Brown leaves - problem?

I've got a 2nd year Northern Brewer plant in a large container. Last year the leaves started turning brown on the edges and eventually started falling off mid-season. This pic is about 5-6 weeks since they sprouted this year and I'm already seeing them start to get a few brown edges/spots. When they first broke ground I gave them Miracle Gro Quick Start fertilizer (properly diluted), it appears to have a little bit of everything as far as nutrients go. I'm also growing in Southern California, and while it hasn't gotten HOT yet it did last year and I had to water every other day.

Any ideas on the brown leaves? Too hot? Too much direct sun? Not enough fertilizer? Too much fertilizer?

hmm.. pic isn't showing up. Thought I had enough posts to allow that. Here's a direct link to the image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39685365@N05/8690641524/in/photostream

I thought the newbie initiation rites were done after 10 posts.

In any case, it's not you, because I can't get your image to appear either. Perhaps there's some switch you need to set in Flickr to allow hot-linking of images?

Cheers!

Could be downy Mildew...

https://www.google.com/search?q=Dow...xkYFI&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=1019

Your spotted leaves look eerily similar to some of those.

hmm... maybe, thanks for the pics Fuzze. Most of the brown is actually on the edge, like the leaves are dying from the edge in. Not really spots all over, and I think that's how it was last season too. Browning mostly from the edges in. Since they're in containers and I've read that containers generally need more fertilizer then in the ground I'm going to up the fertilizer frequency and see if it helps.

Not too experienced and no idea from your picture, but you can check out this Hop growing field guide

Brown edges on hop leaves can be caused by a potassium deficiency.