growing hops-

Anyone ever try to grow hops?

I was thinking of trying it for kicks-

You might want to read up a little on www.freshops.com .

In general most references say hops grow between 30 and 50 degrees latitude.

I would sure like to see the various hop varieties interpolated onto a cliamte zone map like they do for roses and daisies and what all else. Fruit trees...

Ya know? If my local climate is ideal for say uhh - Centenial - just as an example - than I would rather grow a truckload of Centenial and have tradebait, rather than have some weak EKG vines with three hops, four caterpillars and no trade bait.

Growing hop questions is probably about four new threads away from one big merged sticky. I shall go track down the freshop page and edit into this post.

EDIT: the freshops page on home hop gardening:

http://www.freshops.com/gardening.html

forgive my lazyness.

Lots of things say not to grow in AK but grow well!

Hops are a cousin of hemp and we all know how well that crop grows here!

I have a side of the house during the summer never loses sunlight. Wondering if stringing up a few rows would be fun look cool.

MikeFlynn74 said:

forgive my lazyness.

Click to expand...

No worries. I didn't look up the latitude of Anchorage either ;-)

I do still want to know which hop "zone" I am in so I can maximize my yield.

If you make it up to Santa Claus , AK wave at my cousin when you pass the AF base please.

lol- Whats he do? Im in the Air Guard and used to be active Duty....

He Elmendorf or Eilson?

Anchorage sits at 61 but the 22hrs of sunlight seem to be awesome for quick growing

MikeFlynn74 said:

lol- Whats he do? Im in the Air Guard and used to be active Duty....

He Elmendorf or Eilson?

Click to expand...

He is at Elmendorf, and I can't tell ya.

We are way off track here. Are you growing hops for shade or product?

I wanted to grow them for the heck of it and to use in my brewing.

Shade? hrmm never thought of that

MikeFlynn74 said:

I wanted to grow them for the heck of it and to use in my brewing.

Click to expand...

I saw a thing somewhere where if freshly harvested hops are immediately frozen without drying them out first the flavor is "better".

I have to try that someday.

Look at this listing and pick ones that fit your growing season, weather and tastes. NO shade, hops are phototrophs, that's why they do so well up here.

http://www.freshops.com/usda_hop_desc2.html

Where would you get the seeds to grow hops? I grow vegetables in the summer and was thinking about maybe growing hops.

You grow them from rhizomes, not seeds. You can buy them at the places listed above. Here's some more great info: http://www.picobrewery.com/askarchive/growhops.htm

You only grow the female plants (I believe) as they are the ones that produce the hop flowers.

Found another link and I'll just edit into this post in the future:

Hop growers Association of America:

http://www.usahops.org/

The Oregon Dept of Ag website is undergoing renovation. However, they will probably still host this content somewhere on the new server:

http://www.ars-grin.gov/ars/PacWest/Corvallis/ncgr/humulus/huminfo.html

The Ozzies concluded that any area that can grow hops will also support hop diseases:
http://www.cababstractsplus.org/google/abstract.asp?AcNo=20033217421

I am sticking this one in thread to save room in my personal favorites folder. The "Hop Buying Guide for 2007" was especailly illuminating, though not germane:
http://www.hopsteiner.com/guide.html

And I finally found a reference to climate zone:
http://www.uvm.edu/~pass/perry/faqhops.html

The relevant guidance text is:

uvm.edu said:

When should I plant my hops rhizomes outside? The best time to plant can vary from year to year, depending on the weather conditions. For a general guide, we recommend around the 1st of May for Plant Hardiness Zone 4, and 2 weeks earlier for each zone number higher.

Click to expand...

And the USDA climate zone map is here:
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

Actually, the University of Vermont site is pretty darn helpful...

Found a cheap seller-

Thinking of buying Crystal and Chinook

http://www.storesonline.com/site/561124/page/217466

With prices going up like they are I am going to put in some plants this spring. Haven't decided which variety yet.

Check out this site as well

http://www.crannogales.com/HopsManual.pdf

I think Hops would probably grow suprisingly well in AK, I lived up there for a few years and remeber all of the big veggies coming out of the Matanuska valley.