Numbers of plants?

Is it useful to plant one plant per strain or do I need more to put a meaningful amount into beer?
What's a recommended number per strain?
Thanks!

If you look at a typical recipie, hops are in the ounces range, and a sucessful harvest will yeild pounds per plant, even after drying and additional hops you might add (I add about 20% more for whole hops compared to pelets) so unless you are brewing every week, or using the same hop all the time, one plant can cover you for several brews. However, the weather has a very big part in that. Last year my hops did terrible, not enough water and too much heat, so yeilds were way down.

Every plant is going to give you about 2lb of hops.

It all depends on what kind of beer you like to make. I like to do a IPA's with low alpha hops so for me multiple plants are good, for most people one plat per type will work well.

Try to plat something you use a lot, I lean to low alpha hops because they're good for the late additions and you don't need to know the alpha for that.

Planting a single of anything heightens the potential to end up with nothing. I would at least plant two of any varietal I actually want to use...

Cheers!

It depends on how much you use in each beer. I have one of each variety for mine, but they didn't produce all that much last year, due to first year. I think most people do one plant per variety unless growing to sell.

I would strongly recommend planting two. This way, given proper care and conditions, you can get enough 1st year cones to brew with (I did) as well as clearly establishing which plant is the "better" phenotype. Even if they come from the same plant, one cutting will almost certainly outperform the other in some way due to subtle variations in conditions. If you need more room or less maintainance after year two, donate the weaker crown to anyone willing to dig it up for you. Good luck!

Like jessox said, you're better with two to ensure some amount of growth in your first year. I've seen tremendous variability in vigor of first year plantings but once they get some roots established they'll most all keep pace with one and other in years to come. Some are just slow out of the gate. Have fun!

I would suggest putting more than one hizome per hill, though. That way you are pretty much sure that something will come up. Just one per hill means growth or total failure, nothing else.

lurker18 said:

I would suggest putting more than one hizome per hill, though. That way you are pretty much sure that something will come up. Just one per hill means growth or total failure, nothing else.

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I agree completely with lurker. Im new to brewing and hop growing and have done TONS of research about hops and most all sites and resources say that planting at least two per hill is recommended.

Like stated above, plant more if you have the room. I have six plants 3 Cascades, 2 Centennials and 1 CTZ. Last year was my fourth year and I ended up with a lot more than I needed. After I got my share, I put an add on Craigs list and sold the rest for cheap. Paid for the water and fertilizer.

Two per hill is a good plan

I agree, one rhizome per hill might be on the lighter side(but it will get bigger as it gets older) and would recommend multiple rhizomes per hill.
I plant 4-5 rhizomes per hill giving great results in the first year and then it only gets better than that for the following seasons

BBL_Brewer said:

Like stated above, plant more if you have the room. I have six plants 3 Cascades, 2 Centennials and 1 CTZ. Last year was my fourth year and I ended up with a lot more than I needed. After I got my share, I put an add on Craigs list and sold the rest for cheap. Paid for the water and fertilizer.

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What kind of price did you get for your hops? Did you have to wait long to get rid of what you didn't want? Just curious because I have a few more coming up this year and probably would not be able to use them all or even get near that point. Thanks for the input.
Bob

Rbeckett said:

What kind of price did you get for your hops? Did you have to wait long to get rid of what you didn't want? Just curious because I have a few more coming up this year and probably would not be able to use them all or even get near that point. Thanks for the input.
Bob

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I got a call the very next day and sold everything to one guy. I had about 4-5 lbs left on the bine and charged him $40. I helped him strip the plants and he had to dry them himself. I also told him he could come back in the spring for some rhizomes since the plants are starting to sprawl and need to be cut back.

What do you mean by "hill"? I've been reading up and haven't seen anything about this. Is that just planting more than one rhizome in one spot and then keeping the best one?

Some people like to plant the rhizomes in a built up mound of soil instead of in the ground. This is mainly a concern if you have poor drainage. I have mine in the ground and they do just fine, but my soil drains well and doesn't get soggy.

cincybrewer said:

What do you mean by "hill"? I've been reading up and haven't seen anything about this. Is that just planting more than one rhizome in one spot and then keeping the best one?

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A hill is simply a plant(one or multiple rhizomes to make up that plant). In the ground, in a container, etc.

"Hilling" is a season long growing technique used by growers with less than ideal drainage (flat fields) and/or are growing cultivars that have high crown buds that need winter protection. The rows start out relatively flat but a thin layer of soil is thrown by the cultivator equipment onto the plants with each cultivation pass between the rows. Gradually, over the seasons, the rows become raised and mounded. With the last cultivation pass each fall the equipment is run a little deeper, harder ,and faster - which results in more soil being thrown over the now dormant crowns and exposed high buds. This protects the buds from winter kill. The spring rains wash quite a bit of this back into the aisleways. I have seen 10-12 year old yards that have row mounding almost 18" high.
Hope this helps explain the whats and whys of hilling

Thanks for the info. So let's say I wanted to grow some Cascade and Chinook, would I want to order at least two rhizomes of each and then remove each one that isn't growing as well (assuming I have room for only two bines)?

You can put two rhizimes into the same hole. It will just turn into one big crown. I did this for my Centennial and CTZ because they were on the small side. My Cascade rhizomes were huge so I planted them seperately.

Is there any way to know the size prior to ordering? Are cascades generally bigger? I guess I could play it safe and order two of each.

cincybrewer said:

Is there any way to know the size prior to ordering? Are cascades generally bigger? I guess I could play it safe and order two of each.

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A standard rhizome is pretty much just that, a standard rhizome. Some varieties tend to produce 'big fatties' while others put out rhizomes about the size of a number 2 pencil. I can't speak for other suppliers but I do know that Freshops grades their stock and that the rhizomes Dave sells are basically the size of those little cigars 'black and mild's'. Some are a little bigger but I don't think it's fair to judge a standard rhizome by size alone. When I first started growing, while harvesting rhizomes in the Spring, I'd just throw some of the tiny scraps out in the yard. These weren't solid rhizomes - just little pieces with maybe one or two buds on them. Guess what, they grew.

Some growers may sell 'Jumbos'. These are generally bigger and most likely a year or so older, so they have a bunch more buds and more energy stored up. Having more buds and more energy stored, you may consider a 'Jumbo' the same as two. I'd prefer to plant two but that's just me. You'll most likely be fine as long as you don't overwater them from the start.