Hop growing - few issues after 2-3 months

[grze]

Hi,

OK, so first of all, it's probably all my fault, because of not enough research, but anyway...I planted one rhizome about 3 months ago using some regular soil from Home Depot, nothing fancy, not the cheapest one neither.

First question: should I have planted more rhizomes?

Second thing I may have done incorrectly - I buried them quite deep, I would say 3-3.5in.

Second question: should I move the rhizome higher or just don't touch it at this point?

It started growing pretty nicely. I have it on my (California) patio, so there's plenty of burning sun. At the beginning it was in the sun all the time and it didn't look like it's to dry and hot, there were even some mushrooms (bad sign?) that were growing for like a day or two. After a month or two the leafs started drying out and became yellow. I moved the pot to shade and begun watering even more.

Third question: Should it be in the shade? I read that they should have as much sun as possible, but on the other hand it looks like they would just dry out completely.

So right now, in the shade it looks a little better and there is a stem growing from the other side of the rhizome (you can see it behind the main one)

Here's the picture of how they look right now:

Any suggestions are welcome, what should I do with the sun, how much should I water? In the mornings or in the evenings? Should I use some fertilizer?

Thanks!

 

[damdaman]

My guess is it's doing better in the shade with more water because it was not receiving enough water in the full sun. Plants in pots can be tricky to water because the soil will not necessarily absorb the water you're giving it.

Definitely don't mess with the rhizome now. Mushrooms aren't a bad sign either, it's a good sign... meant at least at that point there was enough water in the soil and it had healthy fungal/microbial life.

But honestly you're probably past the point in 2014 to grow this plant. The main goal of first-year hops is to establish a large root system so that in the 2nd year, the plant can grow fast and strong. If it's almost september and you haven't established that root system it's probably too late.

But I think lack of water probably caused your problem.

 

[grze]

Ouch. I read somewhere that I should water like a cup per day or two days. I still watered a little more, but I guess that was not enough. Thanks for the input!
I still want to know for the future how deep they should be planted and how much water (in our climate - sun and 95-100F) should they be getting.

 

[damdaman]

3" is probably a good planting depth. As for water, you want to maintain 70%+ water saturation in the soil during the growing season. Until you get a feel for how much this is (it will vary greatly based on environmental conditions and the amount of leaf on your plant), you can get a cheap moisture meter for like $20 that will tell you the saturation of the soil. Test every other day and water accordingly.