100% Survival rate and waking them up

[GilaMinumBeer]

First off, it appears that patience has had it's vitrtues in my case. While doing my daily inspection of the hop yard for pests and general yard management I noticed that both of my slow to start rhisomes are appearing to arrive.

It may be too soon to say for sure but it looks like my Cascade and my Sterling are finally, after what 2 months in the ground, deciding to sprout. A couple more days will confirm that I do in fact have hop sprouts and not some sort of agricultural fake.

There is the announcement, wOOt!

And here is the question, a 2 part.

- I have 3 of 13 plants that have vigorous growth and air temps have been steady in the 80's now for a couple weeks (between rains). 2 are approx. 7-8 foot tall (sorry, no pics yet) and the last is about 4 foot. The rest are barely pushing 1 foot or less.

Would the addition of a high N fertilizer help to wake the stragglers up and encourage growth?

- It appears our neighborhood rabbits have found my hop yard. In the last day or two I have found their signature holes in my hop yard. They have yet to dig up any rhisomes but I fear it's only a matter of time.

Are Rabbits fond of Hop Rhisomes for food? And what has been used successfully to control them?

 

[Aleforge]

http://icwdm.org/handbook/mammals/CottontailRabbits.asp

PDF version : http://icwdm.org/handbook/mammals/mam_d75.pdf

I would just fence it! But its got to be buried or up against a solid surface so they can't just dig under it. My garden is a raised bed, so the fence goes right up against it and staple nailed in place.

 

[cuinrearview]

A co-worker who used to grow another plant that rabbits love told me he circled his babies with Sevin dust. Supposedly they hate it, and the guy used the harvest to supplement his income if you know what I mean. It's cheap and worth a try. As far as fertilizing it's always a good idea, but be careful not to burn them out with too much. The slow growers are busy establishing roots.

 

[rcb]

There are several things some people say chicken wire over the area or when planting dig a big hole and put a primaray fermenter with the bottom cut out and then fill with dirt with the rhizome in the middle. I taking a page from the movie "The Rookie" used human hair after i got a haircut. Which seems to work wonders since i have groundhogs living about 15ft. away from my hop garden and they love to dig up my plants. They still haven't touched my hops. Woo Hoo!!!!!

 

[ChrisS68]

This thread gave me more hope for my rhizomes that had yet to sprout. Glad to say that, as of last night, the second Crystal has broken ground. All that's left is one Saaz.