It looks like you may have planted in a plastic bucket. Do you have enough drainage holes in the bottom so that the roots aren’t sitting in water? Most roots need air and won’t do well if constantly submerged.
There are drainage holes in the bottom, but it seems that the “plate” (ignorance of a better term) that the pot is sitting on normally has water on it. Maybe I should drill a few more holes? We’ve had a few days of absolute down pouring here.
this would be my second guess… given your response, maybe my first now. take it off the plate and let it drain. Hops like lots of water but they don’t like having wet feet.
Too much water was my first thought. You may have more than one issue going on though too.
As Mort said, get rid of the drain plate and I would start giving the plant some regular light doses of nitrogen. Probably half the recommended dose on the box about half as often as the manufacturer recommends. That way if the plant gets better but not dramatically, you have room to increase the fertilizer. Once you burn off a plant with nitrogen you really have no place go back to.
I took the drain plate off, drilled a few more holes along the base of the pot and…wow, there was a lot of water in there. I’ll let them drain and then hit them with a little nitrogen. Being incredibly new at attempting to grow living things, I thought the drain plate helped it drain more. Whoops.
this may be something of an exaggeration. Hops do have extensive root systems but I don’t think they grow 20 feet+ deep. very very few plants have root systems that deep.
As you discovered hops will not tolerate being constantly saturated:)
Elevate the pot and do not use the dish on the bottom any more. It looks like the pots are large enough but the ground and all day sun are preferable.
Allow the plants to come rely dry out before doing any fertilizing or additional watering. The roots need to breath a bit for air exchange.
If there is no gravel at the bottom of the pot inside that should be something to consider in the future if you continue to use pots. At least 2-4" of pea gravel to facilitate good drainage. This is actually a good practice for any potted plants.
The first few fertilizings should be done at half rate until the plants begin to show a healthier color and new growth shoots and they should recover nicely although they may look worse before they begin looking better.
I’d let the plant recover a bit before feeding it. Once it has a chance to breathe again, it may take a week or two before it begins to look somewhat normal and resumes active growth.
And as was suggested earlier, you’ll never experience the enjoyment of what these plants can do if you keep them confined to a container. Sure they’ll grow and look awesome in big pots, but had they been in the ground they’d look awesome x 2. The roots can become massive especially if they’re growing in an region with deep, well drained soils. A few years ago I had to excavate a crown that was 10 or so years old. At about 3.5 feet down, one of the biggest roots was about as thick around as my wrist and growing through some very heavy clay hardpan(ish) soil. The majority didn’t bother to grow through it and decided to take the path of least resistance and grow horizontally.
If you can’t grow in the ground just realize they’ll most likely never hit their potential. Hop On!
Oops, sorry duboman, must have hit the button right after you did. Great minds think alike, ha!
Yeah, I knew about the roots not liking to stay wet but I naively thought the pot was draining well.
Unfortunately, I can’t put them in the ground right now nor do I have a spot where they can get sun all day. I realize this will limit their yield, but it’s either this or not grow them at all.
Thanks for tall the advice, looks like I found out where I went wrong.
I had a similar problem last year. The Miracle Grow potting soil only lasted about 2 months. After that I started adding Miracle Grow every 3 weeks or so. This year I have bought some of the timed released miracle grow so hopefully I won’t have to deal with it as often.
Boys, your advice was spot on. I allowed the pots to drain, things got worse before they got better, and once they started improving I added a little fertilizer. Thanks again for the help.
