My Hops Garden Project

Oh, and I got a new boil kettle, Therminator plate chiller and just picked up an oxygen injection thingie today.
Aaaand painted the stand Subaru WRX blue one day in a bomber of Steel Toe (Size 11) induced state of mind. Then had to grind some of it off because it would have melted.

You certainly have a sh*t load more hops to deal with than I do, but I'll catch up over the next couple of years. Since the centennial you sent me continues to underperform, I do believe that you owe me a few ounces from your stash to make up for it.

I posted on Paul's thread earlier that my glacier plant was loaded with cones, but they were tiny and still pretty green. I wanted to wrap up the harvest over the weekend, so I picked them anyways. If the cones were of decent size like the rest, it would have been a similar volume as the cascades. They really needed another week or two, but I jumped the gun and picked 'em anyway. They had a fair amount of lupulin, but once dried were very grassy smelling. Probably won't use them, because they were not ready. Lesson learned.

The rig looks great and congrats on the new equipment!

use them anyway man.
Thanks, you should come by and brew on it!

I knew I recognized that back yard! Nice harvest this year, those plants are beasts now. Glad you keep making episodes with chip, you guys seem to have a blast when you brew together. Happy Hopping!

Gridlocked said:

Cheers - and post up some pics!!!

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OK

Cascades on the bine


Drying on my screen door insert that I never put up this summer


Ended up with 3.5 oz of Cascade, 0.5 oz of Nugget, and sadly the Tett died

Gridlocked said:

This is my hops garden project that I thought I would photo document mostly to entertain myself. This is the south-facing side of my house and before I started the project it was an extremely shabby and ugly rock area. It had rotten timber walls that came out after we bought the house 3 years ago and I'm FINALLY getting around to working on it. I don't have much time with 2 kids, but my wife has some starter vegetables that are ready to go into the ground so she's putting the pressure on me- which is nice. Thoughts and/or suggestions appreciated

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How did you secure your ropes and are they secured to the gutter?

They are screwed into the rim-joist under the flashing. I used some 3/4" ID zinc-plated eye-screws. They would pull straight out of the gutter.

Yea i really like the Bloom Booster stuff as well, I didnt use BioBloom specifically i just bought some Super Bloom but they are basically the same thing, a high phosphorus fertilizer.

Granted i have zero data points as these are first year plants, but the fact i got 18oz dry from three first year plants(3oz Columbus, 3oz Newport, 12oz Cascade), i'd like to think that my fertilizer schedule had at least a little bit to do with it.

It sounds like i followed a similar schedule to Gridlocked, once there were burr's i hit it with a dose every 2 weeks for maybe a total of 6 weeks.

BLAM! That's a SWEET harvest for first-year plants, Fuzze! Granted, you are in the hops growing mecca, Oregon which probably helps too. We had a MESSED UP growing season this year in Minnesota.

Yea being in Oregon helps im sure. I already had to cut mine back, hopefully that wont affect them too much going towards next year. I figure the commercial growers do it each year around this time when they harvest so it cant hinder the plants too much.

We had to bring them down to harvest as i have a setup somewhat similar to yours, eye bolts screwed into the wooden eaves under my gutter. But getting on a ladder 15+ feet up to harvest hops didn't sound the least bit fun.

Gridlocked said:

BLAM! That's a SWEET harvest for first-year plants, Fuzze! Granted, you are in the hops growing mecca, Oregon which probably helps too. We had a MESSED UP growing season this year in Minnesota.

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Ive been thinking about starting some plants next year. Is Kansas too hot in the summer to have a good production?

Enjoy fellas!

Gridlocked said:

Enjoy fellas!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6q0qhrgehs

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BLAM! Thanks for the heads up on the new episode

O man that`s splendidly, are you ready for next season?

Great thread and videos! I learned a lot. Thanks

How much bio-bloom does one add? The instructions from biobizz say add it for 10 weeks once per week during the flowering phase:

(http://www.biobizz.com/uploads/bestanden/3aef58a5-f168-4c67-90e5-f795080075c4).

Gridlocked: it looks like you added it 3 times total but how much? 1ml/L, 2ml/L ?
Also I'd like to say thanks for inspiring me to grow hops. I spent the past 2 days cutting down trees to make space for my new hop garden

Pretty much joined HBT for this thread and information. Thanks for sticking with it and sharing what you're learning over time. Found this via Chop & Brew and combined with those videos and Paul's thread I feel well-prepared to care for my just-put-in-the-ground hops.

I have a Centennial and a Cascade in one of my mammoth raised garden beds, a Chinook next to said bed, and another Cascade and Chinook in a couple "eh, maybe it'll work" spots around the yard. I'm in SW Minneapolis and I have precious little space that both gets proper sun and can be devoted to hops, so I'm hoping to get to a point where I've got my big three crowns in great shape and can expect maybe a couple pounds per season.

At this point all of them have broken ground, though those in the maybe spots are noticeably behind the three in my prime spots.


Cascade


Chinook


Centennial

I put them in a day before we fell into a week-long funk of cold and rain/snow, so I'm pretty thrilled they've all even started up, but they're definitely newborns and I obsess over them multiple times daily. I have minor rigging set up to support them for now since they're new, but the stuff you all have shared has definitely got me thinking about far more interesting solutions for year two and beyond.

One thing that you all have mentioned but I would love to know more about is harvesting rhizomes and other ideas to help keep the crowns in check - I know overall it's a losing battle and by putting them into the ground at all I've signed up for a yard with hops in it, but I do want to do what I can to ensure I can still grow other things as well. Maybe someone can convince Walton to include that in a future C&B video?

Thanks for the information, folks. Much appreciated.

Special thanks to Ted for saying that he sometimes just lays the bine on the support and it takes care of itself. I got myself way too worked up on what was clockwise on whatever plane or what that I was just stuck, so I did just that and the bine is now happily doing its thing. Also, now I have the clockwise thing down pat. Hooray, nature!


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

So just wanted to say I plan on growing hops for the first time. I'm moving back to Kentucky in about 5 months. Just wanted to ask for any opinions you had for a first time grower? I have watched you on chop and brew a few times. I'm currently in the military in Texas and sand isn't really the best environment for them and I don't have the room. Just wanted any info you might have

Thanks for all the comments fellas. I haven't been on this site in a LONG time. I'll try to read through some of the questions above and get back to you. Life is just really busy.