Growing Hops in Colorado

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hopboy

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Westminster, CO
Pardon me for being late to the hop growing discussion. Don't know if the following info helps but hey better late than never.

I am not a brewer but do like to grow hops. My close friend has been brewing for 20 years...if I joined him I would weigh 800lbs. by now. I have 50 feet of hops in 4 beds that started in one bed 15 years ago. I brought a bundle of hop rhizomes back from a commercial grower in Yakima, Washington. I use my hops for shade and as a privacy fence. (From now through Sept I can't see my neighbor's yard(s).

Today is June 5th and my hops are 20 feet high in 3 beds. The forth bed is new this year and is showing some growth. The forth bed also has a mix of replanted from the original bed and some wild hops from our Front Range Foothills.

Hops growing wild in the foothills grow in the worst soil with little or no water. They are growing high up in Eldorado Canyon. Near the Royal Arch in Chitaqua(sp) Park(Boulder) and another spot just west of me near Plainview road off Hwy 72 at the mouth of Coal Creek Canyon. A friend said he spotted them above Silver Plume off I-70.

I know of two Hop Projects at CSU "Specialty Crops Dept". One is in Ft. Collins and is funded by New Belgium and O'Dells and the second one is unfunded and in Delta County. I have been sending wild rhizomes to the Delta County project for two seasons.

Hopboy
 
Hey Hopboy. What variety of hops are you growing? Do they produce cones? After reading the results of the CSU experiment, I saw that while some grew quite tall they produced very few cones.
 
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