Hop growing schedule and year-round growing in CA?

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tekhna

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So I am moving to Santa Cruz in August to start school, and I'd love to start growing hops after being cooped up in NYC. I am impatient and don't want to wait for spring to start planting, so I am wondering if it's possible to successfully cultivate hops year-round in CA?
Here's the temperature profile for Santa Cruz- Monthly Weather Averages and Records for Santa Cruz, CA Don't know if that helps much. Obviously it cools down, but not terribly.

Thanks!
 
I have seen pictures of what looks like some pretty sizable hop harvests done by some of the crew down at seven bridges co-op (the organic homebrew supplier). They should be able to answer a lot of your questions.
I lived there for a while and winter can be cold, not Idaho cold but cold.
Hops have a pretty well developed biological timer, I don't think that you can grow them year round anywhere.
-Ander
 
I have seen pictures of what looks like some pretty sizable hop harvests done by some of the crew down at seven bridges co-op (the organic homebrew supplier). They should be able to answer a lot of your questions.
I lived there for a while and winter can be cold, not Idaho cold but cold.
Hops have a pretty well developed biological timer, I don't think that you can grow them year round anywhere.
-Ander


That's sort of what I thought, thanks! Guess we'll here more, but I suspect you're right.
 
For Southern Cali I have seen some pictures of good harvests. In Cali, we grow a lot (wine grapes, food and all sorts of stuff) so hops do reasonably well. My first years did good for the variety they were and for the hot temps we were experiencing down in southern cali. I am excited to see what they do as second year plants.
 
You have to grow indoors (which is quite challenging with hops) if you want them to grow year round. I live in Santa Cruz and my hop plants died back completely in November. I think is has just as much to do with the lack of sunlight as it does with the cold. If it's any consolation you will be moving to a town with an excellent LHBS (Seven Bridges as mentioned earlier) and you will be within two days shipping of two of the better online vendors (more beer and Williams). I orderd some hops and grain from Williams Brewing on Sunday afternoon and it showed up on my doorstep at 10:30am TUESDAY morning. I couln't believe it.
 
So I am moving to Santa Cruz in August to start school, and I'd love to start growing hops after being cooped up in NYC. I am impatient and don't want to wait for spring to start planting, so I am wondering if it's possible to successfully cultivate hops year-round in CA?
Here's the temperature profile for Santa Cruz- Monthly Weather Averages and Records for Santa Cruz, CA Don't know if that helps much. Obviously it cools down, but not terribly.

Thanks!

the short answers is no.

the long answers is that the flowering of the hops is triggered by shorting of the photo period, witch is why you cant grow them in the tropics, ie between the tropic of capracorn and cancer the day there is mostly the same length year around and the futher you get from the equator the more extream it gets like at the poles where is dark and daylight for weeks at the equinox.

here is more Photoperiodism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
The sizable harvests that Seven Bridges helped with were mine. Check out my pics of just a taste of last year. I have grown hops here for 2 years and now do it on a 1/2 acre size. My hops die back here in late Oct -Nov. Always the same every year. No year round growing but I grow 9 diff varieties and all seem to do well. Plant in March and harvest late August. I will be posting pics soon of our new venture.
 
I live in san diego, pretty moderate weather here. If i were to plant now (november) A) would they survive, and B), if they did survive would they still produce over the spring or summer to then harvest come september/october?
 
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