Hop shoots already???
 

Some hops I had last year in buckets I moved into the garage mid winter. I walked into the garage this a.m. and noticed what appears to be a bunch of hop shoots taking off. What do I do? Take them to basement and get some lights on them and start ramping them up? Take outside? It will be 1.5 months at least before no more frost in central Ohio.

PIC1
PIC2

beesy,

I'm assuming they were first year plants when you took them in the garage. Most likely the warmth of the garage brought them up this early and they probably should be moved to the coldest part of the garage (if not as close to outdoors as you can come) They should have enough reserves stored up buy now to overcome the loss of the premature start which will most likely happen no matter what you do. If you have to grow them in pots I'd just repot them in bigger pots (2-4x) very deep. What you are trying to do is to retard the new growth that will come to allow the temperature to warm to the point where the new growth won't be frosted off. It would be a lot easier if you could plant them into the earth. Sorry but a couple IPA's makes me ramble non-coherently. 'B-hoppy', cuz all will work out!

Wow I'm in California and don't have shoots yet

Mine popped up this week.

Run out there right now, cut them all off and either sautee them in some butter or steam them and melt butter over them. They are perfect. Then move your planters outside or to the coldest part of the garage like the Buzz'n B-hoppy said. The cold should slow them down but hopefully your days of bitter cold are behind you.

Yes they were first year plants.

What about an experiment - take one outside and leave it be and take one to the basement and get some grow lights on it.

Would it be wise to try to split either of these?

Mine just broke through as well. :ban:

You can experiment what ever way you want but I feel that to encourage growth at this point is going to cause you more grief with very little benefit in the end. We normally come out the loser when we try to alter what Mother Nature dictates.

interesting, Jon. im right down the street from you and i just started to see sprouts from my plants (2nd year now) popping up.

Whoa, whoa. You can eat hop shoots? I was always told shoots coming off rhizomes are alkaloid i.e. bitter.