This summer here in Western NY, we had the worse drought since 1943. It started out well. Got all the mounds weeded and composted. Most varieties grew taller than last year’s, but then it got really hot and dry, and I had no time to water them. For some of the varieties, the cones developed but were very small. For others, the yields still look fairly good. About 3 weeks ago, it started to rain heavily. Now, the bines are growing new leaves, new side bines and even new flowers! I can’t possibly imagine the flowers will develop into mature cones before the frosts hit. It’s like the plants woke up from a dormancy from the drought. Anybody else deal with a hotter and drier summer this year and see weird things happen in the hop garden?
Yea mine are kind of sad. I’ll get a decent cascade harvest everything else looks pitiful. I don’t irrigate eather
I am in Niagara County and this is my first year with homegrown hops. My CTZ did pretty well for a first year and climbed to about 13 feet. Had 3 20x20 furnace filters worth that have large cones. My Cascade were 1 filter worth and grew to about 8 feet and the cones are smaller and the Centennial had very little yield and only grew 6 feet. I left the low shoots grow this tear to allow for better root growth as well. As I was picking Monday, I noticed that there were small flowers forming on them as well. Will see what they do, but as you stated, with only 5-6 weeks lefts before a frost, who knows.
