Florida Hops experiment

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Picture update:

Hey guys, have my hops in containers until I decide how I want to full grow them. Ground or larger container. They have been in soil for about 10 days now. Gave them a short trellis to grow on for hte time being, until I decide what I'm doing. They grow pretty quick, can't wait to string them up for good and watch them grow.

For those into non-conventional gardening, I have a rhizome in an Aquaponics GB and it seems to be growing fairly well. Curious to see how it works out. I will post pictures of that one later.



 
Just an update on my grow... Lost two hop plants to silk worms. I had my containers next to a large tree and silk worms have been falling right into them. They chewed the vines right at the base and I lost my two largest vines.... I hate bugs! Still have two vines going off the one rhizome and another rhizome in my aquaponic system that is growing really slow (new system).
 
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one crazy enough to grow hops in Florida :)

I live in the Tampa Bay area and just started growing these about 5 weeks ago:
(Cascade, Chinook, Golden, Nugget)
http://imgur.com/a/e3CR4

My main obstacle so far is dealing with pests. My plants are constantly under attack from beetles, mites, aphids, grasshoppers etc... I've been using a combination of neem oil and rosemary to keep them at bay but nothing seems to work. I'll be trying tobacco juice next.

Good luck and happy growing!
 
I've been having pretty good luck using orangicide. A few others on the forum sweat by it. I need to get some new pictures posted. My plats have started to come back, except my Willamette. I can see tiny buds starting but they just don't seem to want to get off the ground, they are all 1/2in or smaller. The other two, my galena and centennial are well on their way to recovery. Each plant only came back with one strong bine but atleast they are growing.
 
The centennial seems to be the most full of the three but the galena is growing tall quickly but hardly has any leaves. The Willamette has come back and sprouted but really no good growth to be had. I did notice about an inch long bine today which is longer than Friday so that's a good sign.

Here is my centennial
image-2770675118.jpg



Galena
image-3628504329.jpg


Willamette
image-104146371.jpg
 
So in the three days since I last posted the pictures, my galena has grown about 2 feet. prompting me to build a temporary trellis for it to climb. I built the trellis last night while the Galena was 2 inches above the tomato cage and it's now already a foot up the twine. The centennial is almost all the way to the top of the twine structure I made And even the Willamette started to produce a couple bines.



image-3436914911.jpg

I know the trellis isn't the prettiest thing but for a temporary solution it will do the job.



image-1905728783.jpg
 

Attachments

  • image-2153562611.jpg
    image-2153562611.jpg
    51.8 KB · Views: 266
  • image-4176612929.jpg
    image-4176612929.jpg
    51.8 KB · Views: 245
Wow... I need to try and find some new rhizomes, the two I have still haven't grown an inch! I am not sure if maybe they're not receiving enough sunlight, water, or what. They are just sitting there.
 
I wouldn't give up on them just yet. All three of mine stalled out and I had to cut them back to the ground. My two big growers, Galena and Centennial took about a month to go again but I had no activity on my Willamette. This weekend I noticed something popping out of the side of my pot.



image-1480227609.jpg

Apparently the Willamette didn't feel like growing up so it grew down and out and just now is it going up again. I think what happened was once I cut it back there was too much of the crown showing and it crystallized. Just keep watering and fertilizing. They could just be focusing on roots again before making the jump back above the ground.
 
Here is a pic of my Wesley Chapel 1st year hops from Great Lakes Hops
hops.jpg


From left to right:
Columbus 9' staring to produce cones
Hallertau 15'
Magnum 10' staring to produce cones
Chinook 7' staring to produce cones
Zeus 7'
Cascade 5'
Centennial 4'

Missed the Centennial in the photo above so here it is
hop8.jpg
 
Very nice Dunz, what poles did you use to string up your twine? I didn't even think about putting something attached to my fence. Very simple and effective, well done.
 
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one crazy enough to grow hops in Florida :)

I live in the Tampa Bay area and just started growing these about 5 weeks ago:
(Cascade, Chinook, Golden, Nugget)
http://imgur.com/a/e3CR4

My main obstacle so far is dealing with pests. My plants are constantly under attack from beetles, mites, aphids, grasshoppers etc... I've been using a combination of neem oil and rosemary to keep them at bay but nothing seems to work. I'll be trying tobacco juice next.

Good luck and happy growing!

1/4 cup dish soap (dawn)
2-3 Tbsp lemon juice
12oz beer
1 gallon water

mix let the bubble die down put into a spray bottle spray the vine, aphids, scale, etc. will disappear with the heavy rains you may need to spray more often.

P.S. watch you containers lost mine last year when Debbie dumped rain on us for over a week roots don't like to be that wet.
 
Very nice Dunz, what poles did you use to string up your twine? I didn't even think about putting something attached to my fence. Very simple and effective, well done.

