Hop plants/rhizomes - growing report

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My Chinook are really shifting now, 3-4inch a day. Cascade not playing ball tho.
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see above post. Didge which is which?

Sorry, I missed that question. I can't be too specific regarding the colour of the leaves as Im red/green colour blind.

Initially the Cascade had lighter leaves and started a little earlier. The Centennial definately had darker leaves for a few weeks, however they are now growing and looking very similar to each other.
 
A week of beautiful weather has really helped my hops, both are approximately 1.5 metres tall now.
I chopped back my Cascade to 3 stems, and felt like a baby murderer.
My Centennial is too tangled to chop, so I shall leave it alone to do its own thing.

New leaves appear identical but the older leaves are showing different shapes.

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Goldings are off like a rocket. I've had to put the extensions up already. (My rig is only 2 metres high so I have to lash long canes to the upright poles to get another couple of metres) and they're in there first year. Mt third year Cascade are rubbish, Only half-way up the strings and quite pale leaves compared with Challenger , with dark leaves and so many stalks I can't keep track of them all. Don't know what sort of crop to expect, it's been a funny year with some trees only just beginning to show a leaf or two.
 
Has anyone cut the running head off by mistake? I only got one shooter his year and as I was hanging the washing I neglected to see the little sod at the end of the line. Long story short I beheaded it and it made loads of runners shoot it from all the leaf points (?). Now I have quite a few bines running up the rope...
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Has anyone cut the running head off by mistake? I only got one shooter his year and as I was hanging the washing I neglected to see the little sod at the end of the line. Long story short I beheaded it and it made loads of runners shoot it from all the leaf points (?). Now I have quite a few bines running up the rope...
Sounds like my Challenger, but I don't recall decapitating it. It seemed to grow like a mop from the beginning.
 
Mines a cascade from hogs back brewery. They were selling them last year, so it became a little lockdown project for me. I got a total of 8 hops from it last year...
 
First photo is the new Goldings and a Fuggle. One year old planted in May. Very late and wasn't holding out much hope.
Next is the mop of Challenger.
Cascade, Centennial and the Challenger mentioned above. All in their third year.
Finally, The Wise One bought me this book as a birthday present.
 

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I was initially quite pleased with the new hop support I built from 2.4m fence posts but the Styrian Goldings have soon outgrown it. This plant is 4 or 5 year old. If I'd made it any taller it would have been unstable, plus a bit too high to reach.

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The new Challenger plant is progressing quite well, my Challenger rhyzome bought over winter failed so I ordered this and it's only been in the ground a few weeks.
 
This is my cascade, 2 bines after the squirrels knocked the heads off the other 3. Problem is with the lower leaves. There's some ants climbing on it but also evidence of slugs. What can I use? Trouble is I have a dog and a cat so slug pellets are out. What about the ants? Do they do damage as well?
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Those bottom leaves are dispensable - in fact commercial growers may remove them to reduce the odds of disease establishing.

Ants don't do much directly other than potentially spreading fungal spores, you want to beware them setting up aphid farms though.
 
Do I need to rinse the seaweed??

no you don’t. That’s part of why they hate it because it is salty, if you’ve ever put salt on a slug you’ll know why, They also don’t like the texture when it dries. But it doesn’t harm the plants at all and eventually rots down as fertiliser. So win win all round.
 
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