2013 Hop garden photo thread

Looper said:

Nice! I wish I had a huge yard like that to make an awesome setup! How long are you going to keep them in pots?

Make sure your soil is a good consistency before planting, with some compost, peat moss, and mulch to improve drainage and water retention.

Keep us posted!

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Thanks! When u live in a small town u get big yards! Well relatively big.
I may keep the pots for a year and see how they do. Some of the ones in the ground are 4 yr old rhizomes a guy have me. They haven't popped yet as they are only a week in.
I used 3 parts potting 1 part sand 1 part mushroom compost in my pots. And in the holes.

two_one_seven said:

Here is my yard. Cascade in foreground and Willamette in the distance. These are year 2 and alread at 9 ft. Amazed at how fast they grow.

http://s1198.photobucket.com/user/brewboy74/media/IMG_0780.jpg.html

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Nice garden, looks good!

Basementbrewbred, that's quite a hoperation! I think you just defined when a garden becomes a farm. Nice work!

Anybody else have cones? There's prob 30-40 on each of the cascades and nugget from the first burrs formed. Everybody is topped the 18' lines except Mt. Hood and EKG. I harvested about a dozen each of the cascade and centennial rhizome/new crown sprouts and put into pots for relocation. Prob gonna do another feeding of blood and bogain to boost blooming in the next few days.

....still snowing here....

Not a big one, but good for me!

Chamuco said:

Basementbrewbred, that's quite a hoperation! I think you just defined when a garden becomes a farm. Nice work!

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Thank you Chamuco

Stevo2569 said:

Anybody else have cones?

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It's been raining too much the last few days to go out and check, but a few days ago I found lots of burrs on my second-year plants. Some of the plants are probably pushing 15 feet already. Although it has been cold and wet the last week, we have had a very summer-like spring and the plants seem to be about 1 1/2 to 2 months ahead of where they were last year as first-year plants. Looks like it will be an early harvest if the sun ever returns.

Chamuco said:

Basementbrewbred, that's quite a hoperation! I think you just defined when a garden becomes a farm. Nice work!

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There's a word I am soooo going to steal....

And I thought my Cascades were doing good at 3.5 feet and Centennials (got a late start) at six inches or so. Damn.

Never done hops before, so figured I'd try my hand at it when my LHBS had one rhizome left a few weeks ago. This is my Northern Brewer plant that I planted about 2 and a half weeks ago now, a little late maybe, but it's more for the experience. It's growing fast, only 2 sprouts above ground, one's hardly there, and the other's about 6 inches.

I killed one rhizome, but the other is growing goodish. The are planted in an earthbox I made. This is my first year brewing and growing hops. This is what I have so far.

This is a rhizome I got from my wife's coworker.

I'm attempting to document everything in my blog. Blog.rkipping.com

After finding six Cascade rhizomes on sale at a local garden supply store last year, they over-wintered in their little pots in the garage. I think I might have watered them twice the entire time. When temps finally climbed back up to just sub-arctic I moved them indoors with high hopes. They disappointed me for quite a while but finally, after giving them priority floor space in front of the slider five of the six finally came back to life.



I put up an EMT tripod, thanks to EdWort and his Texas version. But, then I scored a bunch of free Centennial rhizomes and had to get supplies for a second tripod on the way home. Instead of cutting the last big Centennial up I just slammed it in the ground and that gave me two tripods with six Centennials and five Cascades:



Cascades are going pretty good. And Centennials finally came around. The guy I got them from dug them but left them in a bucket on the hot front porch. But, they're finally going strong now.

This is a slightly older picture of the Cascades:



They're actually twice as big now.

specialkaye said:

After finding six Cascade rhizomes on sale at a local garden supply store last year, they over-wintered in their little pots in the garage. I think I might have watered them twice the entire time. When temps finally climbed back up to just sub-arctic I moved them indoors with high hopes. They disappointed me for quite a while but finally, after giving them priority floor space in front of the slider five of the six finally came back to life.

I put up an EMT tripod, thanks to EdWort and his Texas version. But, then I scored a bunch of free Centennial rhizomes and had to get supplies for a second tripod on the way home. Instead of cutting the last big Centennial up I just slammed it in the ground and that gave me two tripods with six Centennials and five Cascades:

Cascades are going pretty good. And Centennials finally came around. The guy I got them from dug them but left them in a bucket on the hot front porch. But, they're finally going strong now.

This is a slightly older picture of the Cascades:

They're actually twice as big now.

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Where did you get that emt tripod rig?

