Hops Yellowing

Kudos to you for growing hops in Colorado! They are beautiful vines. The non-uniform holes could be hail damage. Because of their large leaves, hop plants are subject to hail damage and Colorado is famous for hail! However, you might want to look closely at the back side of several leaves with the holes, preferably with some magnification, to see if there is evidence of any bugs, specifically aphids. Here’s a website with images of some of the more common hop pests so you can identify them – http://freshops.com/hop-growing/hop-diseases-and-pests/

The yellow leaves can be a sign of under and over watering. However, the tips of the surrounding green hop leafs have some browning on the edges, suggesting they may have been underwatered. Closely monitoring the soil moisture and keeping the soil moist, not soaked, may help prevent further leaf yellowing. Hops plants do best with drip irrigation instead of overhead watering which can encourage leaf diseases. We recommend removing the yellowed leaves both for plant hygiene and appearance. If watering changes don’t minimize the yellowing of leaves, you may want to take a few of the yellowed leaves to a local nursery or the County Extension office for examination. Here’s a link to your local office – http://www.extension.colostate.edu/boulder/