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HopHeadGrady

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Hello All,

Just a couple quick questions regarding hop growing in canada.
I have a backyard that backs onto a farmers field and it gets plenty of sunlight. I grow other veggies with excellent success. I worked in a garden center through high school many moons ago so I get the basics on ph etc. In fact I am much more educated with gardening than brewing. I have a planting bed thats 40 ft long by 4 wide which I ususually use for tomato's etc. I am thinking this would be good for hops.

The questions I have are :

1) If I make a nice soil tea with the proper ph, give the hops required space and room to vine, can these be grown in Canada?

2) Does anyone know where to get hop rhizomes from in Canada?

Thanks.
 
Also looking and getting into hop growing here in Canada. Supplies at local shops are very limited so the prospect of having fresh hops readily available is quote enticing. Any info on growing in Canada and a supplier to get crowns would be awesome.
 
You should have no problem getting em to grow. I think you are still in the same grow zone as i am, and mine do wonderful. As far as where to get em, try the hops venders on this site, try freshhops.com or any other online source. Not sure if they have an issue shipping to canada, but i dout it should be an issue.
 
HopHeadGrady,

I live in Edmonton and have been growing hops for about 4 years now. My yields this year were: Mt. Hood= 1.2 kg dried, Nugget = 500 g dried, Cascade = 600 g. I have also planted a Sterling and a Fuggle, and I expect good yields this year. Moral of the story, you should be able to grow hops in Ottawa no problem. As for where to get the rhizomes, I ordered mine from Left Fields out of BC and was pleased with the product. Good luck.

Cheers,

Greg
 
Thanks, this is great news. As far as the vines go, can I just stake them up? I was thinking I could use the same set up as I do beans and peppers? For them, I put a stake in the ground then run twine and anchor it out about 3 feet from the base. This way they can get a bit of an angle towards the sun. As far as weight, I am assuming these can get pretty hefty for a vine? I guess since I can grow em I will start doing more research. How tall should my stake be?

Im really not too picky as to what to grow. If there is a style of hop that does better in these climates etc I would be more interested in pursuing that.


How tall should my stake be?
Do hops need to be cured at all, or do you just drop em on a screen and flip em a couple times a day?
 
Thanks, this is great news. As far as the vines go, can I just stake them up? I was thinking I could use the same set up as I do beans and peppers? For them, I put a stake in the ground then run twine and anchor it out about 3 feet from the base. This way they can get a bit of an angle towards the sun. As far as weight, I am assuming these can get pretty hefty for a vine? I guess since I can grow em I will start doing more research. How tall should my stake be?

Im really not too picky as to what to grow. If there is a style of hop that does better in these climates etc I would be more interested in pursuing that.


How tall should my stake be?
Do hops need to be cured at all, or do you just drop em on a screen and flip em a couple times a day?
you'll want something that is at least 20 feet tall (that's 6 metres for you metric types*). most people have their hops grow up a rope/twine that they tie up to a tree branch, flag pole, balcony, roof awning, etc. with a tad more effort you can get hops to grow horizontally, if you're willing to train them along a fence or some such. unfortunately a 6 foot pea trellis with nowhere to go isn't going to work very well. hops need to stretch out.

in terms of varieties, one you should check out is Canadian Redvine. predictably enough, it does well in colder climates. for additional suggestions, check out the link in my signature and look for varieties that don't do well in heat. there are several to choose from.

curing: drying the cones on a screen is the typical way of doing it. don't do it in the sun, tho, that will make them skunky. drying should be done indoors. do a search on this forum for "drying hops", there is lots of info available. i believe that the general rule is you want to reduce your dried hop weight by 75-80% of their wet weight before bagging and freezing.

*i'm a from the ottawa valley myself - born n' raised in aylmer.
 
Haha, small world.

I have a huge tree in the corner of my yard, I should be able to get about 4-5 vines going 20-30 feet. I had no idea they grew so tall.

I'm gonna try this out. My wife loves to garden and we have a garden around our entire house. I may run 2 vines up the side of the house and then a couple more off the tree and see what happens.
 
Haha, small world.

I have a huge tree in the corner of my yard, I should be able to get about 4-5 vines going 20-30 feet. I had no idea they grew so tall.

