Growing Hops 2021

Can you use it up to harvest, or do you have to stop whene the burrs come out.

found out the hard way once with neem oil and burrs.

 

My experience is with hops' annual cousin, in that case we.use the oil based.products well into the flowering cycle. They are phototoxic so you need.to apply them in the evening or very early morning. They are definitely less intense than neem oil though.

The biologicals also work well as preventatives that can be used very late into flower. Streptomyces lydicus I'd available for use in products like Actinovate and is a very aggressive predator of molds

I would also encourage you to look into the products from Marrone BioInnovations. They make some biologically based fungicides that can be used up to harvest. Their products are all registered pesticides and some require applicators liscenes to purchase but they are all serious workhorses with lots of data supporting their efficacy.

 

yes that looks like iron deficiency

Go for the complete. Imidicloprid is a systemic, long lasting pesticide that kills when ingested and the beta-cy is a strong knockdown, contact killer. It won't be too strong as directed.

Marrone Bio makes terrific products. Great people, great company

 

I have found imidachloprid to be quite effective for dealing with aphids when used as a systemic (applied to the soil). Importantly, when used in this manner one must wait 60 days to harvest. That is, it must be applied at least 60 days before harvest. If used as a foliar spray, one must wait 28 days.

Definitely not an organic approach, however.

The state of Michigan has a good document regarding treatments of hops: https://www.canr.msu.edu/uploads/re...es_registered_for_use_on_hops_in_michigan.pdf

IIRC, Washington and/or Oregon have published a similar document.

Cheers!

 

Excellent information from all. I’ve been growing many crops over 40 years both organic and conventional and sometimes using both approaches during a growing season on the same plants. It’s rare, for me, to find both approaches being discussed with out the conversation turning into fight. Good for everyone. Rock on.

 

So far my Cascades have taken off this year and my Centennial's were a no show. Weird thing is that for the last 3 years, neither of them have ever produced any hop cones. I hope this year is the year that I can have some sort of a harvest.

 

Printing this out to keep in my work truck. Handy document. Thanks!

 

Burrs stared here after all the rain we got. I water every day, but rain has that special something that seems to make a difference.

 

Seeing some burrs on my plants. Japanese beetles are back in force. Decided to put up a trap this year. It is helping a lot. Fill up a bag about every three days. That said, I am still seeing some on my hops, but nowhere near the numbers as previous years.

 

Burrs on all plants, centennial,as usual not the best. They will b trashes this fall and replaced with northern brewer next year

 

I made that call with Nugget this year. It is rough to do, but when they never preform, then it makes sense. I am going to give my Vanguard and Fuggles one more year and potentially do the same thing. Leads me to start pondering what will take their place.

 

Centennial is a good hop but good lord as a plant it's pretty frustrating!

 

i have one centeniall that grows up a barn. no yellow edges on the leaves , which is what the centeniall plants in the hop yard show. nice cones already formed. I will keep that plant.

 

Gorm, I'm a curious fellow. Has your barn centennial performed similarly in the past? Which way does the wall face? Any livestock nearby? Spring(s) in the area?
What's your best guess as to why it does better than in the yard?

 

I'm curious too! Is the barn plant older?

 

Ripper, barn faces south so it gets baked. No livestock on the farm for many years. The area does not dry out to dust so moisture is always there.
Like at the foundry, hops growing up next to a wall always seem to do better than in the hop yard. This year is wet, so no need for watering, yet the barn and foundry hop plants will out produce the hop yard with little or no management.

Merlyn planted barn hop 2 years ago.
Hop yard centenials 5 years old.

Guess they like the heat

 

Sounds reasonable to me, coupled with the fact that it's a wet year (here too). We've had a few rains that showed how well my mini-yard drains, and it's not too bad.
Depending on how storms typically move through your area, the wall might be offering some protection from downpours directly at the base, and.from getting wind-whipped.

Were the barn rhizomes cuttings/transplants from the yard?

 

How many years and what kind of livestock? My family has farm where there haven't been hogs for a good 50 years. But it will never need any Phosphorus.

Don't know about hops, but I could see something along those lines too.

 

Goldings and Cascades have entered the next phase. The burrs are losing their prepubescent whiskers and cones are evident. If disease/pests stay away it should be a decent crop for the micro-yard, relatively speaking.

 

ripper cuttings from the yard, could be the lack of wind but im ready to switch to northern brewer .
Nick the great around 180 years we have had livestock off and on, but VT has rocky soil and last i heard Iowa has 2 feet or more of toilsoil with very few rocks. VT gots lotsa rock and on this farm 1 to 6 inches of topsoil.