do not worry about poor growing 1st year palnts

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balto charlie

balto charlie

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Hey guys I see lots of post about poor growing hops in their first year. Many of the rhizomes we received were very small so can't grow into a huge plant. The first year plant is mainly feeding the rhizome. This year 2 of my 1 year old plants were huge rhizomes which are producing many flowers buds, the other 3 were kinda scrawny and are struggling. Perennial plants(like hops) have a mantra: Sleep(1st year), Creep(2nd year) and Leap(3rd year). The leap will blow you away. Hops can become invasive. Patience, they will grow. You ought to see my 4 YO plant:rockin: Charlie
 
Is it possible in the first year with scrawny rhizomes that you won't see any growth at all? A friend of mine planted 9 rhizomes this year and only got 5 at different levels of growth above ground.

:tank:
 
+1 to the OP.
Don't worry about them. They'll come along better next year.

I have a few that didn't grow much more than a foot and yet just 10 feet away I have some growing 16' tall and budding out. I credit the water.

Think about this. I have a Magnum plant in it's 3rd year. It hasn't produced a single bud. Why? I say it's on the north side and doesn't get as much water or sun. Damn thing is 30' tall though.

So yeah, follow a simple winter plant care plan and leave em alone. They'll do better next year.
 
balto charlie said:
Hey guys I see lots of post about poor growing hops in their first year. Many of the rhizomes we received were very small so can't grow into a huge plant. The first year plant is mainly feeding the rhizome. This year 2 of my 1 year old plants were huge rhizomes which are producing many flowers buds, the other 3 were kinda scrawny and are struggling. Perennial plants(like hops) have a mantra: Sleep(1st year), Creep(2nd year) and Leap(3rd year). The leap will blow you away. Hops can become invasive. Patience, they will grow. You ought to see my 4 YO plant:rockin: Charlie
Click to expand...
Thanks for the pep talk. This is my first attempt to grow anything, so I'm constantly checking on them... :)
 
Charlie, the rizhomes you gave me are worse than the weeds...it's crazy.

But at any rate, I did have others that didn't come up or died at some point in time.
 
98EXL said:
Charlie, the rizhomes you gave me are worse than the weeds...it's crazy.
Click to expand...

Hey 98: did you get any cones? The mother plant is yielding what looks to be a lot. I will post some pics this wknd to see if folks can help identify. I think it's Willamette but just saw some images of Tetnanger so this is also a possibility. I hope Tet as I have a young willamette. Charlie
 
This is my first year growing hops. My Kent Golding, Fuggle, and N.Brewer produced nothing at all. My Hallertauer produced maybe 1oz. My Mt.Hood and Cascade did ok. My Chinook, Zeus and Nugget did great though. I can just sum it down to which ones are supposed to be vigorous growers and which ones aren't.

I dug up the golding rhizome. It was originally the size of a hot dog when I planted it. Now the main crown is about 1.5x the size and has great roots stretching out so the rhizome is a total of 3 feet circular. I expect next year to be much better.
 
I planted 3 cascades and there are three different heights. One is about 10' and sprouting plenty of flowers. The second is about half the height and no flowers. The third is barely big enough to climb the twine and also no flowers.

The first one I might decide to run up two different twines next year and not cut back as much. The others will hopefully do better, and I expect they will.
 
Did anyone plant any Willamette this year? This is my first attempt at growing hops and my Willamette is only about 6 or 7 ft tall but not flowering. My cascades, on the other hand, are over 13 ft have tons of hops and my Centennial is just starting to flower.
 
DrinksWellWithOthers said:
Did anyone plant any Willamette this year? This is my first attempt at growing hops and my Willamette is only about 6 or 7 ft tall but not flowering. My cascades, on the other hand, are over 13 ft have tons of hops and my Centennial is just starting to flower.
Click to expand...

same results for me. My Cascade and Nugget rhizomes were huge and produce well for 1st year plants, Willamette looks good but only 8 ft tall no buds, hallertauer and fuggles 6 ft and struggling. I think rhizome condition and variety will produce different results. I contacted a hop researcher from Oregon and he recommended Cascade, Nugget, cluster and another variety as good growers. he was right about cascade and nugget. charlie
edit: the rhizomes from the haller and Fugs were scrawny, the Willamette was better but not as big as C & N
 
this may seem odd but i planted my first year hops and one produced cones and one didint. Now that "harvest" is done should i cut them back or just let them grow? they are continuing to produce new side shoots and keep in mind im in SOCAL so its fairly warm all year.
 
I'd let them grow for a while yet. They'll continue to feed the roots as long as they grow. Maybe mid/late October cut them back if they haven't died back by then. Someone else may be more knowledgeable on your locale, but once you get a frost and they start going brown it's time to cut them back. Obviously you don't get much (any?) frost in SOCAL, but the timing would be about right I guess.

terje
 
Stratotankard said:
I'd let them grow for a while yet. They'll continue to feed the roots as long as they grow. Maybe mid/late October cut them back if they haven't died back by then. Someone else may be more knowledgeable on your locale, but once you get a frost and they start going brown it's time to cut them back. Obviously you don't get much (any?) frost in SOCAL, but the timing would be about right I guess.

terje
Click to expand...

thank you....and yes we havent had any snow for...a while
 
Thats nice to know, because the August heat was brutal on mine, out of the four I planted only one of them has much of anything left.

I'm thinking of building a nice bed for them, and digging them up and moving them somewhere else - I don't really like where I planted them anyway, they are in the way.
 
DrinksWellWithOthers said:
Did anyone plant any Willamette this year? This is my first attempt at growing hops and my Willamette is only about 6 or 7 ft tall but not flowering. My cascades, on the other hand, are over 13 ft have tons of hops and my Centennial is just starting to flower.
Click to expand...

I planted Willamette, early in the season it was coming on strong - lots of growth - plenty of leaves and green. But it was the first one to succumb to the heat, not much left of it at all now.
 
DrinksWellWithOthers said:
Did anyone plant any Willamette this year? This is my first attempt at growing hops and my Willamette is only about 6 or 7 ft tall but not flowering. My cascades, on the other hand, are over 13 ft have tons of hops and my Centennial is just starting to flower.
Click to expand...

I planted a first year Williamette and my results are similar. In fact, if it makes you feel better, my Goldings and Chinook look the same. No flowers, no cones, and about 7 feet tall.

I guess the key to a good first year is getting Cascades. They seem to rock.
 
My 2nd year Galenas are budded out nicely. I can't wait to make my first brew with them.

The 2nd year Willamettes grew to about 10ft, but no cones. It was a wee little rhizome when it planted, and only was about 3ft tall last year.

I expect that next year will be amazing for the Galenas, and better for the Willamettes.

The Galenas have made my deck (10' up from ground level) very attractive, and fragrant!
 

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