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cscade

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Hey guys, I'm going to be growing my first hops this year in north central ohio. I feel like I've done my research on spacing and trellis construction, and I'm off to a good start.

There's still snow on the ground here, so I'll be starting my rhizomes in pots for close to a month before they go into the ground. I'm not expecting any production to speak of this year.

I'm planning to follow the instructions from the Hops Direct videos for planting and training the bines, and there is a lot of good info there. They recommend planting 4 rhizomes, spaced a few inches apart, per hole. In my case, I will have 3 hills this year, with one hole per hill. So, 4 rhizomes per hill. Each hill will get 2 strings to the trellis, so that's 2 rhizomes per string.

After these get established, will those 4 rhizomes constitute a single "crown"? I'm asking because I read that farmers recommend cutting off all but 4 of the strongest shoots per crown and training only those. I'll have the same question in a few years when it's time to divide the crown.

When I plant, I intend to dig out 4' diameter by 2' deep holes, and fill them with compost at the bottom 6" or so and the rest of the way with potting soil or similar loam/sandy mix. I'll then top them with topsoil from the dig. The soil here is clay-heavy, so I think I need to replace most of it with potting soil to get the drainage the crowns will want. My parents planted 3 hills a few miles away that have had 3 seasons to grow now, and they do very poorly. They just planted them in the ground with no prep.

I'll be using a 20' cable trellis with coir yarn, and holding the strings with clips just like the "big boys" do.

Any thoughts or input from experienced growers appreciated!
 
Each one of those rhizomes will turn into a crown of it's own. After the first year each will have developed a decent root system and separating them at this time is your best bet. If you give them another year before trying to separate, they pretty much will have grown into a tangled mess. Here's a couple pictures of what happens over the course of one growing season. Each started off as a pencil thin rhizome a year earlier so plan accordingly.

Chinook 3.jpg


Chinook 1.jpg
 
There's still snow on the ground here, so I'll be starting my rhizomes in pots for close to a month before they go into the ground. I'm not expecting any production to speak of this year.

Nope...don't do that. Wait until the ground is thawed enough and put the rhizome straight in. Starting them in pots really doesn't give you a "head start" in anyway. In fact, it can hurt you. When you are transplating them, it will stress the young plant and you may loose a few plus starting them early may result in an early onset of the burring stage. If that happens before side arms develop, you will loose production and canopy. In later years, production is important. For the first year, putting out green leaves to feed the roots is job #1.

I'm planning to follow the instructions from the Hops Direct videos for planting and training the bines, and there is a lot of good info there. They recommend planting 4 rhizomes, spaced a few inches apart, per hole. In my case, I will have 3 hills this year, with one hole per hill. So, 4 rhizomes per hill. Each hill will get 2 strings to the trellis, so that's 2 rhizomes per string.
I haven't seen the videos, so I can't really comment on them directly but this is what we do and have all our growers do. 1 rhizome per hill space 3 feet apart. That's it. If there are some that didn't grow, we back fill the next year. If you buy from a quality supplier, you should get 95% or better to grow.

We then drop a single line of twine down and train 3 to 4 bines. For most varities, we haven't seen a significant increase in production from doing the split "V" off the crown.

Don't bother with the "w" clips, unless you like adding metal to the ground. Either shove the twine straight in the crown or set a piece of wire 12" off the ground and tie the twine to that. Then you can all attach your drip irrigation to it.

When I plant, I intend to dig out 4' diameter by 2' deep holes, and fill them with compost at the bottom 6" or so....

Any thoughts or input from experienced growers appreciated!

That's all good but you may want to amend more than that. As Bob showed, those crowns are going to get BIG. Rhizomes stretching out 6 feet or more, tap roots going down for miles. We like to amend a 4 foot swath of soil centered on where we are dropping in the rhizomes. Of course, do your amendment based on the results of your soil tests.
 
Thanks guys, good information. Sounds like I have too many rhizomes on the way, as long as they arrive healthy. If each one will mature to it's own crown, I will need to quadruple my hills and divide next year, which isn't all bad.

GVH_Dan said:
Nope...don't do that. Wait until the ground is thawed enough and put the rhizome straight in.

Fair enough. Do I need to hold off until I'm fairly sure there will be no more frost? How long can they survive out of the ground?

GVH_Dan said:
For the first year, putting out green leaves to feed the roots is job #1.

Based on this, should I trim any shoots year 1 or just let them all grow?

GVH_Dan said:
Don't bother with the "w" clips, unless you like adding metal to the ground. Either shove the twine straight in the crown or set a piece of wire 12" off the ground and tie the twine to that. Then you can all attach your drip irrigation to it.

When you say shove the twine right in the crown, are you putting it into the ground, just sans clip? I have clips and a "gun", but I was feeling like the metal was less than ideal as well.

I won't be doing drip irrigation, everything will be manual. The hills will be nowhere near a water source, so I'm expecting to have to water by can up to once a day in the peak of summer.

GVH_Dan said:
That's all good but you may want to amend more than that. As Bob showed, those crowns are going to get BIG. Rhizomes stretching out 6 feet or more, tap roots going down for miles. We like to amend a 4 foot swath of soil centered on where we are dropping in the rhizomes. Of course, do your amendment based on the results of your soil tests.

How deeply would you amend when breaking ground for the first time?
 
OK...bunch of questions. Let me get what I can.

First, how big of a field are you putting in? How many rhizomes? If you really have a lot of extras, go 2 per hill.

They should come wrapped in a plastic baggy or such with a damp piece of paper towel. You can store them like that or dip them in a slight bleach solution to kill anything growing on them. Then store them back in the fridge. I've heard they can keep up to 45 days, but I haven't tried it myself.

