Cones, bugs and falling down.

My first hop cones have appeared! Good news indeed for the Columbus:

They're not fully formed yet but those hairy looking buds sticking out will become cones in the fullness of time if all goes well. There is also some sign on the Cascade of upcoming coneage:

These are only buds at present so may well turn out to be more leaves but I can keep my fingers crossed in the meantime. No sign on the Willamette as yet. There's still time (I keep telling myself).

Not everything has been going my way though. I have recently found what I think is a Japanese beetle on the underside of a leaf of the Columbus:

Identifying this bug was made easier because of the research I did last year trying to identify a June bug. This is the first time I've seen one but I suspect not the first time I have seen its handiwork:

I have a feeling they are likely to be as voracious as June bugs, so I will be treating them with extreme prejudice. Needless to say this one will not be bothering my hops again. On a slightly brighter bug note I have seen several of these guys:

Here's a slightly better view (if you look closely):

These white, fluffy, little guys are ladybird larvae (I hope):

The larvae, just like the adults, are pretty keen on eating other pests, so I'm more than happy to leave them be. Can't really see them taking down an adult Japanese beetle so I may have to deal with those myself.

Something that has been a wee bit of a mystery was one morning finding the twine holding up some of the Columbus cut and the growth from the shepherd's hooks lying on the ground. Seems no real damage was done, fortunately. The mystery is how it (twine on the left) was severed:

Perhaps that bit of twine just had a weakness. We had had very heavy rainfall overnight so that may have been the cause, although we have had similar rainfall since without anything similar happening again. The other possibility is that a bird did indeed decide to try and use it as a perch with the very obvious outcome. Anyway, I have tied some knots and strung it up again:

This time, to make my life easier, I've looped the twine over the upper iron hook and tied it to the lower one. This way I don't need a ladder to reach it. It has survived our most recent storms so fingers crossed it'll hold and the bird that got a shock when it tried to land on my twine has learned its lesson. The other birds are probably still making jokes about it needing to go on a diet.

Darling Buds Of May

I just noticed today the first signs of the buds that will become the side shoots that the cones will grow on. Exciting times (for a novice hop grower anyway). Here are some on the Willamette:

They obviously have a very long way to go before (or if) I see cones but things seem to be heading in the right direction. The whole plant is becoming a challenge to measure (involves some clambering on the railings):

The Northern Brewer also has some, so I'm hopeful about it too:

I'm a little concerned about the really pale leaves at the top, but they do seem to be deepening in colour as times passes. It now looks like this now:

No evidence of any on the Goldings yet:

Early days yet as they only look like this:

I have also been finding more pests. These are what I assume are butterfly eggs on the undersides of the leaves of the Willamette:

Really don't want these guys hatching to become hungry, hungry caterpillars so I have been getting rid of them as soon as I find them. I have found at least one leaf that a caterpillar was in the process of wrapping around itself like a blanket. Fortunately I was able to unroll it and relocate (ie fling across the garden) the caterpillar inside. The leaf seems to be recovering fine. On the up side, I did find some of these little guys on the other side of the garden:

Ladybird (ladybug if you're American) larvae are apparently voracious little predators. If I continue to see things eating my hops I might have to transplant as many as I can over to help in the fight. Overall though, despite some damage from pests all three plants seem to be able to grow faster than the bugs can eat them. Also, I've been doing a lot more watering myself (only in the late afternoon or evening so there isn't any direct sunlight) of late as the temperatures have been in the high 80's low 90's F (approx. 30 degrees C) and we have had precious little rain. Fingers crossed hard we don't end up with a drought like last year.