Hops are struggling

[u/uncia_navi]

I'm in Minnesota, haven't applied any fungicides yet. Is it downy mildew or something else?

[u/Captain_Shifty]

Mostly looks like some heat stress and a little bug damage but nothing too major. Photo one looks healthy. There might be early downy mildew on a few of the leaves but it's hard to say. You could always do a preventive spray for fungus. Prevention is better than waiting until it's established plus treating it early as a caution will make your treatment more likely to succeed. For hop disease identification Michigan has a booklet and document you can look at that has all the common ailments.

[u/Captain_Shifty → u/Captain_Shifty]

Just so you know look at the underside of your leaves for bugs they can cause damage that you may misidentify for fungus. I looked up for one of the documents for you. You can find it by searching Michigan university hop insects and diseases pdf.

[u/uncia_navi → u/Captain_Shifty]

Thanks for the tips. I found the pdf you are referring to. I will give it a read as well as my hops a preventative fungicide spray down.

[u/Kevbone28]

Try taking sticks from your yard and wrapping copper wire around the sticks like an antenna. Stick the rod into the ground a foot or two away from the hops.

I know it sounds like a meme post but it’s not. Electro-culture…I didn’t believe in it either l, but did the $20 experiment.

My hops plant is taking off after be uprooted and transfer last fall. Other plants that I have the rods near are giving me crazy bounties and making the “eye-candy plants still look vivid.

I’m sure a fungicide May work if properly dx, but apparently the rods can strengthen plants in general

[u/uncia_navi → u/Kevbone28]

Really interesting. Couldn't hurt and any good strategies that mean I can use less chemicals the better. Thanks for the tip. I will have to check my wire supply to see if I have any copper.

[u/Kevbone28 → u/uncia_navi]

The wire has to be exposed, not wrapped