Wild hops?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Mischief_Brewing

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2010
Messages
1,258
Reaction score
19
Location
Montpelier
My wife pointed these out to me today:

694408bd.jpg

ca0da275.jpg


Look and smell like hops to me. Any thoughts? Thinking of harvesting this weekend and then digging them up and transplanting to my yard (currently in the neighbor's yard in the area that he dumps his dead leaves during the fall).
 
yup those are hopins cute little guys i would harvest and brew with them before you transplant them just for an idea of what kind of hop it is
 
I hadn't planned on planting hops until next year (too many projects to properly care for a hop garden) so I never did any of my standard research on hop growing, harvesting, and preparation for use. I guess I have my lunchtime activities planned for the next few days at work. If they're ready, I'll harvest on Saturday for use in mid Sept....

After harvest, any thoughts on how I can get them out of the neighbor's yard and safe in mine for next year? I'm sure the search function will be my friend later this week on this, but it never hurts to ask :)
 
research trimming crowns for some ideas and what time of year. this is my first year growing so dont really know what to do to maintain crown health
 
As jppostKW said, first step is to harvest, dry and brew a few beers with them. It's likely if you looked around you could find other wild hops growing in your area.

Next step if the beers are good is to dig up the crown. This should be done next spring but it should be located this fall before the bines get too fragile. If it's wild you'll probably see bines popping up in a wide area but there should be a pretty concentrated area of them in one spot. That is the crown and what you want next spring if after you brew good beers with them it's something you want in your hopyard. Next spring dig the crown up and plant it in your prepared area. Simple as that.
 
The problem I have is that these are in the very back of my neighbor's yard that butts up against my drainage ditch. He uses the area they are in for fall leaf storage. That means that sometime within the next few weeks, he'll be cutting all of the weeds (and the hops) down to the ground so he can start dumping leaves. I need to move them if I want to keep them happy and healthy.
 
the first roots i ever obtained were from a wild hop growing along the roadway. it must have been later in the fall as i remember thinking to myself, these things are perennials that establish themselves with rhizomes. how can i move some plant material. all i did was follow a vine back to ground level and gently lifted a portion of the rhizome that had some buds on it. this was then buried in a shallow trench in a corn field across the street from where i lived. the following spring, i lifted it and moved to a permanent location. all was fine. at this time of the year, the buds for next year are pretty much already formed and will harden off throughout the fall. the only drawback you will encounter is that if you make some cuttings now, you'll lose a month or so of additional carbohydrate accumulation. if you get a big enough rhizome you'll be fine.
 
Talk to your neighbor and explain the situation and see if it's okay to keep that area clear, then when it's time to get the rhizomes or whole crown then it shouldn't be a problem.
 
I might just harvest these and brew a test batch with them, and let the neighbor do his usual thing. I plan to plant "known" varieties next year anyway...

Or I'll dig up everything and transplant into my yard and fill the holes with spare dirt. They might survive if I get enough of the roots. I've moved a lot of bushes this way recently and they're all thriving back there...
 
Hops aren't that hard to transplant. If you just cut the bines back to about 6" long after harvest and dig well around the base of the clumps to a depth of 6-10" you will get most of the rhizomes. Chances are if they have been there a while there are many rhizomes that have budded off from the original plant.

Plant them at their new location (sun and good drainage preferred) at the same depth you dug them up and they will probably take off. Wait until they sprout next year to put up any kind of trellis, lattice or rope for them to climb, as the location of the bine may be off a few inches from where you expect. Every spring I have a couple renegade Cascade plants coming up a foot from my main plant. I just cut them about half way from the main plant, dig them up and put them in a pot to give away. Wish I had more sun.
 
Thanks JFry, That's the info I was hoping for. I'm probably going to put them along the back of my garage, which should make it easy to string them up next year.
 
transplant at night, it will lessen the stress on the plant if u plan to transplant the whole thing. a burlap bag works well for making sure you dont break too many roots. and right before u put the plant in, supplement with B12 to reduce transplant shock.
 
Personally, I wouldn't bother with try to grow hops when I don't know what kind they are, but if you brew a batch and really like the results, THEN it makes sense. I've harvested feral hops locally and haven't been impressed.
 
2d083eeb.jpg


2-gallons worth. Super wet because of the rain all morning, but today was my last chance for over a week to harvest. They're drying in some flower baskets hanging in my garage. Decided to forgo weighing and will just use my best guess on when they're dry enough to bag and freeze. I'll probably brew with them in a few weeks to see if they are worth looking for again next year.

Realized pretty quickly that transplanting and/or getting at the base of the vines is futile. So overgrown out there...

Half of the hops weren't even ready to harvest, not enough sun since they're intertwined with weeds and natural fauna...
 
You could probably get in there next spring and get the rhizome before all the weeds come in. Just watch out the "pretty" purple berries are Pokeweed - a VERY invasive weed and a perennial. Once the root of that get's established you almost have to dig it up to get rid of it.....and that ground is lousy with pokeweed seeds. Since there are very few herbicides we can use near our hops - you'll have to stay on top of the pokeweed so it doesn't take over (ask me how I know.....).

Let us know how the beer turns out.
 
Any advice for finding/tracking down wild hops? I am also from NJ (monmouth county) and am very curious to try finding wild hops and smelling them and trying a small batch of wild hopped beer.
 
Back
Top