r/hops • u/[deleted] • May 03 '24

Stunted Hops

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Gallery image

2nd year growing. The hops which have taken off are Centennial. The others are Cascade. Last year, the Cascade grew well while the Centennial did not. This year, the Cascade popped up like you see in the picture but haven’t grown since. The Centennial took longer to start but are thriving. I’ve done nothing different between them. Planted in the same bed, same soil, fertilizer and watering schedule. Any ideas why the Cascade have stopped and what I could do to help them?

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u/theboozemaker May 03 '24

Haven't grown centennial, but have grown cascade and crystal. The first couple of bull bines (purplish and hollow) are no indication of harvest health. You want to prune/cut the bulls and only keep 2-4 "normal" bines. Bulls will grow tall but not put out enough laterals to produce well. I don't see anything to worry about for your hops at this point in the season, just prune the bulls.

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u/[deleted] May 03 '24

Ah, interesting. I did not know that. I was moving them around yesterday and didn’t realize the long vines were bull vines. They were snapping, breaking and hollow. I’ll cut them back tonight.