hops in Kansas

Well I can tell you that hops do not grow well in Kansas at least where I live . the ones planted in full sun died quickly . One in full sun part of the day grew but very unhealthy . One in fairly shady area but not full shade is growing but not fast . I think maybe hops are a northern state plant type .

What varieties were you growing? If you still want to try, the C hops might be your best bet. I grew hops in my back yard in Omaha, not too far north of you. My Chinooks and Centennials grew like wild. They were up the lines to my deck and spilling out onto the deck, and completely covered the chickenwire around the hops garden that was supposed to have kept out the dogs. Northern Brewer did fairly well, as did Goldings, to my surprise. Nuggets did okay, but were in the shade, and disadvantaged. Willamette, Mt Hood, Perle, and Glacier were much less robust. I don't like Cascade, but understand that they grow even in Texas.

I tried chinook and it died as fast as it started growing out of the rhizome . I also heard others having that problem from the same place .
I do not even remember what others I bought . Only two grew . I think it is just the weather here . I grew tomatoes quite well in the middle of the yard for 3 years and then no tomatoes till it was too cold to ripen for the next 6 years and then I moved them to buckets about 6 feet away from garden and now they grow tomatoes like they should sort of .
maybe I just need to try some in buckets with a potting mix instead of this bad soil . Soil is mostly sand and nothing grows well in it .

Some guys grow them in 1/2 barrel wooden planters. I had some growing for a while in those $6 big plastic party tubs. I just drilled a few holes in the bottoms. They grew right out the bottom. I used roughly equal parts of the native Omaha clay subsoil (because the topsoil was stripped away when they graded for the subdivision), compost, and composted manure. I read that somewhere here. It seemed to work well. The buckets do seem to require a little more attention to watering.

the plant in my front yard with partial sun is starting to grow now . Our weather has been strange this year . The one in back that was dying mostly just got ripped out of the ground by my dog . Only a couple roots a inch long left . Put in bucket and hope to get re rooted and then I am going to move it to the side of house with partial sun where another vine that is similar to a hops vine grows well .
I may have too much nitrogen in back yard as I dug a hole and filled it mostly with compost made of mostly green stuff. Could be a problem for hops . Not sure .

I've had no problems getting the majority of my plants up and around the twine!

I've got the 17-18ish gallon plastic buckets with good light soil as the base. I had to water the bajebus out of them a couple weeks back, but they're trucking right along.

I know another guy has some out in Missouri doing quite well also. I would look into your soil and other culprits, the weathers fine!

FuzzyNegguts said:

I've had no problems getting the majority of my plants up and around the twine!

I've got the 17-18ish gallon plastic buckets with good light soil as the base. I had to water the bajebus out of them a couple weeks back, but they're trucking right along.

I know another guy has some out in Missouri doing quite well also. I would look into your soil and other culprits, the weathers fine!

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I am growing tomatoes in buckets with potting mix the nursery uses with a little compost in it . I think I will buy more hops and use that with some top soil mixed in .

I saw someone in Paola selling hops on Craigslist. I thought I would throw it out there since this thread isn't too old. I was thinking about contacting them, but I'm still a beginner and wouldn't even know where to start.

I doubt that most people could tell one hop from another by looking and smelling so craigslist would just mean trusting the person that is selling them to sell them for what they really are . Also are they fresh grown by that person or are they just hops that he bought and they are getting old so he wants to get rid of them ??? . But if they are cheap enough then it may be worth a try.

Here is a question . Will my hops plants live through the winter in kansas and regrow like any other vine ?
I only have one left and it has started to grow now that the month long rain spell let up and some sun came out . Hoping it lives through winter

A pic of my only surviving plant . It is only about 4 feet tall . But then it has rained fora month straight around here so not much growing weather . how ever some tomato plants are growing well

I had a tough time with mine here in olathe. They sprouted looked good grew 3 feet and appeared to die. Then when we started getting rain one came back. I took that as by problem was under watering. Now I really soak it at least every other day and it looks great.

I am going to water this one everyday and see what happens

Looking good