Hops budding? Time to fertilize!

I have found that if I start fertilizing with Super Bloom (12-55-6) when burrs start showing up I can substantially increase the size of the hop flowers at harvest. Haven't done any empirical studies, just picked flowers the size of pine cones! Go for it growers!

The size of pinecones? I hit mine with some beastly blooms, which I don't remember the numbers, but was low on nitrogen, huge on phosphorus, and light on potassium, hoping for the same thing.

Yes, the idea is to boost the phosphorous. Some of the cones on my Willamette plant have been easily 2 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. So OK it was a bonsai pine cone.

+1 on the Super Bloom (12-55-6) . I started mine once a week once i see the blooms. My second year plants especially cascades are blooming like nuts. I already harvest 18 oz from one plant and got 5 oz from the other. That was the early bloom, this next harvest is going to be somewhere 30 and 20. Agree the size of the cone were bigger.

The "Beastly Blooms" is a 0-50-30.

No reason to use synthetics...just good old fashioned organic material will do...Spray the leaves with a kelp based solution they love it...Also play some Bach at loud volumes.

OldWorld said:

No reason to use synthetics...just good old fashioned organic material will do...Spray the leaves with a kelp based solution they love it...Also play some Bach at loud volumes.

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Mine get various Dansk Black Metal from time to time.

odinsgift said:

Mine get various Dansk Black Metal from time to time.

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Sure wouldn't want them to go across the rainbow bridge to Valhalla early!

Right.

The Gods do enjoy good beer, not sure of hops define good beer to them or not.

I picked up a container of Super Bloom yesterday. After thinking about it, one question that I'm left with is whether a bigger cone is necessarily better. If the hop cones are the size of footballs but still have the same amount of lupulin, then adding hops based on weight would lead to a lower IBU beer. Does the amount of lupulin increase with the size of the hops, and has anyone actually done a test to verify this?

In my experience the bigger cones produce more lupulin powder. It seems to me that the super bloom makes the flowering process more vigorous overall, which results in more of everything. I wait til the burrs appear so I don't know if there would be more of them if I started super bloom earlier, but with regular fertilizing with miracle gro during the leaf-out season the plants are more vigorous overall, and start side-branching strongly as well. This year has been exceptionally favorable for hops in BC, with plenty of rain mixed with periods of strong sunlight, and very few insects. So the hop cone development has been exceptional too.

brian2can said:

+1 on the Super Bloom (12-55-6) . I started mine once a week once i see the blooms. My second year plants especially cascades are blooming like nuts. I already harvest 18 oz from one plant and got 5 oz from the other. That was the early bloom, this next harvest is going to be somewhere 30 and 20. Agree the size of the cone were bigger.

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I picked 30 oz cascade from my 2 plants. Still have a ton of small cones waiting to grow up!

Bloom Boosters do not exactly work as advertised (very much like the 5.2 pH buffer product).

You're better off easing back on the Nitrogen to promote flowering vs. boosting the Phosphorous levels.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/plumeria/msg0710344424206.html?5

There's nothing wrong with artificial fertilizers if you use them wisely, and in low, measurable concentrations. They provide all the nutrients your plants need in controlled dosages, much like vitamins for people.

bobbrews said:

Bloom Boosters do not exactly work as advertised (very much like the 5.2 pH buffer product).

You're better off easing back on the Nitrogen to promote flowering vs. boosting the Phosphorous levels.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/plumeria/msg0710344424206.html?5

There's nothing wrong with artificial fertilizers if you use them wisely, and in low, measurable concentrations. They provide all the nutrients your plants need in controlled dosages, much like vitamins for people.

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Exactly. Follow the package directions. Don't over do it, but if you can keep to the schedule, which is like a tablespoon per plant in a gallon of water every two weeks, the results are noticable.