ILBMF
Well-Known Member
I just wanted to share my tactics for forcing a good harvest on the first year cascades. It's usually the case that the first year plants are stunted and yield little or no cones at all. Knowing this fact, I decided to try a couple of things that seemed to work extremely well.
We all know that the reason the first year is weak is because the root system is far from well established. My intentions were to promote accelerated root growth. I live in the woods (oak trees) and have maybe a half acre cleared for the house and lawn. That's where the hops are planted. What I did this year to promote root growth was go in the woods and rake the leaves away until the pete moss like layer of soil was exposed. It's very soft and fluffy, light in weight. I mixed it with 1/3 sand. So it's 2 parts soil and 1 part masonry sand.
My hop plant beds are about 18'' deep with this mix. You can stab your hand down into it anytime whether wet or dry unlike other soil mixes. The whole idea hear was to make it easy for the roots to spread and grow downward which seems to have worked very well. I planted 2 rhizomes in each plant bed and this first year they all grew more than 20 feet tall in limited sunlight (the woods block morning and evening sunlight). Each plant yielded hundreds of cones, some exceeding 2'' in length.
I'm not saying this method resulted in the exact same way a fully mature plant would because my plants definitely don't look like full mature plants do, but I firmly believe the methods I have used helped greatly. The only other thing I did was every three weeks or so I watered them with a light dose of miracle grow for tomato plants which I had at the house. Otherwise, they were watered frequently like every 2 days.
We all know that the reason the first year is weak is because the root system is far from well established. My intentions were to promote accelerated root growth. I live in the woods (oak trees) and have maybe a half acre cleared for the house and lawn. That's where the hops are planted. What I did this year to promote root growth was go in the woods and rake the leaves away until the pete moss like layer of soil was exposed. It's very soft and fluffy, light in weight. I mixed it with 1/3 sand. So it's 2 parts soil and 1 part masonry sand.
My hop plant beds are about 18'' deep with this mix. You can stab your hand down into it anytime whether wet or dry unlike other soil mixes. The whole idea hear was to make it easy for the roots to spread and grow downward which seems to have worked very well. I planted 2 rhizomes in each plant bed and this first year they all grew more than 20 feet tall in limited sunlight (the woods block morning and evening sunlight). Each plant yielded hundreds of cones, some exceeding 2'' in length.
I'm not saying this method resulted in the exact same way a fully mature plant would because my plants definitely don't look like full mature plants do, but I firmly believe the methods I have used helped greatly. The only other thing I did was every three weeks or so I watered them with a light dose of miracle grow for tomato plants which I had at the house. Otherwise, they were watered frequently like every 2 days.
