Someone is eating my hops!

[orange]

Hello all. This is more of a gardening question than beer making, but it is related. My hop plant is making the most of the rain and growing well. Only trouble is, something is taking a nibble at the leaves. Last year it affected the whole plant. I know very little about green fingered stuff, so does anyone know what would be attracted to the plant, and what can i do about it?

Happy brewing

 

[RobWalker]

Depends what it is...can you post a pic? Slugs? Lots of ladybirds about...you want to avoid pesticides as you'll be eating them!

 

[Mark1964]

Its usually slugs if you dig a small hole put a bowl in the hole and fill with beer it will attract the slugs and they will fall in. The alternative is slug pellets

 

[screamlead]

Wont be the Ladybirds - they are hop friendly, Peeps actually put ladybirds on hops to eat the other pests.
Most prob slugs but could be other things too a few bugs are know to attack hop bines and leaves, you could try a washing up liquid solution and spray the leaves with that.
Dont use any pesticides if there are actual hops present, which i doubt so early in the season.

 

[Baz Chaz]

Depends where they are being eaten

Is it the stems or the leaves, stems could be either slugs or even mice, slugs easy to stop mice not so easy :twisted:

Turn the leaves over and look underneath, bugs are seldom on the top of the leaves. Have the leaves been eaten round the edges or along the veins, are there little 'tracks' inside the leaves (hope not, thats leaf miner)

Is there's any sign of eggs under the leaves or are the leaves curled up at all If it's a cruled leaf it may be catepillars which you just pick off by hand, enlist the help of a small child they seem to love collecting them, then feed them to the birds (the catepillars not the small child )

Growing tips, have a close look and see if there are any aphids in there, (black/green/white/wooly :twisted: ) they'll be very small early on. If there's only a small infestation and you've only a small crop, run the growing tip through your finger and thumb, with gentle pressure draw the growing tip through and see if there's any squished bodies come out :!:

There are a number of things it could be, but you can use pesticides if you're happy to go down that route, as long as they're used early enough and well before you take anything off the plants as a crop :geek:

I take it whatever is happening it appears to be above ground level the plants are/have been growing healty and Ok but now are being eaten Are they new plants or established or moved this year

As you can tell there are a few things it could be, but I'm sure there's plenty of heads around here that can help :thumb:

Piccys might help.

If you come across any Ladybird Larvae leave 'em alone (and certainly don't use pesticides :nono: ) they won't be scoffing your plants :nono: they're ugly buggers but great bug munchers :thumb:

Ladybird larvae

 

[RobWalker]

Its usually slugs if you dig a small hole put a bowl in the hole and fill with beer it will attract the slugs and they will fall in. The alternative is slug pellets

we do the same thing, usually with our trial jar beer. eco and cost friendly compared to nasty slug pellets :thumb:

 

[BIGJIM72]

I found the caterpillars grew into comma butterflies so I just left them alone on my plants.

 

[orange]

Thanks for the replies. The plant is in its second year so probably still establishing itself. It's the leaves that are being eaten. I'll have a look underneath for bugs. I will try and avoid pesticides if there is a more eco friendly solution. As for a picture, that means employing Tom my son for his IT skills. I'll see what i can do in the interest of Hop research. Again, thanks for the replies. :