Thank you. I used 3/4" EMT, from the electrical aisle, with 1/2" EMT inside so that I can telescope them up and down as needed. Then painted everything green so they didn't stick out too bad.
 
beaksnbeer said:
1/4 cup dish soap (dawn)
2-3 Tbsp lemon juice
12oz beer
1 gallon water

mix let the bubble die down put into a spray bottle spray the vine, aphids, scale, etc. will disappear with the heavy rains you may need to spray more often.

P.S. watch you containers lost mine last year when Debbie dumped rain on us for over a week roots don't like to be that wet.

Thanks beaksnbeer, I'll have to give this a try.
 
Du z what is your trellis system made of? Looks like a design I'm trying to go with
 
benzy4010 said:
Du z what is your trellis system made of? Looks like a design I'm trying to go with

He said it one post earlier.

dunz said:
Thank you. I used 3/4" EMT, from the electrical aisle, with 1/2" EMT inside so that I can telescope them up and down as needed. Then painted everything green so they didn't stick out too bad.
 
Tampa area gardeners, Ddubduder and others, are you getting any cones yet? Here are a couple pics from my garden.
PicsArt_1371600637213.jpg

PicsArt_1371600270211.jpg
 
PerfectD3 said:
Are any of you worried about lightning strikes on the tall poles being used?

It's always a possibility, but I view it as a risk of growing hops in general. You can't really get away from tall poles with these things. I just won't be going outside to check on them in the rain.

dunz said:
Tampa area gardeners, Ddubduder and others, are you getting any cones yet? Here are a couple pics from my garden.

That's too funny, I actually took pictures this morning of mine planning on posting them later today. My centennial though the smallest of the three is the only one with full cones. The galena is throwing mad spurs and the Willamette is finally taking off again.


image-930580681.jpg



image-637810482.jpg
 
My Galina is ready to harvest this weekend and I might get my Willamette too but it may need another week or two. My centennial probably won't have more than a hand full of cones.
 
I've got cones, the columbus is probably ready to harvest. Everything else is still growing.
 
So now that it's 2014 how did everyone's hop experiential work out?
I'm currently getting my lattice and hop garden ready for my rhizomes I pre ordered. They should be here early April


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
I live in southern hillsborough county in wimauma.

Did anyone have better experience with sun / shade placements?

I have a pre existing drip irrigation set up that I'm planning on expanding so I can keep these baby's cool


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Mine was a fun project but the yield was horrible. I have three plants (centennial, galena & Willamette) which all needed to be harvested really early in the season due to browning. The galena produced about 1.5 ounces dried but did end with a decent alpha content (I used it in a recent brew and overshot the bittering quite a bit so it must have been higher than I expected). The other two produced bines but no real cones worth picking. I'm keeping them going this year and will see how things go this round. I had them in direct sunlight due to lack of better location and wouldn't recommend it, find a 50/50 shade light if possible. I'm up in lower Pasco just over the Hillsboro border.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Awesome man thanks for the tip good luck this year!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
2013 was my first year trying to grow hops and I was happy with the results. All varieties (see above) produced usable hops but the C varieties did best and I had 2 harvests for several plants.

Full sun and drip irrigation for mine but we had several weeks of monsoon like rain last year so I was able to turn it off.

I currently have 4 of 6 plants starting to grow again.
 
I'm hoping to install a couple of i hooks into my eves on the side of my house and have them grow up there instead of the ugly makeshift trellis thing I did last year. That will also give my indirect light in the morning and direct light in the evening hopefully saving them from frying this year.

I had 2 harvests for several plants.

How was the second harvests Dunz? Mine started to look like they would bud again but nothing ever came of it. I ended up cutting them back around December and covered them with mulch. Probably time to uncover them and let the bines fly.





Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Im from Brazil and im growing my own hops. Here now is cold but not enought to put then in hibernation, here is something about 56 f, i read some threads that the guys put the rhizomes at the refrigerator.
I put mine rhizome with the pot inside my refrigerator with 27 f is this right? Will my plants survive?
Tks all,


Enviado do meu iPad usando o Home Brew
 
So 27F is below freezing (32F) so that means you have them in the freezer (congelador) & not the fridge (geladiera)? I only put mine in the fridge but out of the pots/soil but in heavy duty large ziplock bags or trash bags... in the US- haven't gotten my hands on hop bines in Brasil yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Got a chinook bine growing like crazy in south hilsborough countyImageUploadedByHome Brew1406254204.880727.jpgImageUploadedByHome Brew1406254225.853547.jpgImageUploadedByHome Brew1406254271.048057.jpg



Primary 1 arrogant bastard clone no3


Primary 2 sublimely self-righteous clone no1

1gal #1 arrogant bAstard with scorpion pepper

1 gal #2 self-righteous w/ *undecided*
 
Back
Top