South Texas Hop Garden

This is my first year growing hops. I read that they don't grow well below the 35th parallel, but I'm on the 29th (Cibolo, TX) and they seem to be doing fine so far. I'm just north of San Antonio, and after reading through EdWort's trials and tribulations of growing hops at the 30th parallel I wasn't sure how id fare, but i wanted to create a new thread for anyone else in the area and see how everything is working out for us down south.

The Garden was planted on March 25th 2011. i dug 8 holes about 1' deep and used a mix of the existing soil and cow manure, rhizomes were planted 2-3 inches down. i did not build up a mound as they are already planted on a slight grade. wood stakes with a hole drilled near the top for 1/4" rope that attaches to eye hooks in the fascia of the house.

I have (in order of front of the house to the back)

2 Nugget, 2 Chinook, 1 Cascade, 1 Centennial, 2 Sterling

March 31st

The beginning


Nugget


Sterling


Sterling close up

Here are pics from April 13th

Nugget


Chinook


Cascade and Centennial

And pics from today

Nugget


Chinook (the one on the right is 7' tall)


Cascade and Centennial


Sterling on the far right


other view


The Sterling are the slowest growing even thought they were one of the first to shoot up, they both had 3 or 4 vines, but i recently pruned them back to 1 or 2 per plant to make them grow quicker. They all get at least 4 hours of direct sun, that is until the the neighbors house's shadow get to the base of the hops, but they will get almost 7 as the reach the top of the ropes. Also I am planning on running more rope down from the eye hooks so the vines ( i don't like calling them bines) can grow back down to the ground and hopefully reach up to 18' in length.

Glad to see another fellow south/central Texas hops grower! I think the limited sun will help them with the coming hot summer temps. Keep us updated on which varieties do best.

I've got first year Wilamette, Mt Hood, Cascade, Nugget, and Centennial in planters here in Austin. So far the Cascade and Nugget seem to be doing the best with both producing hop cones already. Centennial not far behind. Still to early for any verdict. I've got a thread going here as well.

Good luck and I'll stay tuned!

pm5k00 said:

This is my first year growing hops. I read that they don't grow well below the 35th parallel, but I'm on the 29th (Cibolo, TX) and they seem to be doing fine so far....

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My understanding is that they grow just fine further South, but may not flower due to the length of day not being long enough.

I read elsewhere where folks are growing hops in Africa, and they use halogen lights at night to induce flowering. Through selective breeding, they even came up with their own cultivar that would flower naturally down there.

_JP_ said:

My understanding is that they grow just fine further South, but may not flower due to the length of day not being long enough.

Click to expand...

I haven't heard that before about the flowering.... I have what i think are the start of cones on 3 or 4 of the plants. will post a pic soon.

whatever became of your hops through the rough summer/fall?

SaltyTX said:

whatever became of your hops through the rough summer/fall?

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dont know about his, but last year was so brutal mine didnt survive the 30 days straight of 100+ last summer

They all survived,I made sure to water them everyday, and they don't get direct sunlight till about noon, so that helped. The Nugget, Cascade, and Chinook did the best, giving me about 1/2 oz dried weight of hops per plant, the Sterling never got above 2', and the Centennial stopped at 4'.

All plants survived the winter and are growing again, I also planted 1 more Cascade, 2 Columbus, and 2 Summit. I'm in the process of getting 2 crowns of wild Hops from another member on this forum also.

pm5k00 said:

They all survived,I made sure to water them everyday, and they don't get direct sunlight till about noon, so that helped. The Nugget, Cascade, and Chinook did the best, giving me about 1/2 oz dried weight of hops per plant, the Sterling never got above 2', and the Centennial stopped at 4'.

All plants survived the winter and are growing again, I also planted 1 more Cascade, 2 Columbus, and 2 Summit. I'm in the process of getting 2 crowns of wild Hops from another member on this forum also.

Click to expand...

Good to hear. I will see some 100+ days in July for sure. I'm thinking of building a misting system.

excellent. We have some land out that way, so good to know they may survive if I keep them watered.

Good luck. Looks good so far. I just got my rhizomes planted yesterday. I hope I get to show them off soon. I mixed up garden soil, peat moss, and vermic-whateveritscalled into a few 10 gallon containers.

So i ripped up the Sterlings as they did horrible last year, they had bad root rot so it's probably for the best. I put in wild hops from Wisconsin in their place. I also moved the Centennial to a new spot and put another Cascade in it's place.

Also I strung Smaller rope (twine) between the like varieties to let them grow between 18-22' before they run out of room, height is dependent on how far apart the rhizomes are planted.

Columbus


Summit


Wild Wisconsin Hops


Cascade


Chinook


Nugget


Centennial in front with side view of house

Looking good! Subscribed

Another update, The Cascade is going crazy, and Nugget and Chinook are not far behind. Only one Summit has come up, and the Columbus are slow to grow.

CENTENNIAL


NUGGET


CHINOOK


CASCADE


WILD HOPS


SUMMIT


COLUMBUS

Another set of pics, from today 5/3/12

Cascade has cones, and Chinook has cones big enough to harvest already

Centennial and Nugget


Chinook


Cascade


Wild


Summit and Sterling(in the bucket)


Columbus

Looks good dude!!!

I'd roundup and mulch around the plants to choke out the bermuda/ kikuyu that will steal nutrients and root space..

Update: we finally had some rain and it helped the centennial and wild hops to final start getting some vertical growth. Also had a small harvest from the Cascade and Chinook already.

Centennial on left Nugget on right:



Chinook:



Cascade: 2nd year on left 1sr year on right.



Wild hops:



I had 1st year Summits, Columbus, and MT Hoods in the back yard but SWMBO forgot to water them for me while I was gone for a week due to work and they all died =/

How is this year's crop doing? I live in North central SA and have been researching if hop plants would fair well in this area.

I am in the middle of moving (only a few miles away) and they had to be dug up and have been potted for about 2 months now. Unfortunately a few have died, but I still have my Cascade, Chinook, Nugget, and Wild Hops alive and doing well. My Centennial never grew very well and the other varities wernt growing to well either, but I am often away from home for work and they dont get as much attention as they need.

I also live in north central SA. I planted cascade hope for the first time this year. I had some good growth but all of the plants were attacked by spider mites. Does anyone know if it is too late in the year for more cones to produce?

Thanks for the reply. I think I may try planting a cascade to see how it handles the soil.
Have you tried diatomaceous earth around the base of the plants? That may keep some bugs away.

I have not tried that. At first I tried all natural (soap and water) with no luck. Then I went full blown chemical. I used sevens pesticide. The mites would always look dead and gone, but in a few weeks would come back. I have recently bought something made specifically for killing spider mites. Hopefully this works.

Mites eggs are tough. Sprays may not kill them. You might need to spray several times to make sure the young spider mites do not grow up to lay eggs that restart the cycle. The product guide should tell you at what intervals to spray.

I believe neem oil works too.

I also live in Houston and just ordered some cascade to plant. I will start small with just two plants in planters. I would really like to take this first year as an opportunity to learn how the plants react to the location, heat, and planting style. I have about a 50' run of 7' tall privacy fencing along one side of my home. I plan on setting up lines up then across the fence but not actually directly on the fence. I will post a photo soon because that is easier than description. I am thinking that because it is so hot here during the summer this may keep some of the heat off the fence planks from touching the vines directly. I guess we will soon see how this idea works.