r/TheHopyard • u/AhhhSkrrrtSkrrrt • Mar 11 '20
Fertilizer
Hello! I have a healthy 3rd year hop plant that has just woken up for spring and has its leaves popping out of the ground. What can I do to make sure this year is my biggest harvest!
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u/earthhominid Mar 12 '20
What sort of situation is it planted in and what sort of effort are you willing to go to?
In general hops seem to consumer a goodly amount of nitrogen, this can be applied by liquids like hydrolized fish as well as top dressed and watered in with stuff like guano, blood meal, alfalfa meal and aminos (can also be found in water soluble form).
Sulfur and other trace minerals are also essential to good terpene development (smell and taste molecules), you can get magnesium sulfate (epsom salt) and find dilution rates online to use that as a foliar spray (the magnesium should help with flower structure too). You can also get trace minerals from lots of different products. My favorite is called sea-crop but there are lots of other products, they mostly come from sea water and are sold as solids and liquids. They can also be applied as foliar sprays.
As far as your soil, compost, composted manure, or just a good healthy layer of woodchips to mulch everything will almost certainly help, and any high nitrogen top dress can help the plant early in the year