Hop growing in the tropics

Aloha. I am trying to grow hops in Hawaii. I live up the Mountain, so it is cooler than you think. My questions are in regards to winter. All I have read suggests that the plant will die after frost. Not gonna happen here. Will the plant continue to grow over the winter? Should I cut it back in late fall? Should I let it go until the are cones? Plants are in the ground and doing well. We are also supposed to get a lot of rain this summer.

Didn't try this when I lived in HI, but from what I've read about hops growing, is they don't do well in the tropics because they need a shorted photo period (daylight) in order to trigger flowering. I suppose you could try growing indoors under grow lights like some other things that are grown in Maui, but that would be really difficult and probably not worth it.
read the similar threads below

I have heard of some hops being able to flower in Hawaii. Also be careful about following agricultural laws and regs. I am not sure if any exist for hops in Hawaii, but I imagine it would be very invasive in that climate.

What is your latitude?? If it's North of 35 degrees or so, you should be OK. South of that, the days are too short. They have tried artificial lights to extend "daylight" in India, but......

I've found that in the winter months a grow light works. Here's one you can try: www.vegetronix.com/Products/Grow-Lights.phtml. It's small and unobtrusive -

We just planted 5 cascades on Maui. I know that the sunlight is an issue. Also, you need a month of cold weather for them to go dormant. We are planting in Upcountry where we have a better climate change than the lower areas of Maui. We will see how they do and may possibly plant more if they work in the 2nd year.

www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/hops-hawaii-150059/

Just posted picture of cascade near Lahaina. Its a second year. I travel back and forth and they were neglected while is was back on the mainland.

Old thread but hopefully someone will read it. Just this spring planted Cascade hops from Yakima Hops on the big Island of Hawaii in Keaau. We are at 19.5 degrees north latitude. I am letting them grow from soil up our chain link fence. Super vigorous growth and one vine in particular has hop cones at every node. Soils are acidic here so I buffer with ag lime. These Cascade hops from the pacific northwest are flowering within 4 months of planting so short photo periods don't prohibit Cascade from flowering.

The Cascade hops are growing and flowering very well at 19.3 degrees north lattitude. The problem is the rainforest climate is causing anthracnose mold to be able to ruin the cones before they are fully mature. 😢

Photos of Big Island of Hawaii Cascade Hops

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1 more photo in better focus. The brown spots on the cones are the anthracnose mold/fungus

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Hey Dean -
Happy to see you're giving this a shot. I've been back and forth about it. I knew the daylight hours might be an issue, but I think the trickiest issue here is the rain. Might have better luck somewhere high up on the Kona side, or possibly Waimea. The folks at the brewhaus in Waimea have hops on the fence in their outdoor seating area. I saw some are now starting to flower. I hope to keep a close eye on them over the next month or two.

Keep us posted on your progress!

I think that is very close to success , if protect plants inside a greenhouse to reduce humidity especially at night this keeps the wet plants .

the plants have already gone through the harsh winter of hawaii ? as was induced to break dormancy of plants? and reached to try cones? are difference in taste compared to normal cascade ?

regards

yanick.

Hops succumbed to anthracnose and sooty mold before they reached full maturity. I will need to move the plants to a drier area underneath the roof line. I trimmed the vines all the way back to the soil level. Hops are growing again but more slowly since it is winter - short days but still 75 during the day.

First year test plots appear to burr/ cone ok, but various cultivars obviously do better than others. It's been written that it is not so much the length of daylight as the length of darkness that induces the process by where they (the plants) trigger a dormancy period, allowing their normal cycle to occur. We'll see. Cascade. CTZ, and Nugget seem to be the best of the bunch.
Clean trades will help w/ the sooty mould, not sure about the anthracnose issue.

As a follow up, a few of the varietals have produced well, primarily Cascades, but the CTZ also threw some beefy cones. These are still first year plants, so not sure if they will behave the same without a "winter" next year, but looking forward to figuring out an optimal harvest date.

Iancl, your hop plants look beautiful. did the hops make a good beer or were they just so so

They were a nice add. I made a few batches right off the bine, and dried the rest. Good fun
using homegrown hops, nice flavor.

It was too wet for hops in Keaau (rainforest climate) at 200 feet as the hops matured they became moldy. Lancl what habitat type did you have success growing your hops?

Hawaii_Dean said:

It was too wet for hops in Keaau (rainforest climate) at 200 feet as the hops matured they became moldy. Lancl what habitat type did you have success growing your hops?

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Waimea. Second year plants are doing their thing. Cascade are the only variety that are producing.

BrownsBrewing said:

We just planted 5 cascades on Maui. I know that the sunlight is an issue. Also, you need a month of cold weather for them to go dormant. We are planting in Upcountry where we have a better climate change than the lower areas of Maui. We will see how they do and may possibly plant more if they work in the 2nd year.

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This was really helpful, thank you for that. What end result did you have? Did you use a greenhouse? Is it possible to grow your hops outdoors with lots of shade?