a_w_taylor

Recipes 

I wanted to get a response as to how people did with their first year rhizomes? I have four rhizomes going in he ground today, but I get the impression that the first year is pretty much devoted to root growth. That being said I am going to stake each plant with an eight foot pole as opposed to getting crazy with a large support structure. Is this a good move?

I am in SE CT.

Cheers

AT

scinerd3000

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i had mount hood and cascade growing first year last year. I had about 8 feet of growth from both and the cascade was the only one to produce cones. Well see if they come up again this year. Essentially if you need more support, you can always build something easier although i highly doubt your going to get over 8 feet unless your rhizomes are large or seasoned for many years....although im sure it has happened

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Stout Man

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If ur hops are of the chinook/zeus/nugget variety you can expect some good growth. My 1st year halleratau grew the entire 15' up the trellis and then over the side a few. It only produced 1/2 oz though. But varieties like n.brewer and golding won't grow that much.

a_w_taylor

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The goods:

Cascade
Fuggle
Mt. Hood
Sterling

The Pol

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I had Cascade, Mt Hood and Willamette last year. Willamette outran the others, and was the first up this year.

10' on all of them last year, Willamette was the only to make cones. Right now I have about 8 shoots up on all of them. Willamette is 4", Cascade 6" and the Mt Hoods are about 2" but VERY robust and VERY aggressively spreading in the planting area.

a_w_taylor

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Today - I made the 6" raised bed, filled with manure, pete, soil & water. Planted and labled the sprouting rhizomes, and I just have to wait!

Zulu

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Year one is the most important year , but yields little result for the most work.
Mulch well and FEED , WATER, FEED. Balanced soil is best - PH neutral , pinch of borax helps for some reason, and corn meal acts as a natural fungicide, just a sprinkle on soil around rootball.

Dont worry about anything other than green growth and keeping bugs and / or disease at bay and keep weeds and grass out of the beds.

If you want future rhizomes , now is also the time to layer one or more the current shoots to create new rhizomes for next year. Just carefully lay them down and cover with soil leaving the end above gnd.

Use a balanced fertilizer every 6 weeks, liquid works best - like miracle grow - or seagro a seaweed based, but have also just used 10:10:10 but dont over feed if using dry ... ie put too much out or you will burn the plants.

Dont even have to worry about support first year if you dont want to. On our farm experiment we broke one pole and could not run wires to 8 plants , they did just fine along the ground and still yielded cones.

Second year , train 2-3 bines per rope , cull all rest after you see that the main ones are growing, difficult to do but helps production. Need ropes of at least 12-18 ft high - lower might reduce production of cones. Again feed in early spring , and water all the time, weekly at minimum , and twice weekly if very hot.

In second year (and beyond) you will see growth much earlier in the season, so be prepared. Ropes/twine will have to be up before the official last frost date.

Jaybird

Recipes 

Zulu
Nice first post. Great 411 for the first time grower.
Cheers
JJ

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Zulu

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Thanks Jay

Hang out on a bunch of other forums and was primarily on the imploded one.... read over here often enough and joined some time back, but hops is something I can add info to.

Long time brewer too with a full garage of equipment and 4 fridge freezers for beer. Was one of the three BCS beta testers on my RIMS

Need a new online home and checking all the other forums out

Homercidal

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I planted 3 hops bines last year and got a handful of hops. One tallest plant was 12 ft. the shortest was 4. I would not count on getting any the first year. If you do, then consider yourself lucky. The second year, they say is much better, and third year about maxed out for flowers. These were cascade.