homegrown hops ?s

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gremlin

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SE Vermont, USA
sooooo last christmas my mother-in-law got me a lil packet of hop seeds. i've read here (and there) that you can only grow hops from rhyzomes to my dismay.

after starting the seeds indoors over the winter and spring, and then transplanting the small plants outdoors under a trellis, they have really been growing at a good rate.

right now, i have 5 foot tall hops plants growing madly on the trellis, and little purple flowers are appearing all over finally (the begining of september).

could i, would i, get any hops so late in the year? we are expected to have frost within 3-4 weeks.

if not, what can i expect next year? do i just let them die this winter and they start to grow again next spring by themselves? when are hops harvested, how long does it take into the year? are they like grapes where you leave the vines up and get a new crop every year?

i am shocked that they even grew at all this year from seeds, yet alone they are finally getting flowers now! anybody have any advice? what should i do?

barett
 
They die back to the root every year. And considering it's harvest time, you probably won't see any hops this year.

The reason why people grow hops from rhizomes is simple, that way you get an exact clone of a hop type. Hops from seed could be almost anything, just like apples.
 
Sorry to hijack this thread, but I was given some hop rhyzomes from a friend and they've grown wonderfully this year. I'll get tons this year, but I don't know what kind they are. Just plain old hops, I guess. Am I better off using these hops for bittering rather than late boil aroma hops?
 
Since you have no idea what the AA% is, but you CAN smell them, homegrown hops are best used for aroma & flavor. This is the case even when you know what kind you have, as AA% varies from year to year and location to location.

Other than an all Fresh Hop ale that is. The flavor profiles of fresh hops are so different that the exact bittering level isn't much of a consideration.
 
gremlin said:
sooooo last christmas my mother-in-law got me a lil packet of hop seeds. i've read here (and there) that you can only grow hops from rhyzomes to my dismay.

after starting the seeds indoors over the winter and spring, and then transplanting the small plants outdoors under a trellis, they have really been growing at a good rate.

right now, i have 5 foot tall hops plants growing madly on the trellis, and little purple flowers are appearing all over finally (the begining of september).

could i, would i, get any hops so late in the year? we are expected to have frost within 3-4 weeks.

if not, what can i expect next year? do i just let them die this winter and they start to grow again next spring by themselves? when are hops harvested, how long does it take into the year? are they like grapes where you leave the vines up and get a new crop every year?

i am shocked that they even grew at all this year from seeds, yet alone they are finally getting flowers now! anybody have any advice? what should i do?

barett
Having grown hops for the last few years, I can't help but wonder if you even have hops? The reason is, I have never seen purple flowers? :confused: Maybe there are some that have purple flowers, but I haven't seen them is all I'm saying. Anyway, if you can post a pic, that would really be helpful.
 
david_42 said:
Since you have no idea what the AA% is, but you CAN smell them, homegrown hops are best used for aroma & flavor. This is the case even when you know what kind you have, as AA% varies from year to year and location to location.

Other than an all Fresh Hop ale that is. The flavor profiles of fresh hops are so different that the exact bittering level isn't much of a consideration.

Thanks! :mug:
 
of course i have no idea what kind of hops they are, the package just said hops seeds. but i do like the idea of fresh hop ale!

how do i know if they're male or female?

maybe they are more pink than purple, i'm a bit colorblind.

of course none of this matters now that we are supposed to get a frost tonight, maybe even below freezing... how hardy are hop plants? how long until after flowers until you get hops?

hops.jpg


barrett
 
This is my first year of growing hops (so I'm no expert) but I have to agree with the "not sure if they're hops" sentiment. Mine did not get typical "flowery" flowers at all, but rather a flower that resembled an undeveloped hop. they looked like little spiky (I say spikey but they weren't spikes - just the undeveloped petals) little balls. The "spikes" developed into the hop petals. But the leaves do look right. . .
 
When are hop rhyzomes are available for sale? Is it Feb? And Im assuming you plant then as well? Hopefully next year Ill be able to join in the harvest.
 
