Hop growing in CT

Finally got my new rhizomes planted, the trellis installed, and last years plants moved to their new location. I know it is probably a little early to see the new rhizomes sprouting but the ones from last year aren't coming up. Has anyone in CT seen any action yet this year?

In Stamford, I have one dead Magnum, but my Cascade and Willamette are about 8 inches.

I totally spaced on bringing the plants in this year. Do you bring in yours?

philber said:

In Stamford, I have one dead Magnum, but my Cascade and Willamette are about 8 inches.

I totally spaced on bringing the plants in this year. Do you bring in yours?

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I did not bring them in either. So you were 2 for 3? Not bad. Looks like I'm 0/4. But on the bright side the new cascade has made an appearance.

Do you have any experience on when I should pull the plug on last years plants? I'm thinking I'll grab some extra rhizomes from Maltose this weekend.

This is the first time I had some survive. We must have had a mild winter 😙 Last year one came in May but died in June. If you don't see growth now, it is safe to call out dead. Dig it up and see, you won't hurt it. Its late to get rhizomes, make sure they have some growth showing. I get mine from nikobrew.com 80% success with my last two late plantings. Best to get them in the ground in April.

I dug up the Mt. Hoods, they were pretty spongy. So they got tossed in the woods and replaced with Willamette and northern brewer. I'll probably have to dig up the sterling too.

So it's been a couple of weeks I figure it's time for an update.

I did dig up the sterling but they weren't quite as bad as the Mt. Hood were, so I repotted all of the roots I could find into 1 pot. Needless to say this pot is showing 0 signs of life.

As for the new rhizomes, cascade is killing it and northern brewer is not far behind. The rest (Zeus, williamette, and new Mt. Hood) all have buds and I'm sure will start climbing once the weather warms a bit.

The weather has been pretty cool still with the exception of a few very warm days. Along with my late start I believe this is cause of the less than spectacular growth thus far. Lots of growing time left.

Anyone else have pics or New England growing tips to share?

I have 2nd year Cascade in my "condo garden" that have grown to the top of the 10' trellis I made as of today. I got a few more cascade and centennial rhizomes this year and they are small, but doing well. Technically, I guess they are doing quite well considering it's the end of May, but compared to the established plant, they are small.

I also found some wild hops on the walking trail by my house. I'm not sure what type they are or even if they are female until the flowers come out and might not even then. I dug a few up and put them in the back near the treeline in my yard. We'll see.

One experiment I did this year was to take the strongest pruned shoot I cut back and put it in a growlette with about 1.5" of water. It took about 2 weeks, but roots finally sprouted and I planted it last weekend. It's the bottom right one in the attached pic.

Good luck with your hops.

Update for this year.
Zeus and Cascade are killing it. Sterling came back ok, and I had to replant new rhizomes for Mt. Hood and Willamette.

Also, did some shrub trimming and got some nice looking labels. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1432601134.356380.jpg

Mine must be dead...or they have been replaced by the raspberry bush, they are only a foot tall.

WWJPD - I like that trellis setup, I may look to do that for next year. Does the trellis face south?

Red - How close to Long Island Sound are you? I'm an 1/8 of a mile back, so my gardens are starting real late this year. It's a good 10 degrees cooler at home than in down town Stamford.

philber said:

Mine must be dead...or they have been replaced by the raspberry bush, they are only a foot tall.

WWJPD - I like that trellis setup, I may look to do that for next year. Does the trellis face south?

Red - How close to Long Island Sound are you? I'm an 1/8 of a mile back, so my gardens are starting real late this year. It's a good 10 degrees cooler at home than in down town Stamford.

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Not close at all; north of the Merritt.

philber said:

Mine must be dead...or they have been replaced by the raspberry bush, they are only a foot tall.

WWJPD - I like that trellis setup, I may look to do that for next year. Does the trellis face south?

Red - How close to Long Island Sound are you? I'm an 1/8 of a mile back, so my gardens are starting real late this year. It's a good 10 degrees cooler at home than in down town Stamford.

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My trelli(sp?) face Southwest-ish. That pic was from last year. The 3rd year Cascade, as seen on the left of my photo, has gone bonkers this year. Unfortunately, I barely remember what type is what now. I wrote it on a sharpie on a stake, but of course, the labels are gone now. Note to others, it'd be a good idea to write it down on a map somewhere.

My hops are growing gang buster. As far as the labels- well, by plants have been transported from multiple houses and I really have no idea what they are now. They make a great pale ale for me each year though. (most likely they are cascade)

I got these cool copper markers and put them on some cedar stakes I made. The color in the pic is way off, they are bright copperView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1432738318.902161.jpg

So these are some wild hops On the Rails To Trails in Southington that I've been watching for 3yrs now. I dug up 1 rhizomes last year and transplanted to an area in my backyard-they took off like crazy.

I don't know the type, maybe Cascade. Last Fall I pulled some cones and ran through my hands a few times and it was very nice and lupulin-y.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1435798608.067359.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1435798625.019259.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1435798643.411995.jpg

I'm getting ready to finally put my Grape/Raspberry/Hop trellis in place. I was wondering how everyones hops are doing this year, did they start early?

I have shoots about 1" tall on most all of my plants. I worried that the snow and freeze last week would hurt them, but they seem fine. I won't put up my trellis or twine until May probably.

My centennials are finally showing some bines. I think my fuggles and cascades are gone. I planted them all about 2 years ago, but they screwed up my order and I got the rhizomes late. It looked like they had been sitting in the bag a long time, like several weeks. The first year they all had less than 6" of growth. The Centennial has slowly been pulling through, it's got a few bines that are 24"+ so far so we'll see how it goes this year.

My Cascade hops have just exploded over the last week. Almost 6' tall as of today. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1463953520.430726.jpg

Wow those are doing great...maybe I'll hit you up for some rhizomes, that strain looks to love our climate here. None of mine came back