Here is my ghetto set up. 1st year centennials and cascades. First time growing hops, so far so good.
(Hope the pics show up)

Whiskey barrel Centennial update. 1st year.
Exactly two months since planting the rhizome, we are at about 24". Seems a little slow, but I expect it will start to take off in June.

I have yet to add any fertilizer other than the partial manure mix I used at planting. Good idea? Maybe I'll just add a few cups of chicken manure on top.

Carlscan26 said:

Where did you get that emt tripod rig?

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EMT is conduit. I guess he just fastened three lengths together on one end, stood it up, and spread the legs. Awesome idea though. Six 10' lengths and three couplers and you would have a nearly 20' tall tripod that stores easily during the winter.

DisturbdChemist said:

Here is my ghetto set up. 1st year centennials and cascades. First time growing hops, so far so good.
(Hope the pics show up)

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Looks good. Not ghetto at all. I am interested to see how hard training those bad boys horizontally will be for you. It should look pretty awesome if they get all the way to the end

Nearly done, ran out of twine. Anyway, I didn't have the ability to put in taller posts, due to powerlines, so growing them completely vertical was out. I also didn't want to them to go entirely horizontal either...so I decided to do a hybrid of the two. This method allows me to get nearly 18' of growing length. We'll see how it works out!

I've moved my trellis into place, fenced the dog out and run the strings. Looking at all the pictures, it would appear my plants are a ways behind most folks. Don't know if it was a late start, all the rain, or just first year plants. The shorter one is Cascade, the larger Willamette. I have Centennial and Magnum also sprouted, but not as tall yet. Just waiting on the sun I guess.

jeepinjeepin said:

EMT is conduit. I guess he just fastened three lengths together on one end, stood it up, and spread the legs. Awesome idea though. Six 10' lengths and three couplers and you would have a nearly 20' tall tripod that stores easily during the winter.

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That is cool

Getting bigger, year 2.

Picture of my year 2 Chinook hops.

I got some cascade rhizomes from HALIFAXHOPS 3 weeks ago and put this one in a pot and the rest are still in the refrigerator.

Shot from above

My 2nd year cascade leaves seem huge to me! (Boston Lager pint for scale, 1/4" rope.) I transplanted this from my in-laws a month ago. I have practically ignored this plant this year.

Carlscan26 said:

Where did you get that emt tripod rig?

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Whipped it together with parts from the home supply store after seeing EdWort's Texas version. Really only takes minutes to assemble. And very easy for one person to put up.

You can see the entire process in this G+ album:
Hoperation: Home Grown

Which is also linked in my signature.

jeepinjeepin said:

EMT is conduit. I guess he just fastened three lengths together on one end, stood it up, and spread the legs. Awesome idea though. Six 10' lengths and three couplers and you would have a nearly 20' tall tripod that stores easily during the winter.

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Yup, pretty much. I used some left over fence posts and just lashed the EMT to the driven posts so I have a full 20 foot height. Though, I'm not so sure I need that much height this year.

Looks like one of my picture links (from G+) broke so here is a gratuitous hop picture:

HydroGeologist said:

My 2nd year cascade leaves seem huge to me! (Boston Lager pint for scale, 1/4" rope.) I transplanted this from my in-laws a month ago. I have practically ignored this plant this year.

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Nice. And the hops look good too.

Cascade,
Centennial,
Chinook,
Chinook.

How well do those beer bottles work for watering? I'm assuming thats what they are being used for.

rmaloney86 said:

How well do those beer bottles work for watering? I'm assuming thats what they are being used for.

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They're working well, I use them like a watering globe. It keeps them damp, when it gets dry out. Plus, I haven't gotten around to setting up a drip line yet.

What do you do? Just fill it up with water and shove it into the ground?

Looper said:

What do you do? Just fill it up with water and shove it into the ground?

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Yep, its that simple. I check on the plants everyday, so it's not a big deal, filling them up.

Discovered a hop cone on my 1st year cascade. It's on the smallest of the 3 bines growing, which is only about 16" tall. Is this normal? Was stoked to find it.

Interesting, thats super early i think....

Not sure if its a good thing or not though, as i understand it hops dont start shooting out laterals and flowering until they are nearly done extending upwards. If thats the case your going to likely have a very small yield on the plant this year...again i could be wrong.

FuzzeWuzze said:

Interesting, thats super early i think....

Not sure if its a good thing or not though, as i understand it hops dont start shooting out laterals and flowering until they are nearly done extending upwards. If thats the case your going to likely have a very small yield on the plant this year...again i could be wrong.

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One cone = Single Hop Beer.

Newly built hop garden with marigolds and vegetables growing as well.

Left to right: Cascade, Horizon, and Willamette.