My Hops Garden Project

That would be episode #44!

youtube "Brewing TV Episode 44" and you'll see our shenanigans.

aWhadup twenty-twelve?

I didn't purchase enough rope.


The Chinook is going insane.

Wow that chinook is huge. Any trimming back going to occur, or is this still a plant to let have its freedom?

I'll be hacking them off sometime next week.
I will probably train 6 vines this year - three to the left, three to the right.

This is its 3rd year, correct? How many bines last year?

I have a 2nd yr fuggles that I am doing something a little similar to. I have a wooden privacy fence that it is planted in front of, I am going to run some twine to a trellis against the fence and have it run in both directions once it climbs to the top. It is just starting to bud! I think i will do 2 bines in each direction. It almost died last year, and never sprouted buds, so its a bit of a weak 2nd year.

Yep, this will be my 3rd year for most of my plants. I think I ran 4 bines last year, maybe 6...

I'm significantly downsizing - have four crowns for sale on Craigslist.

Ted, I'm checking with my neighbor so we don't have a lot of the same varieties, but I'm interested in at least one of those crowns. Leaning towards the nugget, but I know he didn't get fuggle.

Ted, take them off CL - we'll take them all between my neighbor and I.

awesome post just planted six rhizomes 2 each of willamette, columbus and cascade i am planning on having the willamettes going around my deck and was curious if they would actually do it and am very happy to find out that they will.

Thanks jonathanquist, I've had fun growing them. Yeah, they should work well around the deck. I may or may not do somehting like that this year, we'll see.

That Chinook on the fence is 4' tall already.

2nd year Magnum(pi).

Gridlocked said:

Thanks jonathanquist, I've had fun growing them. Yeah, they should work well around the deck. I may or may not do somehting like that this year, we'll see.

That Chinook on the fence is 4' tall already.

2nd year Magnum(pi).

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How far down do you have that wood box sunk into the ground around the rhizome? I am guessing it is there to keep the roots from running wild underground next to your house? I am close to finishing my trellis setup and will hopefully have ten 1st year plants in the ground soon if it stays warm.

-Adam

how hard has it been to get the vines out of the fence after harvest?
Awesome time line though!

@ Adam: The boxes are 12" deep and are there to keep the rhizomes from taking over the world. I went to the Home Depot and got treated, rough-cut fence boards for like $1.75 a board and used 2x2's in the corners. They have worked great so far. I will probably add something around the plants near the fence this year. It absolutely makes harvesting rhizomes and trimming the crown easier!

@rivenin: It's not too hard, I guess. Snip them a few feet back and pull and they seem to come right out. Those that didn't want to let go, I left over the winter and they were really easy to break and get out this spring.

i like your setup. happy growing

I have a simliar set up as your's - against the south side of the house with lines running up to the eves. Last year I noticed that the plants must have gotten too hot - some of the burs had been heat burned. They turned brown and never matured into hop cones. Have you seen anything like this on your setup and/or any ideas how to control the temp and prevent this from happening? I think the heat reflecting off the house is what caused the damage. I would estimate about 1/4 of the harvest was damaged.

Wow, that stinks! No, we had an extremely hot summer last year and I didn't have an issue with it. Strange. The plants did keep our house quite a bit cooler than it would have been because the plants absorbed a considerable amount of heat - and shadowed the windows. That was a nice perk! How many years have you been growing, mhumm1?

Interesting thread. Last years heat I had 7000 sq ft of garden and ended up with like 3500. The best survivors were black diamond water melons.
How many days did it take for the shoots to come up out of ground for you?

Gridlocked said:

Wow, that stinks! No, we had an extremely hot summer last year and I didn't have an issue with it. Strange. The plants did keep our house quite a bit cooler than it would have been because the plants absorbed a considerable amount of heat - and shadowed the windows. That was a nice perk! How many years have you been growing, mhumm1?

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Everything looked good right up until the plants started to burr out and then one day I noticed a bunch of them were brown. I thought maybe they weren't getting enough water, but after taking a closer look, I think it was heat burn. And it wasn't supper hot, so that's why I thought it might have been the heat getting reflected off the house or something?? I'll see if it happens again this year, but obviously I'd like to prevent it if I can

Anyways, about the plants, I have 4 plants - a Willamette thats 4 years old, and then two zeus and one magnum that are all in thier third year. They are set to go off this year, so I might be downsizing next year..

HA! Yeah, you nailed it with the "set to go off" thing! I couldn't believe the massive difference between year one and year two, so with my side-work and general life busyness, I'm feeling pretty good about downsizing this year.

This thread has inspired me to try my hand at growing hops! Thank you all for the great pics and info!

AWESOME! Great choice WhiteEagle! I'm definitely not a pro but hit me up if you have any questions.

2012 update. One of my Cascades and my 2nd year Magnum are 9' tall as of this past weekend. And the Chinook on the fence has bines that are as big as your pinky finger.

kids for scale.

Looking good Gridlocked!

I've got cascade and...I forgot what the other one is...2nd year

7-8 feet tall now

Looking good. It's been a very early start for my hops here in MN too. My Tettnang is top of the bunch followed by Glacier and Nugget. Golding in year 3 is finally looking like a good healthy bine. It's amazing what these plants can do.

