Hop harvest - The results some good some not so.

[shuggie159]

I have had two hop plants on the go this year - a three year old cascade and a newly planted chinook.

The not so good news is the cascade has struggled. I noticed a couple of weeks ago the lower leaves were turning brown and crispy, and slowly this 'die-back' has progressed up the plant (12ft), until now the flowers are becoming affected. So regardless of whether it is the right time to pick, I'm picking to recover what I can. Generally the flowers seem smaller and less resinous than usual. So a disappointing year compared to the last few.

It must be about time to harvest here (Surrey S London) the flowers are papery and crispy when squeezed.

Anyway I also planted a small rhysome of Chinook..... Bloody hell! I've had two split the picking into two because there are just so many flowers. Big 50mm plus long full of fragrance. My hair-drier powered 'Oasthouse' has been going flat out. I'm going to do the second picking this weekend.

So the puzzle is why did the new plant do so well where the established plant faltered?

Generally both plants are in a similar aspect with similar soil. Did I get some sort of a mould on the Cascade? There was no apparent powdery stuff on the leaves, just a sort of slow leaf die back starting at the out side ending in the leaf dropping off. I presume the poor flowering of the Cascade was down to reduced nutrient supply as a result of no leaves.

Do hops only last a few years?

I have never used Chinook before.... better start experimenting. I guess they are quite powerful.

The other thing to state. New plants can produce mega harvests in their first year.

Oh! and the other thing... very encouragingly,the bynds? I pruned off the cascade in the spring and just put in beer bottles full of water are all establishing themselves in pots very well (9/12 worked, they have even flowered in a small way) ready for planting out proper next year.

I'll be interested to hear others success/or otherwise with their harvest, comments on hop failure / diagnosis.

[AdrianTrace]

I have no expertise in this area (I'm just re-establishing my First Gold, which suffered from 3 years in small pots whilst moving house), but the symptoms seem to match those of Verticillium Wilt (see http://www.britishhops.org.uk/pest-and-disease/ and https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=255)

RHS Treatment: "taking care not to spread potentially infected soil around, remove the infected plant with as much root system as possible and destroy. Consider grassing over the area for at least fifteen years, or plant a resistant replacement." Fifteen F'ing years!

If it is the Wilt, however, Centennial is resistant

[scuppeteer]

Just picked a bit too late really. English Cascade is a late variety leaving it more susceptible to disease. Your problem certainly sounds like wilt. Similar problems are common with tomatoes. Although I've not really heard of disease issues with Cascade. US cascade are a bigger hop in general but then it has better weather than we are privy to here so you would expect a difference, AA% are always much less in the UK than its American sisters. I've got some of this years crop of Sussex Cascade which look stunning, I can only suggest that your plants may not be in the optimum position for growing.
As has already been mentioned, some varieties grow extremely well in their first year and then falter for a couple of seasons. Don't give up on them as they will more than likely recover next year.

Not sure what you mean by "BYNDS"?

Well looked after plants will continue to produce a good harvest for 20+ years.

[YeastWhisperer]

Cascade and Chinook are two of the easiest hop cultivars to grow here in the United States. It is interesting that Chinook grew well in the UK. That cultivar can handle Maryland's hot and humid summers. I would not expect domestic Cascade to grow well in the UK. Cascade does not wake up in my hop yard until the average daily temperature gets up to around 27C, and it will hang in there when the daytime temperature exceeds 37C. Most British cultivars show signs of experiencing serious heat stress at 37C. The British cultivar that appears to be breaking all of the rules is Wye Yeoman. It handled the 35C+ days this summer without showing signs of being stressed. However, seeing that I obtained my Wye Yeoman plants from the same propagator that sold me Wye Challenger plants that turned out to be Columbus plants, I am expecting to discover that my Wye Yeoman plants are not Wye Yeoman.