I'm gonna try this out. My wife loves to garden and we have a garden around our entire house. I may run 2 vines up the side of the house and then a couple more off the tree and see what happens.
small technical detail: hops have "bines", not "vines". weird, i know.

you need to "train" the bines along the ropes by twisting them clockwise (so they follow the sun across the sky and continue to wrap themselves around the rope).

keep in mind that most of the flowers (i.e. what you want to harvest) will be in the upper portions of the plant - so you need some way to get to them once they're ready. ladder is one way of getting up there, another is to have the rope be attached to a pulley or some other mecahnism that allows you to lower the bines, harvest, and then hoist them back up. if you throw a rope over a branch, make sure you have plenty of slack on the other side to fall back to the ground on the other side.

a small downside of using a tree is that at some point, the top of the bines will fall into the shadow of the tree if it has leaves. if you have a dead branch with no leaves and isn't too rotten to support the weight, you're (molson) golden.

more thoughts on support structures: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/hop-vine-support-structures-300974/
 
Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. I do have one particular branch that should work for 2. It has a lot of clearance.
If not, I can hang them off the side of my house. I will try using a rigging I had for 12 ft beans before spending any money. Kinda like a hook and grommet setup. The grommet is on the end of the twine. I should be able to unhook and lower from above.

So what is the side effect of just staking them up 15 feet ?
 
Great Lakes Hops out of Michigan has really stellar hop crowns...and even have a Canadian Red vine hop they sell...they are also on Facebook..I haven't bought from them yet but am going to add yo the six I have right now.
 
So what is the side effect of just staking them up 15 feet ?
first year: probably not much, especially if you plant rhizomes.

subsequent years, as the plant gets stronger and has more stored up energy to start the growing season at full speed: the bines will flop over once they get to the top. i'm not sure what the impact of this is on the plant, other than the tips will likely try to pull a 180 and start climbing again. maybe this is stressful for the plant? maybe it won't make a difference? anyone with experience in this?
 
first year: probably not much, especially if you plant rhizomes.

subsequent years, as the plant gets stronger and has more stored up energy to start the growing season at full speed: the bines will flop over once they get to the top. i'm not sure what the impact of this is on the plant, other than the tips will likely try to pull a 180 and start climbing again. maybe this is stressful for the plant? maybe it won't make a difference? anyone with experience in this?

So I could expect a small yield this year?
 
new rhizomes typically don't produce much the first year. however, there was one member here (forget who) who stated that some of his first-years produced quite nicely. i believe that he said two of his five produced a pound each. so give 'em lots of love (and organic matter) and see what happens.

buying crowns instead of rhizomes will help avoid this issue altogether.

about growing downwards, read this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/growing-hops-my-area-301432/index2.html#post3811231
 
Ok, thats what I thought. I wasn't expecting anything this year, so if I do end up with some hops I will be more than happy. Well it turns out my tree branch realistically will not hold two bines neatly. Instead I am thinking I might see if I can run one along the farm fence that goes along my planter bed. Its 40 feet long by 5.5ft tall. It has 4 rows of wire running horizontal. So that would put two up along the house in the back garden, one from a tree and one along the fence. All in nice soil and a full day of sun. This should spread it out. I fear if I plant them too close they will grow into eachother making sorting a nightmare.
 
+1 to Crannog Ales (Left Fields) in BC. They were very good. I was part of a group of guys that ordered from them and planted in Atlantic Canada. The North American varieties, especially the ones that were NOT certified organic, but all of the varieties grew very well except for one guy whose field flooded.
 
I grew hops for the first time last year with hops from left field. They did awesome and I got more than enough for 2 batches from 3 plants...unfortunately as I found out, first year hops often suck. I brewed 1 batch but it was pretty bad (very grassy). Rhisomes don't ship until the end of April and its really not enough time for them to grow, produce cones and ripen before the weather starts getting bad and a lot of mine just rotted on the bine. There are already shoots starting to poke out so hopefully this year will be good.
 
I cannot plant anything here until mid May, so all is going to work out from a time perspective. I am not anticipating any hops I can use, but I will be happy if I get a couple. I am building for the future here and to share some with my local brew mates. :)

I have already plotted out where I am going to be planting these suckers. Can't wait to watch em grow.

Next up is a bulk grain order.

G
 
How is the growth going on your crop. Right now I have 2 first year cascades about 17 ft tall with massive amounts of large burrs but I am worried none of them will mature before the frost starts to hit here in Edmonton around sept 20-28 (on average).
 
My second year plants did really well this year. there are some pics in this thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/show-off-your-2012-hops-garden-320960/index41.html#post4335121 and here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/show-off-your-2012-hops-garden-320960/index36.html#post4289104 I ran them up to the upstairs neighbour's deck and let out more line when they hit the top, forming coils that I hung over my railing. This allowed them to grow almost 20ft long with only 8 ft of vertical. Its a great system but there is a lot of tangling. I have a small section of fully formed willamette cones that are almost ready, a small section of cascade that are not close yet and a giant tangled mass of willamette and cascade ...but that isn't the worst blend. It will make a nice old school west coast IPA:)
 
Yeah I am looking forward to this year. Last year I got a few oz from each strain I planted but overall it was wayyy too hot here and it sucked for growing. Looking for Citra rhizomes, Or Amarillo but cant find any.
 