Thanks guys! Here's a little update of year three.
The Chinook on the fence is an absolute BEAST! There is a shoot that came up about a foot from the crown and it's freaking massive. The side arms that are coming off of that shoot are as thick as the rest of the bines from the plant.



The Cascade by the house in the corner has hit and passed the eves of the house already with multiple shoots and it's sending out more side arms than it has before.


the 2nd year Magnum isn't far behind - it should reach the eves today.

Two of the plants are struggling though. A strong gust of wind pushed some of the dandilion and crabgrass chemical to hit the bottom part of the Centennial on the fence, and over the past 24 hours, the 3rd year Cascade toward the corner of the house started having trouble. The leaves are curling in and down at the ends. Very strange - so the goal is to figure out wtf is happening. It was windy as **** yesterday so that may have caused some damage.

dam just read thru your thread awesome looking plants man. look really healthy this year. you find any male parts coming around this year? cant wait for next year to start my garden.

Thanks man. I should get some decent pics up, here's a teaser from a week-ish ago.
My cousin worked as a chef for a beer-pairing meal at a local restaurant and harvested some Magnum cones today to garnish with. I'll post some of those pics too.
Hit with a good amount of BioBloom yesterday!

Nice recent picture, Gridlocked! It looks like you'll be able to harvest some hops by removing the screens from your upstairs windows. Speaking of hops and food pairings, I recently read a recipe for a vinaigrette salad dressing that used about a 1/4 cup fresh cones in the food processor to blend ingredients for about a cup+ of dressing. I'm thinking about giving it a whirl. Maybe some honey or agave syrup could be added to balance out the bitterness.

I've also been enjoying a couple fresh cones thrown in a cocktail shaker with ice, green or ginger tea, and little bit of agave syrup or honey. Still working on a good hop cocktail but the iced-tea idea is really good.

Gridlocked said:

Hit with a good amount of BioBloom yesterday!

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I take it that you are a proud supporter of this fertilizer.

It's seemed to do me good, but it's the only fertilizer that I've had on hand. HA!
It was suggested to me by one of my local home-brew-and-grow shops. I passed on the really high-dollar stuff.
I think I'm going to give them some standard Miracle Grow in the next couple weeks too.

I met a couple guys at Fletchers tonight who mentioned this thread and the BTV episodes. If you're one of those guys, PM me. Let's get together at my place for a pint and to check out the 2012 hops.

Gridlocked,
Actually I live in Sioux Falls, but my best friend and I are huge fans of your shenanigan's. The two episodes you have done are off the hook. I would love and be honored to see the hop garden myself if I ever make it up to the cities (if it was cool). If you're ever in Sioux Falls, drop me a line and stop by for a cold one.

Side thought. How do you administer your fertilizer. Mix in a gallon and add all of it to the hops, or do you add small amounts to each plant.

Thanks jdrollason!!! It's tough to express how freaking awesome it was to film the two episodes!!! If you're ever heading up this way, shoot me a PM and we'll hook up for a pint or two - hell yeah, it's cool. I'd be honored to have you!

Well, I fertilize kind of like I make beer, I pour "some" or "a little bit" of fertilizer in a watering can and glug the whole gallon-ish watering can full of goodness onto each plant. The wooden boxes that I have around each plant help keep the fertilizer where I want it which is nice. I think that the directions call for a teaspoon per gallon or something... ha.

Who needs directions....I like the way you think

HA! That works right up until I wreck stuff. Then I pull out the directions. I've never claimed to be the brightest.

Daaaaaaamn Ted......the back of your house is starting to look like the Green Monster at Fenway! Nice work my man! Now I get to see what I have to look forward to. The rhizomes that you sent me are working out great.....all except the centennial, which is lagging behind. As you know, I didn't exactly plant them in the ideal location, but one of the chinooks and one of the cascades have run out of climbing room on my 20ft. climbing lines and are starting to ball up at the top. The other chinnok and cascades are hitting their stride at about 15ft.'ish. All 4 have side arms and burrs. The centennial is only 4 to 5ft. without burrs. The 3 rhizomes that I purchased from my HBS are weak in comparison. The columbus is 6-7ft. with a handful of burrs, but the glacier and hallerau are similar to the centennial. I'm gonna hit them with some fertilizer and see what happens. Still contemplating moving the bunch to the back yard for full sun, but it's gonna be a sh*t load of work building the elevated bed and trellis system.

I re-watched the "Fish Poo Brew" episode yesterday when one of my patients cancelled.....good stuff man!

Thanks Kent! I actually lost my 2 year old for a couple hours yesterday - turns out he was just stuck in the Chinook. Don't worry about that Centennial - both of mine are about 1/2 or 1/3 the size of the other plants. I don't think I got more than a few cones out of either of the Cents the first year. I'll take and post some more (and some better) pics in the next couple days. They're stating to look really cool with the unique-green color of the cones in contrast to the leaves. The big cascade completely blocks the view from my kids room and keeps their room SIGNIFICANTLY cooler than it would be without them there. I LOVE this time of year.

damned fine jungle ya got there!