I wish I had patience

I pre-ordered my rhizomes (cascade, centenial, and williamette) and received the them about 6 weeks ago. The day the shipment showed up I was headed out of town. So I put a damp paper towel in their packaging and refrigerated them (I believed that was what I was supposed to do). When I came back in town...there was snow on the ground (April in Chicago). SO I waited. After 3 weeks in the fridge the weather was finally acceptable (IMO). The cascade rhizome appeared a little dry but the other two looked OK. So I planted the rhizomes as directed by "The Homebrewer's Garden". Fast-forward 2.5 weeks and...Nothing. No sprouts what so ever. Nothing.

Sadly I am a man of little patience so I 'carefully' dug up the rhizomes. Well...I couldn't find the first two I searched for. I began to panic and dug a bit more aggressively and still no trace of a rhizome. And then...I found the 3rd one. The cascade rhizome had 3-4 srouts that were just under the ground level. Another week and I would have seen them without digging. I carefully re-planted the cascade and went back to searching for the others. I found the williamette (it wasn't where I thought I buried it). Like the cascade it had some sprouts that would have been visible had I just waited. And then finally...I found the centenial. Unfortunately I am almost positive I damaged the centenial while searching for it.

I did my best to re-plant the rhizomes but I wouldn't be surprised to find anyone of them not end up sprouting after the unnecessary abuse I put them through.

I really need to work on my patience.

you may have killed them.

they take a long time to break ground sometimes. I killed my Goldings last year digging it up like that.

hope they make it.

Give it time and the rhizome may surprise you!

There's an excellent chance they will come up eventually. I swapped out my Sunbeam for Columbus this year. There was a 6" shoot on one of the rhizomes, which died immediately. Six weeks later, there is one tiny bine.

It's tough looking at pictures of people's first-year bines that are 6-10 feet tall, when my 4th year bines are only a foot or so. But, we did have frost again this morning.

david_42 said:

It's tough looking at pictures of people's first-year bines that are 6-10 feet tall, when my 4th year bines are only a foot or so. But, we did have frost again this morning.

Click to expand...

I know what you mean. I was jealous of all the people with bines several feet high before I could even get mine into the dirt due to weather.


For what its worth I am hopeful at least 2 of my 3 hop plants will survive. Hops are supposed to be hardy plants. As long as the shock I put them through wasn't too bad I could end up a happy camper in a few months.

David 42. Not to worry, mine are first year and with 33 and 31 deg mornings this week just isn't helpful. Mine are like yours, out from the house and so no resident heat and I too live way in the country. The city dwellers with 10 deg temp difference from our nightly lows, have a longer growing season.

Mine are healthy and most are now long enough to train to the twine, but not all are so nice.

I took a look at my hops once after planting (2 weeks), careful to replant and they all have come up nicely. So maybe you will be ok if you just let them have some time. Add a little fertilizer to help them out might be a good thing. I've been fertilizing mine with miricle grow every 2 weeks.

It's 26 degrees out right now, here where I live! My cascades poked their heads out last week, but between the snow and cold they aren't growing. Still, I know that they will start growing as soon as the weather warms up, and sometimes they grow about 6 inches in one day!

So, yes, patience is key. It's hard to wait, but it seems like hops really do grow like weeds.

Down here on the lake things always start slower than normal, even slower than local growers. I'm basically on an island with very little elevation between the yard and the water table. Once the lake turns over the ground warms quickly and everything catches up and sometimes exceeds what others in the area see. For example my mt. hood grew a full six inches in 24 hours as temperatures dropped into the 50's today.

Update:

Its been about 3-4 days since I let my impatience get the better of me and when I went out for some light watering today and found:

Cascade, the one I thought was dry at planting time and the one I thought I more than likely injured, appears to be doing well. There are 2 definite bines with one being about 3 inches and the other 2. Both have sizable leaves on them considering the bines height.

Centential has one bine about 2 inches tall with some definite leaves and another bine looks a bit dry with no leaves.

Williamette...no sign of anything. Though I am hopeful to see something in the next couple of days.

Update:

While I'd like to blame the lack of sun all week long plus cold temps (supposed to get frost this weekend) I think my rhizomes have given up the fight after my poor handling of them. The williamete still hasn't broken ground and the centenial is looking rather sad. The cascade hasn't seemed to grow at all in days either and the leaves are beginning to sag and maybe even wilt a little. I'm hopeful they'll survive long enough for the weather to turn warm but I am not going to bet on it helping at this point.

I guess I can look forward to trying again next year.

If you still have the cold temps I suppose you have time to order new ones and try again. You might not get much to harvest this year but they will grow nice roots for next season. In the mean time leave the old ones in the ground just in case you've got a survivor.