Yellowing leaves, dead spots and bug excrement?

[DrFuggles]

Hi all,

My 1st year (left and right) and 3rd year (middle) dwarf hop (First Gold) plants. These started off great at the start of the year, but 6 weeks ago there were a ton of aphids on them. I started spraying them with dishsoap and water which killed the bugs, but i think this might have burnt the leaves.

3 weeks ago, ladybugs started showing up and now the aphid problem appears to be gone. However, the top of my plants are rather spindly, yellowing and some of the leaves appear burned. I removed some of them as they were so crinkled.

1. Is the yellowing normal on the smaller leaf picture?
2. I water every couple of days and fertilize every week. Is this too much?
3. Anything i can do to rectify this?

 

[cswis86]

Probably is some burning from the soap. If you spray the leaves when it's too hot or sunny out they will burn. I would only spray them late in the evening or on a cool cloudy day. I would wait to see if the new growth looks fine. If the aphids are gone the plants will likely recover.

 

[Voodoo]

First picture is likely a calcium deficiency. Second picture is a magnesium deficiency. (Calcium and magnesium deficiencies tend to show up in pairs) Toss some epsom salt in your sprayer and hit them every couple days till they green up.

Third picture looks like a series of plants that are a little light on nitrogen, more so on the right side than the left.

 

[brewcat]

Is the soil wet? Stick a finger in or buy a moisture meter. Just from the last picture, I'd say hit them with more nitrogen and less water. You may be watering available nitrogen away. What sort of fertilizer (NPK) are you using?

 

[DrFuggles]

Thanks all.. Was using a standard plant food but now switched to tomato fertiliser which is NPK 4-5-9%. It's been scorching here (for the uk) and I've trimmed some of the lower sidearms while holding off on the watering. Things looking a little better.