Hops

I do not usually look at hops very much as only a few farms have them, but they are becoming a bit more common in the last 10 years (Fig. 1). Visiting two farms withy hops I saw marginal leaf damage (Fig. 2) on some leaves (found some thrips too) and then marginal leaf scorch on others (Fig. 3). When looking on the underside of these leaf-scorched damaged leaves, I found many potato leaf hopper nymphs (no adults) (Fig. 4) on one farm and only a few on the other. Potato leafhoppers prefer warm, dry conditions and are common in southern states where they overwinter; leaf hoppers do not overwinter in our area.

Potato leafhoppers Empoasca fabae started out showing up early in the season in our area in unexpected numbers and now they are showing up again in vegetables (eggplant and potato) fruit crops (raspberries) and hops where they are causing some problems (figs 1, 2, 3). Unlike earlier in the season when most of the leafhoppers were adults most of the ones found now are nymphs (fig 4).