First Time Growing Hops: Trials & Results

Greetings fellow brewers!

Just joined homebrewtalk and looking forward to learning more about brewing!

I wanted my first thread to be about growing hops since this was my first attempt. I wanted to report my findings and see what you all had to say.

I planted Chinook and Tettnanger to start off. The Chinook rotted as well as the Tettnanger as I checked on today. I just moved to PHX, AZ where it hasn't gotten extremely hot but we had quite a rare abundance of rain that I feel drowned the rhizomes. I planted Sterling rhizomes last week, I planted them a bit higher up in the soil and I hope they survive.

I used palm/cactus/citrus soil because it has great drainage and mixed in some blood meal.

I'm uploading some photos to this thread hopefully they post.

Two of the pictures are the Tettnanger sprouting healthy and then taking a complete turn for the worst.

I'm also getting mushrooms growing in the garden bed which I found odd. Is this a bad problem with growing hops? I pull them immediately when I see them but it's annoying.


Lastly I'm finding some creatures brewing in my soil. They look like baby worm?! Could this also be a problem for the rhizomes, particularly they were attached to the Tettnanger rhizomes.

Let me know what you all have experienced, looking forward to hearing everyones thoughts!

Cheers-

Brian

Geez, how wet are you keeping that plot? Takes some water to keep mushrooms growing in Az., yeah?

My suggestion is to start your rhizomes in pots with sterile potting soil. Damp, not wet.

My experience has been that you can hardly keep a hop from growing, provided you don't drown it.

Talk to your garden supplies place about what you can do about the worms. I would say that a dose of diatomaceous earth in the soil would be a start, but they may have other suggestions that vary with whether you buy in to the whole 'organic' thing or not. May be a maggot too, just judging from the looks.

Overall, I would say that your drainage is not very good. I would not have bothered with the additions of blood meal either. That can come later, once the plant is growing well.

My nickel says the mushroom spores came in on your potting soil. Lots of spent mushroom compost goes out in bags for soil mixes, may not have been sterilized properly. Just a guess though.

TeeJo

Thanks TeeJo

Next time I will be starting my rhizomes in a separate pot until they are stronger to be placed outside in a garden bed. The only explanation for the wet soil is from the crazy rain fall PHX had in the month of May and there was no way for me to shield the rhizomes from the storms.

Thats a shame about the soil I got not being sterile, very frustrating!

Thanks for your feedback I appreciate it!

Cheers,

Brian