ASublimeDay

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Hey Guys,

Some background before I post:

-I have 3 hops plants, I'm allowing one vine each. When additional vines pop up (there have been plenty!), I let them get a foot in length, cut them at the base, and pop them in a rooting hormone solution. Plan to give them to my brewing buddies in the spring

-They are trained along chicken wire. When the main vine gets within 6" of the light, it is pushed back down and, through this process, grows horizontally along the wiring

-By only having one vine per plant, training them along the chicken wire is much easier and the size is manageable

-The soil is compost from my worm bin. I have about 400 red wriggler worms in a bed of paper and fruit/vegetable scraps. The soil (or "worm castings") is extremely rich and the plants LOVE it. The worms are not in the hops soil, I harvest the castings every few weeks. I had a big supply ready for when I planted the hops

-The bin is 25 gallons. The bin and box size are manageable because the vines are flowered early, then chopped down and go through their entire growth cycle again. This removes the requirement for a massive root system (more on this later)

-The light cycle is 16 hrs/day for a month, then 12 hours of light/12 hours of darkness until their flowering cycle is done.

-PLEASE spare the "why would you do this, you'll get a crappy yield, etc". The reason I am doing this is because I want completely organic hops, 100% free of pesticides, herbicides, bugs, chemical fertilizers etc. I thoroughly enjoy horticulture/botany and money is not a concern in this hobby. The total cost of building the box, the bin, the light, and the auto-watering system was a couple hundred dollars. The ongoing costs (light, water) ends up being 10 bucks a month. I brew bi-weekly, so I don't even know what I'd do with a lb of hops per plant.

-From left to right: Chinook, Nugget, Cascade. A nice balance of bittering/flavoring/aroma

-They are extremely happy and go about 9-10" per day of growth. The Cascade leaves are as big as my hand

-When the first harvest is complete, I plan to remove them from the soil, hack the roots and vines down, and pop them into an aeroponic hydroponic bin with organic nutrients being sprayed on the roots on a timer. Having the roots exposed (in the dark of the bin, of course) will prevent the plants from becoming root-bound, will increase oxygen and nutrients to the roots, and will allow me to chop the roots down to a reasonable size between harvests. It will also allow for a much faster vegetative/flowering cycle (faster harvests!)

-Is this cycling without vernalization (which it's been proven hops plants don't actually need), and not allowing the hops to grow to their full potential size ideal for harvest size? Nope. But I expect some damn good organic hops to brew with.

-I've done the root-chopping/no vernalization with perennial plants before. They rebound surprisingly quick from the reduction in roots/foliage. Their cycles also reset like clockwork when you turn the lights back to 16 hours after flowering.

So, without further adue, the pics (posting a few at a time, I'm at work and the computer is being bitchy)

ASublimeDay

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Here you see the intake ducting in the top left corner (4" desk fan blowing cool air through a duct, pointed at the light. The plant on the left is the Chinook. Next to it is the Nugget.

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ASublimeDay

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Here we have the light. It is a switchable ballast (it has 250, 275, 400, and 440 watt settings for HPS, and 175, 192.5, 250, and 275 watt settings for MH bulbs) I use a 400 watt High Pressure Sodium bulb, but its dimmed by the ballast to 275. The plants are growing so aggressively and are so healthy, I don't even know what they'd do if I jacked it up to 400 or 440. In the interest of heat concerns and energy costs, I'll stick with 275. I don't use the mid-summer white/blue spectrum of the Metal Halide bulbs, even though they're better for vegetative because 1) They're expensive and, 2) they're a lot less lumens.

In the top right you see the exhaust ducting. It pulls hot air out with another 4" desk fan. The fans are only on when the light is.

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ASublimeDay

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Here you see the Cascade on the right and the Nugget in the middle. The Cascade is by far the most prolific grower, and its leaves are HUGE.

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ASublimeDay

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Here you see the whole garden. The Cascade seems happiest, but the Chinook is also a happy girl. The Nugget doesn't seem to like the temperature (75-80 degrees with the light on, 65 with it off), but she grows nonetheless.

I did not grow these plants from rhizomes. They are year-old crowns I purchased. I'm not sure if I can post the name of the company or if that's considered spam? But I'm very happy with them. I received them in "fall dormancy", so it was just a small root ball and some dry stumps, but they absolutely took off when I hit them with water and more lumens per sq/foot than the summer sun at the equator

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ASublimeDay

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A little farther back. The box closes and the walls are white. It is absolutely blinding when the light is on.

I'll post more when they start sprouting hops.

Thanks for reading!

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lcs

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This is pretty interesting, I've been thinking about trying this myself but I don't know where to start.

How high is the light from the ground? How tall is the growing bin? How much dirt (how deep)? What did you make the bin walls from?

Thanks

day_trippr

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Nice little plot o' indoors greenery, but I'd reserve the "successful" thing until you see some cones...

Cheers!

ASublimeDay

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Haha I thought of that myself after I posted. Better to lean towards optimism I suppose

ASublimeDay

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I'll take some detailed pictures tonight and post in the morning. The box is a 4'x2.5'x2.5' pine plywood self-construct. It cost about $40 to make. If I could do it all again I might avoid the headache and the hours of construction and just buy a pre-made "grow tent". Basically a PVC frame with nylon/mylar fabric. They're all over Ebay and Amazon.

The toughest thing is making sure its light-proof, which the grow tents apparently already are. The light is very bright and depending where in your house you put the box, it can be an eye sore. I spent a lot of time with a caulk gun and weather-stripping making sure no light was getting out.

So...yeah, make sure its light-proof. The problem with that becomes heat, which is why I have the fans. If you had the light out in the open heat wouldn't be an issue (you'd also have beams of light shooting out of your windows. HPS/MH lights are BRIGHT but the plants absolutely love them), but if its in a light-proof box with little or no ventilation, temperatures hit 95-100 degrees fast.

The tents already have holes for fans, or if you build it yourself just use a hole saw (drill attachment) and a desk fan. One pulling air out of the top, one pushing air in on the bottom. The reason for the ducting in my pictures is to keep the light in a little better.

Again, I'll post plenty of pics tomorrow. I'd say if you wanted something of similar size you'd be looking at:

Box: $40-??? you can really go all out and make it a piece of furniture, or bare bones like I did.
Bin: $4, rubbermaids range in price though. I'd look for the "recycled plastic"
Chicken wire: $5
Soil: This is a big variable. Just make sure its not terrible quality. I'm also iffy on things heavy on the chemicals, even if they claim to be safe. You also need 25 gallons of soil, so it can get a bit pricy. I'd say $20
Light: If you go 250 watts, around $120-$150 I think.
Hops: I bought crowns. They sell them all season and they were $9 each. The plant came to life and was an actively growing vine in 3 days.

So, a couple hundred bucks. I love it though. One of the best parts of my day is getting home and seeing how much they've grown. Can't wait until my home office reeks of hops too