Yeah I am looking forward to this year. Last year I got a few oz from each strain I planted but overall it was wayyy too hot here and it sucked for growing. Looking for Citra rhizomes, Or Amarillo but cant find any.

You'll have to go to the black market for any of those. They aren't available to the public and only grown on a few licensed farms.
 
Looking for Citra rhizomes, Or Amarillo but cant find any.
they're patented/protected varieties. only the owners, and those to whom they license, can grow them. you won't find rhizomes for sale. same deal with simcoe, athanum, palisades, etc.

your options are:
- track down the farm in WA or OR, jump the fence, and steal what you hope is one of those varieties (they grow dozens of varieties on hundreds of acres... good luck)
- order fresh hops in september, hope you get a twig, and then hope that you can sprout/root that. if you do, you need to keep it alive all winter and then plant it next year.
- find someone who has done the previous option and is willing to share/trade/sell/pimp/etc.
 
Thanks guys. That answers the question as to why I can't find any... I have Cascade, Mt Hood, and BC Goldings if anyone wants to trade.. Wicked idea on the twig...I worked in a Garden centre for years so if it can be brought back to life I will do just that...Vitamin B1 and kelp soak will help..
 
Oh my! Another Ottawa guy... How did the first year crop go? Did you get a significant yield? Any trouble with aphids or anything?

I'm picking up some Centennial and Cascade rhizomes, this spring, from Bristol Hops. I'd love to score some Hollertau rhizomes, too, since they smell so so sweet. Doing everything in planters, this year, since I'm planning/hoping to buy a new/bigger home in the fall/winter, and don't want to give up any of my hops ;)
 
Oh my! Another Ottawa guy... How did the first year crop go? Did you get a significant yield? Any trouble with aphids or anything?

I'm picking up some Centennial and Cascade rhizomes, this spring, from Bristol Hops. I'd love to score some Hollertau rhizomes, too, since they smell so so sweet. Doing everything in planters, this year, since I'm planning/hoping to buy a new/bigger home in the fall/winter, and don't want to give up any of my hops ;)

If you are going to put them in containers, go big. I used 125L rubbermaid storage containers with 100L of soil for EACH rhisome and they did really well. Any smaller and you definitely won't get any more than a small handful of malformed cones. I ended up giving 1 of the plants away and when it was dug up it had pretty much filled the entire container. ...but moving them was a pain when I moved over xmas as they weighed at least 150lbs
 
thanks for the heads up! I was just going to use a spare 18" planter I used for tomatoes, last year.

I'm only planning on having 2 of them, and I'll be using movers to move, so I'll just tack those bins on to their list of items to move ;)
 
thanks for the heads up! I was just going to use a spare 18" planter I used for tomatoes, last year.

I'm only planning on having 2 of them, and I'll be using movers to move, so I'll just tack those bins on to their list of items to move ;)

Hey! Good to see another O-Town native here. Unfortunately the hop season was much too warm here for anything substantial to grow. That, combine with it being the first year for the hops resulted in a very very low yield. I am hoping for bigger and better things this year.

I did the tent trellis thing and just got a 20ft cedar 4*4, stuck it in the ground and ran guy wires.

I am also looking for Galaxy rhizomes but I predict thats another top secret strain yada yada
 
Technically, they should at least 'grow' here but as far as how optimal, that would be up in the air. I guess I will just be happy with whats out there now. I respect the reasons why some strains are under lock n key. Just didn't know
 
Technically, they should at least 'grow' here but as far as how optimal, that would be up in the air. I guess I will just be happy with whats out there now. I respect the reasons why some strains are under lock n key. Just didn't know
australian hops might not grow here because we have different diseases there than we do. hops are quite susceptible to diseases. several varieties are no longer in production because of wilts, viruses, etc.

if you're looking for recommendations, i'd suggest growing cascase, centennial and columbus. all excellent hops for pale ales, IPAs and harvest ales.
 
Does anyone know of a supplier who will have Saaz? I know Prairie Gem won't have any this year and I haven't found anyone else with them listed.
I have found an ebay seller with seeds; but I'd rather have rhizomes.
 
you definitely don't want seeds. you have no way of knowing if you'll sprout a male or a female. you would have to take a chance, or plant several plants and wait to find out what you grew (wouldn't be able to tell until they flowered).

and based on what i know, you can't get true saaz seeds (or any variety's seeds). hop varieties are propagated by cloning. seeds come from sexual reproduction. so while one would assume that the offspring of a female saaz and a male saaz would be very similar to its parents, it's technically no longer a saaz. at least that's how it works with modern varieties, perhaps old world varieties like saaz are different (i.e. more genetically diverse).
 
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