Growing hops

[MikeG]

Last year I planted a Golden Tassels dwarf hop in our vegetable patch. The patch has fairly rich light clay soil which seems to drain reasonably well. The plant grew well to start with then the leaves started dying - going black and withering. Then the whole plant gave up the ghost. This year, not surprisingly, there is nothing.

Has anyone any idea why this might have happened?

[a-slayer]

Hop wilt maybe?

[MikeG]

Could be but from this it looks as if my problem was a bit too fast - the plant only lasted a few months

[aplus]

There are two possible reasons why this may have happened that we can think of......first, it is possible to over feed hops and this will turn the leaves black and the plant can die... the second reason... Slugs!!! they are a pain!! not only will they eat the new shoots but they can and will eat through stems. Were you able to check the crown? Did it look as though anything had been at it? Apparently slugs can eat the crown out. Other than these two reasons, I'm very sorry but we cannot come up with any other reasons.