My two 2 year old Prima Donna (First Gold) hop plants growing in 20+ litre pots took a bit of a bashing on Saturday last when temperatures went above 30*C and we went out for the day, even though they are not in full sun all day. Although I water them most days when it hasn't rained and watered them on Friday evening I clearly hadn't given them enough, for when I had a look on Sunday morning both plants had withered, some of the leaves were burned, others were going yellow, some of the smaller secondaries had dried up and in general both plants looked in poor shape, one worse than the other. I actually thought I had lost them. Anyway the pots had a good drenching , and over the day they picked up with leading bines lifting up again. Subsequently I have watered more frequently. However more leaves are now going yellow and I think I could lose about half of them. The big lesson for me is to water more frequently, especially when its hot.
The good news is that I think new shoots are growing out of secondaries which I thought I had lost, although any hop yield I get may now be down, time will tell on that.
Anyone else with a similar experience?
PS Should add that these are dwarf hop type typically growing to 3 m max. However they are both about 4 m long, although 2 metres of that is horizontal, and therefore maybe bigger than they are supposed to be. Maybe that's one reason they struggle in the heat, given they are also in pots.
