Yellow/Brown leaves and sidearms

[jazzyfool]

Encountered something weird today when looking at my Centennial plant. A dozen or so leaves on one of the bines had turned yellow and brown and basically fell off when I touched them. The other bines on the same plant look pretty normal and green (although a bit damaged by insects and overwatering I believe).

Anyone think this is a disease or maybe mites?

Also my plant produced lots of cones (see below) starting in May and now its attempting to put out sidearms but they're turning brown and dying before they can get very far. Any advice?

Thanks!

EDIT: Sorry pictures are all sideways… didn't have a chance to edit before uploading.

 

[HopTonger]

Could need magnesium - my Cascade growth is starting the same and I generally have seen this before - I'm going to try the Epsom salt dissolved in water to spray on the leaves. The other remedy is limestone but Epsom is cheap.


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[jazzyfool]

Gonna bump this one as the problem is spreading even after removing the first leaves. I'm starting to think this isn't insects or a nutrient deficiency and its possible this could be some sort of virus or infection.

Seems too weird that only one bine on a healthy plant has this happening. A local university agricultural researcher recommended I take the bine down - just a bit hesitant since I'll lose half of my early crop and the potential for more later.

Anybody got any ideas!? Please help!

Thanks!

 

[damdaman]

My guess is that it might be water stressed... that bine could be somehow isolated and weaker-rooted, pinched somewhere, possibly underground maybe... maybe even sprouted from a piece of rhizome that broke off from the bigger crown and couldn't compete with the main crown for root space... that is causing it to dehydrate faster than the rest of the plant.

Even the angle of the healthy-looking large leaves look dehydrated to me, a little limp. Surface spraying with water for a large plant like this after a long period of no rain can give the appearance you're providing adequate water when in reality, a couple inches below the surface (where most of the root mass is), the soil is bone dry.

If you don't have soaker hoses/some sort of drip system, you can put your hose at the base of the plant and put it on a trickle and leave it for hours, possibly all day/night. The trickle of constant water will slowly seep into the subsoil and rehydrate where most of the root mass is. Or take your bottling bucket and fill it, put it next to the plant, and open the spigot just enough for a few drops to come out at a time. Refill several times for each plant until you've saturated the subsoil.

You can also buy a soil moisture meter for less than $20 that sticks 8" into the ground and reads the moisture level. This was eye-opening for me when I got one and realized how dry the subsoil was despite my watering the surface 2" regularly.

EDIT: I just saw you're concerned you over-watered, not under-watered. It's possible that's causing your symptoms but I'd be curious to hear why you think it's over-watered. You might just want to get the moisture meter to make sure, sounds like water is the issue whether it's over or under watered.

This is the one I have. It reads a number between 0.0 and 10, which represents a % of soil saturation. Anything below 70% (7.0 reading) saturation would be water-stressed, below 50% would be dehydrated.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AEBIHDC/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[day_trippr]

The bine is clearly going to Heaven and should be removed. Dig around the base and see if you see any bug damage from like a stem borer for future considerations...

Cheers!

 

[jazzyfool]

Ok - as far as the water considerations go. I was watering fairly regularly (3-4 times a week) and the leaves starting to curl downwards on me. I took that to mean I was possibly overwatering. Under the 6 inches or so of soil in the bed is quite a lot of clay soil and I thought this might be hampering drainage and causing the roots to just sit in water.

It has also rained quite a bit here in central NC lately so I had been refraining from watering too much. However the temperature has started to creep into the mid and upper 90s so I should probably get back to a more frequent watering schedule. I'll look into getting a moisture meter to check about the hydration.

I discovered a huge spider mite infestation on another bine as well as some wooly aphids (white powdery/cottony guys) so they aren't helping matters either.

I started to dig around the root base of the plant yesterday and discovered a nest of fire ants. I somehow managed to avoid a bite but I plan on dosing the nest today with Diatomaceous Earth. I'm not sure that fire ants would cause any damage to root base but I want them gone regardless. Once its clear I'll do a bit more digging and check on the status of the root system especially for the dying bine. From what I saw yesterday the roots seemed ok but I didn't have much of a chance to really investigate.

Thanks for everyone's help! I'm going to do all I can to save the bine and cut it down as a last resort.

 

[wild-flower]

http://www.growinghopsyourself.com/third-year-hops/hops-boron-deficiency/

This sounds like what you are encountering.