Once they are in the ground, you shouldn't mess with them for at least 3 to 5 years. I wouldn't split the crown, it will effect the plant's production. In 5 years, you will have to cut out more rhizomes.

Yeah, just shove the coir ( or whatever) twine in the ground. I guess its better to have it anchored to something but I don't like the thought of all those clips in the ground. That's part of why we do the low line.

Manual irrigation? Wow, you are in for a good time. These things take a lot of water.


The first year, you will probably only get 3 to 5 bines, so train them all.

I'll ask my partners about amending the soil.
 
I'm doing this on much smaller scale than you're probably thinking - I'm just a back yard grower, literally. My intention is to do a 4 hill test plot this year, and if the initial growth goes well, I'll probably expand that to 12 hills next year.

At that size I think I can get away with manual irrigation. Yes, it will be a lot of work. But I'm expecting that.

Thanks a bunch for all the great input, I'll make sure to keep this thread updated as I actually begin the work.
 
cscade, don't expect to be able to compare your growth this year to what's coming in the following years. Many times, you end up with what you think are 'duds' by the end of your first season because those rhizomes are expending LOTS of energy to establish roots and sometimes show very poor shoot growth. Once those roots are established you may be looking for a place to run and hide as the top growth can be pretty scary and you'll have to start thinking about thinning them out after about 3 years if they like where they're growing. Watering is more critical during the first year due to the fact that they don't have any roots to obtain water on their own. You'll do fine.
 
I am in NW Ohio and I planted a Galena rhizome (late) last year. I ended up with 2 short bines bearing between 1/4 oz. and 1/2oz. of flowers. I amended my soil with about 6lbs. compost. Will add more this spring; I am fortunate to have good soil.

In NW Ohio the average last day of frost is May 10 so I would wait until that date to plant.

In some commercial operations hop plants are not trained the first season. If you want to increase the yield with certain early- mid varieties you can delay training and prune the initial shoots to promote vigor. In Northern Ohio I have heard of better results with earlier varieties.

Like B-Hoppy said, your yield will not reach its potential for 3-4 seasons depending on the variety. Do not be discouraged with poor performance yr. 1.

This is an awesome resource on growing hops in general as well as details regarding some varieties.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/hop.html
 
I wouldn't be afraid of manual irrigation for a small patch. I'm near Toledo and I've got 4 varieties (ordered 1 rhizome each this will be their 3rd year) and water every morning before work and every evening after sundown during the hottest months. That's plenty to keep them wet. Compost over the root area to keep the moisture in and you might be able to get away with once a day.

I didn't mess with trimming or training for year 1 and got 2-6oz per plant. Year 2 I got 1-3lb per plant (Nugget and Zeus seem to love the hot humid summer in the Great Black Swamp). And all of those were only growing up a 6ft pole and into a fence (I'm hoping to get the trellis up this year....)
 
cascade, I live in Wooster too! Living in an apartment now, but once my wife an I find a place, I plan on growing some as well. What varietals do you have again? Since I won't start until next year, seeing how your hops do will help me out!
 
Cool!

I have; Centennial, Cascade, and Northern Brewer. They are not in the ground yet because it refuses to stop being winter, as you well know!
 
because it refuses to stop being winter, as you well know!

The cabin fever has made me a little goofy lately. The alternating sun- snow has got my sinuses in constant protest!

Since we're discussing hops I feel it's relevant to mention that I have begun the switch from drinking mostly stouts/ porters/ browns back to hoppier fare (love me some Rye IPA) I find that the sedative effect (bonus) of extra hops consumption has helped me relax!

I am also in transition kit-wise to being able to go bigger and brew outside... cannot wait.
 
Hops are in the ground! Had the day off yesterday so I did some gardening. Here's what I did;

1. Strip the sod.
2. Dig ~18" diameter holes a spade-shovel deep.
3. Fill hole with 2cu-ft of "Garden Soil" from Lowes.
4. Add 6 spades of soil back in and double-dig to combine with bag soil.
5. Compress well with feet.
6. Replace dug soil on top creating a raised bed.

The native soil should help slow down evaporation from the garden soil, and the garden soil should give the rhizome roots a nice easy playground to get established in.

There will be no trellis this year, I will just train them onto tomato cages.

01.png


02.png


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05.png
 
All but one of the hills has shoots now, hoping the last one breaks ground soon! I'll post some more photos once they're more than an inch tall :)
 
Same near Toledo - most of them broke ground this weekend. It's amazing how fast they spread, it's only my 3rd year and I already have doubled my investment, I might need to sell rhizomes next year to keep them under control. (I guess I should have planned for a bigger space).
 
Here is a pic of my Galena (2nd season) taken this morning; gonna plant my new rhizomes this weekend.

Galena Small.jpg
 
Update! Everything is looking great, so I thought I'd post some photos.

First, an overview of the bed. Starting closest to the camera, the hills are 2x Cascade, 2x Centennial, 2x Northern Brewer. The green in the dirt isn't weeds, it's dutch white clover planted as a cover crop.

03-59826.jpg


The Centennial are the happiest, which is great because they're my favorite!

02-59827.jpg


I'm very pleased with the Northern Brewer progress, as I have read they can be hard to start.

01-59828.jpg
 
So, here we are in year 2!

The Cascades are the happiest, perhaps no surprise there. I built a trellis using 16' 4x6 posts, sunk 2' in the ground. There is an aircraft cable on pulleys that allows me to lower the whole works to the ground for harvesting, setting coir yarn, etc. I can post build details if people are interested.

ImageUploadedByHome Brew1400078680.782574.jpg


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
 
Looks great! Good idea for lowering them. In up in Grafton, so I'm pretty close to you. I started some last year too. Didn't get any so I put in some more this year in a different spot, of course last year's are going crazy! Should have a bunch this year ;)
 
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