Beer Forum

At what point in the growth cycle should you stop using insecticides? My plants have developed burrs and some cones, should I stop spaying now. I am definately in a war with the beetles. Im using Natria Insecticide that is Pyrethrin based. My main concern of course is flavor contamination and survival of the plants. These plants are an hour and a half away from my house and I have not been up in a couple weeks to do maintanence and they have suffered some. Luckily they are within a couple feet of the water table so watering has not been an issue. Im on my way out to lowes to pick up some more insecticides....should I spray this late in the season? Plants look very healthy, they have reached the top of the trellis...except the Golding of course. The Chinook has the worst beetle damage, followed by the centennial and mt. hoods. If I was to pick up something stronger like Sevin could I spray? Looking for options here. Thanks....

The first thing you have to do is keep on top of the problem. I don't know about beetles but my two (aphids and mites) have to be sprayed weekly. The spray won't kill the eggs so you have to keep killing them before they multiply. Aphids can lay eggs containing females who are already prepared to lay eggs as soon as they hatch. That said, you have to read the label and see how long to wait before harvest. If it's too late in the season you may have to use something organic. It's too bad they're so far away. I lost half my harvest last year to aphids. They exploded after the cones started and nearly killed the plant.

I am usually able to fertilize and spray every other week. I had been able to control the bugs really well all season. Its been about 3 weeks since I came up here to work on them so the beetles made some head way. I just sprayed the crap out of them with sevin...says 2 weeks to harvest. Fertilized with Mir. Grow Bloom. Ill try to get up next weekend and spray again. These hops are in a pasture so there are a ton of bugs. The hops at my house have had no bug issues...and i spray with insecticidal soap to keep mites and aphids off. For some reason I seem to remember someone on a hop forum saying Sevin was going to be or was approved as an insecticide for commercial hop farming.