How to tell if my hops died?

Im thinking my hops plant didnt make it through the winter. There are no sprouts yet and I did a little digging and the roots I checked out looked brown and spongy when I cracked them. Is there a way I can tell if the plant is dead? Is there anyway to revive it if so?

If it’s dead, it’s dead, unless the guy from Pushing Daisies shows up. The mushiness is a good sign that they’re gonners but the only way to really tell is to let them go and see if anything pops up. Sometimes there may be a bud that still has a little life left and will have enough determination to make it. Time will tell.

how old are they?

I would think with the climate in NJ being better than mine in ME, that if they were established plants, that you should definitely see plentiful growth at this pt. Mine are on yr 3 in the ground. All 4 varieties are through the manure, and straw, and 2 are already 1 ft tall.

I dug more of it up today and the plant is dead. Pretty much everything i dug up was rotted and had patches of mildew growing on it. Luckily my LHBS still has a few rhizomes in stock. Looks like im gonna try to start over.