do not worry about poor growing 1st year palnts

**balto charlie** · 08-14-2008, 05:20 PM

Hey guys I see lots of post about poor growing hops in their first year. Many of the rhizomes we received were very small so can't grow into a huge plant. The first year plant is mainly feeding the rhizome. This year 2 of my 1 year old plants were huge rhizomes which are producing many flowers buds, the other 3 were kinda scrawny and are struggling. Perennial plants(like hops) have a mantra: Sleep(1st year), Creep(2nd year) and Leap(3rd year). The leap will blow you away. Hops can become invasive. Patience, they will grow. You ought to see my 4 YO plant

Charlie

devaspawn · 08-14-2008, 05:34 PM

Is it possible in the first year with scrawny rhizomes that you won't see any growth at all? A friend of mine planted 9 rhizomes this year and only got 5 at different levels of growth above ground.

Smogre · 08-14-2008, 06:30 PM

+1 to the OP.
Don't worry about them. They'll come along better next year.

I have a few that didn't grow much more than a foot and yet just 10 feet away I have some growing 16' tall and budding out. I credit the water.

Think about this. I have a Magnum plant in it's 3rd year. It hasn't produced a single bud. Why? I say it's on the north side and doesn't get as much water or sun. Damn thing is 30' tall though.

So yeah, follow a simple winter plant care plan and leave em alone. They'll do better next year.

Engelramm · 08-14-2008, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by balto charlie

Hey guys I see lots of post about poor growing hops in their first year. Many of the rhizomes we received were very small so can't grow into a huge plant. The first year plant is mainly feeding the rhizome. This year 2 of my 1 year old plants were huge rhizomes which are producing many flowers buds, the other 3 were kinda scrawny and are struggling. Perennial plants(like hops) have a mantra: Sleep(1st year), Creep(2nd year) and Leap(3rd year). The leap will blow you away. Hops can become invasive. Patience, they will grow. You ought to see my 4 YO plant

Charlie

Thanks for the pep talk. This is my first attempt to grow anything, so I'm constantly checking on them...

98EXL · 08-15-2008, 12:27 AM

Charlie, the rizhomes you gave me are worse than the weeds...it's crazy.

But at any rate, I did have others that didn't come up or died at some point in time.

**DeathBrewer** · 08-15-2008, 01:06 AM

we already have the same yield we got last year from the cascade. and all we did was clip it back some

**balto charlie** · 08-15-2008, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 98EXL

Charlie, the rizhomes you gave me are worse than the weeds...it's crazy.

Hey 98: did you get any cones? The mother plant is yielding what looks to be a lot. I will post some pics this wknd to see if folks can help identify. I think it's Willamette but just saw some images of Tetnanger so this is also a possibility. I hope Tet as I have a young willamette. Charlie

98EXL · 08-19-2008, 06:27 AM

yeah, I have cones, gonna pick them friday I think

Stout Man · 09-02-2008, 08:54 AM

This is my first year growing hops. My Kent Golding, Fuggle, and N.Brewer produced nothing at all. My Hallertauer produced maybe 1oz. My Mt.Hood and Cascade did ok. My Chinook, Zeus and Nugget did great though. I can just sum it down to which ones are supposed to be vigorous growers and which ones aren't.

I dug up the golding rhizome. It was originally the size of a hot dog when I planted it. Now the main crown is about 1.5x the size and has great roots stretching out so the rhizome is a total of 3 feet circular. I expect next year to be much better.

**Homercidal** · 09-02-2008, 06:48 PM

I planted 3 cascades and there are three different heights. One is about 10' and sprouting plenty of flowers. The second is about half the height and no flowers. The third is barely big enough to climb the twine and also no flowers.

The first one I might decide to run up two different twines next year and not cut back as much. The others will hopefully do better, and I expect they will.