Am I wasting my time with Willamette hops?

Last year I planted 4 rhizomes, one of each; Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, and Willamette.

I wasn't expecting much from any of them, but the 3 Cs all grew well and produced lots of cones (when all dried out, it came to only a few ozs total, but that is still several hundreds of cones - hoping for greater things next year).

But the Willamette produced nothing. It was healthy, but only grew to about 10 feet (the smallest of the 4 plants), and produced zero flowers.

From reading, it seems Willamette may not like the weather here in Southern Ohio (hot and high humidity). Am I wasting my time trying to grow it? Would I be better off pulling it out and replacing it with something like Columbus.

I don't have too much space available for hops as most off my yard is in shade from tress, so I can't just plant another one in a different spot and see how this one does.

Wanting to figure out what to do before rhizomes go on sale next year. If Willamette is just a slow starter and needs longer to get established, then I'll let it grow and see what happens.

I would let it go another season before giving up on it. The first year I planted my hops I got 2 cones on one plant and all of them only made it to about 3 feet at most. Second year I got close to a lb dried from them.

I can't grow willamette, because it's too cool here I think. My friend near Chicago can grow them, and they do very well for him so I think you'll be fine. They might just take a year or two to establish.

Willamette seems to be a rather finicky strain. I've read of many folks that gave it a try - including a few local to me - along with other strains and that one almost always is the laggard...

Cheers!

I tried growing Willamette with no luck. I got a measly quarter oz out of it over 2 years. I am in the Chicagoland area, which would be similar in climate to Ohio (hot humid summers). You may have different results, but I gave up after 2 years. This was stock from an established crown of 3 years, so it had time to grow and flourish.

I have chinook, nugget, zeus, and cascade all growing and flourishing in the same growing conditions, regularly giving me decent 1/2 to 1 lb harvests per plant. Willamette just didn't cut it for me. She's now at my mom's house, taking over a fence with my sunbeam plant, and enjoying it, sans cone production.

I am about to pull my Willamette as well. 3 years and still not producing like the others. I may just divide the Centennial.

I've grown about 12 different varieties here, usually several plants of each in 2-3 different locations. I've also brought some cuttings home to Ohio where I have family.

Here's my hot take on varieties and locations -- while I'm sure some general rules about macro climate exist, my experience says the micro environment is 95% of the variables. People like to talk about things that grow well in this state, ect., and there are even some SARE grants exploring that idea, but it provided little to no actionable information imo. My very best plant last year was the same variety as my worst (Zeus, fwiw). My father and his neighbor both have Cascade cuttings in the ground from the very same parent, one is a monster, the other hasn't put out cones in 3 years.

Check this out: AA% of 2015 Cascade hops in Virginia ranged from 5 to 13!

Just in Ohio, you have three different hardiness zones and dozens of different soil types that vary wildly, not to mention a variable day length and days-sun situation. Your land might have been in conventional corn for 75 years, or worked pasture, or simply been mowed for that time, which do very different things to soil biology. Your root stock is almost certainly not from Ohio, so you are buying from Colorado, Iowa, or more traditional NW areas (I've ordered from all three, I'm sure there are others)...so you're taking on selective breeding from another climate, plus just simple variable plant health in a breeders field (a breeder will have to chime in here, but my wild speculation is that when a home-grower buys, say, 4 cuttings of one variety, it seems likely to me those might all be coming from a single parent, right?). Which is to say nothing of macro and micro nutrients, ect.

...which isn't to say much about your particular plants . But I do think this concept of trying to make broad generalizations is a mistake, and probably lowering diversity of varieties in a single area because people are steered towards a handful of general varieties that worked in a single field test that didn't control for variables, nor even could take into account how many actual different varieties of environments there are in, say, Western North Carolina.

So I think doing your own field tests, which is what you're doing, is the way to go. But I would be careful about, for example ripping out an entire variety you might like because you've heard they don't do well in Ohio, when a leaf test might point to something as simple a micro nutrient that's unusually low in your soil because of your land's history, or even because of what was planted there 24 months ago .

Woohwee! @hardrain, preach! I love a good experiment!

In Baltimore - my first year Willamettes didn't produce either but giving them another chance. Fully expect them to produce something in 2nd year. All the other produced a lot.

There are lots of reasons for a given variety being slow to produce cones or low vigor. Others mentioned horticultural zones, soil types, etc and those all have impact but typically do not cause stunting, flower inhibition, etc.

Willies are a bit slower to establish than other varieties due to their Fuggle mother characteristics. Also be aware that rhizome size, bud number, planting depth etc also impact year 1 and 2 growth. Be patient.

Lastly, rhizomes are notorious as carriers for numerous hop viruses that WILL reduce or eliminate yield alltogether. I've seen many growers doing everything right only to have viral symptoms pop up in years 3 and 4.

I'd give it at least one more year. The Williamette I planted never came up the 2nd year.

Jaltwies said:

There are lots of reasons for a given variety being slow to produce cones or low vigor. Others mentioned horticultural zones, soil types, etc and those all have impact but typically do not cause stunting, flower inhibition, etc.

Willies are a bit slower to establish than other varieties due to their Fuggle mother characteristics. Also be aware that rhizome size, bud number, planting depth etc also impact year 1 and 2 growth. Be patient.

Lastly, rhizomes are notorious as carriers for numerous hop viruses that WILL reduce or eliminate yield alltogether. I've seen many growers doing everything right only to have viral symptoms pop up in years 3 and 4.

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That makes me think I should pull one Magnum that has been giving me trouble, so as not to infect other hops.

I tried growing Willamette hops last year, the plant grew nice and big and then fizzled, and I am in the Willamette Valley area so one would think it would work, but it was very warm here last summer. Will try again this year. :rockin:

brewcat said:

That makes me think I should pull one Magnum that has been giving me trouble, so as not to infect other hops.

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Easy Killer. Magnum is a Hallertauer cross so it can be expected to be finicky. If you don't have mild summers and mild winters you'll likely have issues with it. In south central WI is doesn't grow for crap for me...winters are too harsh. Don't automatically jump to conclusions about vigor being due to disease. Having spent a week with the best growers in North America they shared that every location has its own requirements for good growth. You need to have patience and the risk tolerance to wait it out and chuck it after a couple of seasons under optimal conditions. What's optimal? That's for you to figure out...

Jaltwies said:

Easy Killer. Magnum is a Hallertauer cross so it can be expected to be finicky. If you don't have mild summers and mild winters you'll likely have issues with it. In south central WI is doesn't grow for crap for me...winters are too harsh. Don't automatically jump to conclusions about vigor being due to disease. Having spent a week with the best growers in North America they shared that every location has its own requirements for good growth. You need to have patience and the risk tolerance to wait it out and chuck it after a couple of seasons under optimal conditions. What's optimal? That's for you to figure out...

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I should have provided more information. I have given it multiple seasons. It continues to come up but it seems to continue to decline in growth. I probably should give it one more year though (year two in new location). My concern is about infecting new plants if it is diseased. I have a new Magnum and some Hallertauer planted. I'll probably let it go and look towards my soil condition first.