Growing Hops

Can you grow hops from planting one of the whole flowers? Or is it pretty much necessary to get one of the rhizomes?

mbeattie said:

Can you grow hops from planting one of the whole flowers? Or is it pretty much necessary to get one of the rhizomes?

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You need a rhizome.

Most hop flowers are seedless, because growers only have cloned female plants. The male plants just take up space and don't product anything useful. Breweries don't like seeds in the hops, they just add weight without contributing anything to the brew.

Even if you had seeds, rhisomes are the only way to know what you are growing. Hops don't breed true, just like apples.

david_42 said:

Even if you had seeds, rhisomes are the only way to know what you are growing. Hops don't breed true, just like apples.

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Ha, spoken like a true oregonian. Shouldn't you have thrown something about cherries in there, too?

D@MN deer eat the cherry trees faster than I can plant them!

By the way, my hops plants are putting up shoots already, even though we've had major cold weather here the last couple weeks. So, get your orders in now.

When I got mine, I was told once the plant really got going I could divide them, and since I'm a poort student and could only afford one after my start-up costs this sounded great...I neglected to ask when I could do that, and do I have to dig up the whole rhizome to do it, and do I just cut it? Little help for the newbie guys?

my mother in law got me some hop seeds for christmas from a homebrew store. the label on the plastic bag just said 'hop seeds'. so i don't know what kind they are. i figure if they do grow, i can make a 'guess this hops ipa'.

my wife planted them in dirt in little plastic flower things this spring. they started to grow, and we just transplanted them outdoors last week under the trellis fence hoping they would climb up. the vines are maybe 6 inches long, i heard they can grow a foot a day.

they are growing slow outside, if at all. i figure i have nothing to lose since the seeds were free.

is there anything i can do to make them grow? will they grow better next spring? i know that i should buy some rhysomes for next spring, but has anybody had luck growing hops from seeds and what did they do?

barrett

How do you figure out how much alpha acid content you have to calculate IBU's or HBU's? Just make a guess depending on what kind you have planted?

i have been told and it works pretty well for most brews is if the hops is whole and you not crushed into a pellet you look in the end and look how much yellow is in there compared to a few others the ones with more yellow are best used for bittering and the rest can be used for flavoring .

the more yellow a hops has the stronger the alpha acid is and the bitter the brew will be .

Does anyone know where to buy a healthy male hop rhizome/seed/plant