I'm fairly new to gardening, i.e. this year in fact.
I've been brewing on an off for over 20years, having gone AG a couple of years ago.
I've got the hops in the ground now, and I read through some of the previous posts on cutting back and yield.
Having got into gardening, I've got myself a greenhouse, and am growing tomatoes.
Now the Mrs got me a couple of books on growing your own veg, and I've got quite a bit in.
One of the things I've noticed is aphids seem to be a problem for hops.
In the books I've got, there are suggestions of growing basil as a sacrificial plant for the aphids, as they will go for that apparently over toms and presumably hops.
The other thing is to grow marigolds or nasturtiums to attract hover flies, whose larvae feast on aphids.
I've got a bucket load of marigolds raised from seed to plant out, and the basil is coming along nicely.
a nice bit of yeast slurry is drowning slugs in the slugs traps like it's going out of fashion.
Might be worth getting some basil in, and some marigolds / nasturtiums too.
Just a thought to keep the aphids distracted > if it's been posted before, apologies.
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