I have a fence that looks a lot like the one in the pic, maybe five feet off the ground. I've got a couple spot that get a pretty good amount of sun that I'd like to grow hops on, but will that work? I know most people have them running up strings that are like ten or fifteen feet high, will they grow out horizontally as well?
 
the_bird said:
I have a fence that looks a lot like the one in the pic, maybe five feet off the ground. I've got a couple spot that get a pretty good amount of sun that I'd like to grow hops on, but will that work? I know most people have them running up strings that are like ten or fifteen feet high, will they grow out horizontally as well?
Yes, that will work. Not optimal, but it will work.
& Yes, eventually after a few years they will start to work their way up and down the fence.
Patience required, as it is likely to take at least two years to see optimal results.
 
Well, I may not be in the house much longer than a couple more years! I may be growing hops for the next guys. Let me ask, though, since we basically live in the same area - what kinds of hops grow well in southern VT/Northern MA? Are their particular varieties that are best suited to our climate?

I'll get them started in the spring, can't hurt. Probably shouldn't expect anything significant in the first year, I suppose.
 
the_bird said:
Probably shouldn't expect anything significant in the first year, I suppose.

As far as first year harvests go, I think you're right. I'm in South Carolina and harvested my first year hops yesterday. There wasn't as much as I'd hoped for but from what everyone is saying I shouldn't expect much from the first year. I'd estimate the take at an ounce to ounce n a half of cascade. The Nugget and Perle didn't/haven't produced any (although the bines did grow somewhat).
 
I just wanted to post a coupld of pics of my meager harvest:

EDIT --- why is that whenever there are attachments I don't have priviledges to view them?? even my own attachments!!

hops1.jpg


hops2.jpg
 
looks good ian, hard to beat fresh homegrown hops
I'm planning on growing some hops next year.

If you guys have any links/definitive resources for growing hops please post them.
I've found a few via google.
 
Chimone said:
When are hop rhyzomes are available for sale? Is it Feb? And Im assuming you plant then as well? Hopefully next year Ill be able to join in the harvest.

I got mine I think around middle of March. Keep an eye out at http://www.hopsdirect.com/. You'd probably have better luck than me. They got burnt up pretty good with Tucson heat.

Maybe you and I could also go in on some hops from them as well. I bought 1# of cascade and #1 nugget from them at the same time I bought the rhyzomes and probably still have 1# of each since they sent me more like 2# for the price of 1#.
 
http://www.freshops.com is another source. I'm looking forward to growing some next year.

I've decided that I'm going to run some string from the ground up to the peak of my garage roof. Easy enough and much easier than building a trellis-type system.
 
a catamount is a sophisticated name for a wildcat.... seriously.

here's the closer pics of what's growing-

hopsclose2.jpg


hopsclose1.jpg


are they hops? what kind?

barrett
 
Hmmm... I'm no expert, but they don't look like typical brewing hops to me. Maybe a close relative, though, because the leaves in your first images look similar to some varieties. But the flowers in brewing hops look sort of like green pine-cones that hang down from the stem:
bullion.jpg
 
I just refound this thread. I was wondering if any of you experienced hop growers had a first year harvest that had no hoppy scent at all? My "harvest" didn't smell at all outside of a leafy smell. I was wondering if this was typical of a first year?
 
Evets said:
Maybe they just weren't "ripe" yet. I grew some this year that took awhile befor they smelled hoppy.

You're exactly right. Yesterday I picked a few small ones that I had left on the vines and they finally smelled hoppy. OH well, live and learn - next year's will be better.:(
 
original poster here, yo.
the first pics of flowers i posted only grew on the right side of the fence. lately hop like things have been growing only on the left side... is that what somebody meant earlier about male or female plants?
do i have hops? any idears about what variety? how do i know when they are ready to pick? they seem to be growing pretty good despite the weather!

and remember- these were grown from SEEDS that i started this spring!!! so maybe you don't need rhyzomes to start with?

here's some new pics-

hops2.jpg


hops1.jpg


barrett
 
They do look strangely hoplike - can anyone do a visual ID? None of the 3 varieties I grew had any red bines.
 
ive never grown hops but back in the day i grew a lot of pot ; im 99.9 sure that those are male pods. hops and weed are close cousens and thats what male plants look like .i hate to be the one to tell you but youll never get any hop flowers and if you do have a female plant. out of your pics somwhere the ones in the pics will just pollonate them and produce seeds
 
Does anyone know if your can buy a male hop rhizome online somewhere, or know how to go about getting a male hop plant??
 
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