yellow spots on my Mt. Hood leaves

[OswaldvW]

I have been reading various threads and info on hops issues. I can't find a photo online that looks exactly like mine, so I am posting here.

My Mt. Hood bines are now 3 years old. They are doing very well, considering. The older, lower leaves, however, have yellow spots, and some of the leaves show signs of browning on the edges.

Any tips? Not enough water? Not enough nitrogen? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[brewcat]

Calcium deficiency?

How are you watering? Have the leaves been staying dry? You can always cut lower leaves to help with airflow.

 

[OswaldvW]

If it is a calcium deficiency, that problem won't be solved until the fall when I can treat the soil.

I am going to increase my watering to daily as opposed to leisurely to see if that will help.

All my other hops look great (Columbus, Cascade, Nugget) except for the Mt Hood, and all of my hops receive regular water on a timer, just not the Mt. Hood since the Mt. Hood are on the far side of the house, away from my automatic watering system.

 

[PapaBearJay]

If it is a calcium deficiency, that problem won't be solved until the fall when I can treat the soil.

I am going to increase my watering to daily as opposed to leisurely to see if that will help.

All my other hops look great (Columbus, Cascade, Nugget) except for the Mt Hood, and all of my hops receive regular water on a timer, just not the Mt. Hood since the Mt. Hood are on the far side of the house, away from my automatic watering system.

Those are symptoms associated with Hop mosaic virus and Hop stunt viroid. There is no cure, and in the overall scheme it won't impact your production so much that you notice it on the scale of a hobbyist grower.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

Have you looked for signs of spider mites or aphids?
To check for spider mites, take a plain piece of printer paper or a paper plant and hold it under a leaf, gently tap on the top of the leaf and see if you have anything on the paper or plate that resembles pepper, aphids are easier yet to identify, you'll be able to see them right away on the bottom of the leaves, they can come in a few different colors, brown/black & green are the most popular colors.
Both of these pests can and will suck the life out of your plants, both can be eradicated with neem oil.
The more dense the foliage, the easier it is for these pests to spread.

PapaBearJay beat me to it, but, after doing a little bit of research online, I came across a Viroid disease, Hop latent viroid (HpLVd) and Hop stunt viroid (HpSVd) click here to check it out, the following image taken from the the plant disease handbook looks almost identical to your image.

Only produces known symptoms on a few varieties, such as 'Omega'. It is not known to cause yield loss in varieties grown in the Pacific Northwest. HpSVd was recently confirmed in Pacific Northwest on several varieties, including 'Glacier', 'Mt. Hood', 'Nugget', 'Sterling' and 'Willamette'.

I'd check the bottom of the leaves for spider mites and aphids, if not, it may be this virus.

I hope that this helps

 

[OswaldvW]

Thanks for the replies! So, my Mt Hood has a hop viroid. The question now is what is the life span of the hop plant?

 

[brewcat]

Thanks for the replies! So, my Mt Hood has a hop viroid. The question now is what is the life span of the hop plant?

Is its growth actually stunted? I have one I'm going to be removing because of stunted growth. It is maybe 3-4 foot with short internodes.

Here is some reading info:

http://www.usahops.org/graphics/File/Hop%20Clean%20Plant%20Network/Managing%20Hop%20Stunt%20Viroid.pdf

Symptoms of Hop stunt viroid can resemble many other conditions caused by other pathogens and unfavorable horticultural conditions.

Personally I'd remove it if that's what you suspect.

 

[OswaldvW]

Other than the yellow spots and small amount of browning, the plant is very healthy, approx 4-5 meters length/height. I have much more hop cones this year with signs of rich, yellow lupulin.