2013 Hop garden photo thread

i heart this thread. i gotta head to my buddys and take a pic of ours. all first years we got>>cascade, centennial, kent goldings, willamette, nugget, mangnum, brewers gold. pretty sure there's another variety or two but i forgot off the top of my head.

I've got 2 cascade plants and 1 Centennial plant all in their 4th year. This is probably the best they have ever grown. I think last year's cool and rainy May/June caused more aphid damage and slower growth. This year we have had more sun, but I still have only watered the hops a few times this season.

The first photo is the top of my first year nugget plant that is just starting to flower. The other photos show the cascade and centennial which have had cones for the last few weeks.

Second year plants turned into one hop tree.

heyblinkin said:

Second year plants turned into one hop tree.

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That's bad ass. It's a pillar of hops.

tripplehazzard said:

I have first year plants and I have been reading up on hop gardens. Some say to trim back all but the strongest 2 bones. Is this q good rule for first year plants? Or should I just let them go the first year? The only reason I ask is because my Sterling is going nuts. It has like 8 or 9 bines one more keep popping up

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The first year, I let my Nugget rhizome do what it did, and still ended up with about an ounce of wet hops that I used in a batch. Last year, I had too many irons in the fire & let it go wild, and just used the ounce of dried hops I got from them. This year, I chopped it back to 6 bines, cut 2 shoots off the main rhizome & planted them at the other end of my setup.

I have far more cones this year over last, primarily because the plant is in "survival mode." It's a common technique in viticulture to cut back extra vines that do not have grapes on them to increase the number of grapes on the producing vines. Doing so makes the grapes "think" they are under attack and must produce as much seed as possible to continue the line. I believe this is the case for hops as well, but not based solely on my own experience.

Drying first pick from my centennial.





More to come....


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My wife and I move into my grandmas last winter after grandpa passed, an unintended benefit is she has property and a nice 7ft tall fence around her garden to let my hops grow on.

2nd year nuggets, the deer ate the leafage in the middle.



3rd year cascade



1st year mt hood which took 2 months to break ground



1st year centennial, the plant I'm most excited about

This is my first year. My 8 crowns are coming along nicely it would seem.

Cones everywhere!

Chamuco said:

Drying first pick from my centennial.

More to come....

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I decided to get some off before they overmatured. Probably 3-4 wet ozs of each cascade and nugget. Here's the biggest cascade ever off these plants.

Stevo2569 said:

I decided to get some off before they overmatured. Probably 3-4 wet ozs of each cascade and nugget. Here's the biggest cascade ever off these plants.

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Wow, that's a big nugget!

Stevo2569 said:

I decided to get some off before they overmatured. Probably 3-4 wet ozs of each cascade and nugget. Here's the biggest cascade ever off these plants.

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I've had some mutant hops like that before. My favorite was the double cascade from a few years ago.

Chamuco said:

Wow, that's a big nugget!

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I second that! Crazy how large that is.

Update on the first year teepee rig. I'm betting that they won't reach the top this year.
Lots of flowers, especially on Cascade and Chinook. Not sure how long till they make cones.

My 1st post. Here are my 3rd year centennial hops, all budded up nicely, it won't be long now! Last year I harvested 3 times.

Bob

RomanRider said:

My 1st post. Here are my 3rd year centennial hops, all budded up nicely, it won't be long now! Last year I harvested 3 times.

Bob

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Welcome! Those guys are looking quite amazing! Keep up the fine cultivation!

My dad is the family hop farmer. These are 3rd year cascade, nugget and brewer's gold. Added to last year's crop were centennial, magnum, tettnang, hallertau, fuggles, mt hood and a few others. At this point it looks like, between my brother and I, we could have up to 5-10 lbs. :rockin:

I used to grow honeysuckle on this trellis but decided to take them out this year and try some hops instead. Both Centennials doing pretty well from crowns planted about 6 weeks ago. The left one only has one bine as the tip broke off all the other bines. Hopefully I'll get some harvest on these even though they only get about 4 hours of sun each day.

Trellis


Centennial 1


Centennial 2


A Lucky Dog Nugget from Great Lakes Hops
(This one is taking off very slowly)

bradford0113 said:

I used to grow honeysuckle on this trellis but decided to take them out this year and try some hops instead. Both Centennials doing pretty well from crowns planted about 6 weeks ago. The left one only has one bine as the tip broke off all the other bines. Hopefully I'll get some harvest on these even though they only get about 4 hours of sun each day.

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Considering the healthy shade loving hosta next to the hops, I dont think you will get enough sun on those hops to have them produce bountifully. They will be smaller than what you see on some of these other posts, and perhaps give you a few cones. Hopefully with all three, you could get enough for one batch!

I like that trellis

Still no real hops forming, there are some burrs that look like they are starting though...but as i understand it us here in Oregon have a later flowering season than the rest of you? Makes sense i seem to remember picking my friends hops in late August-Early September....

These are all first year plants.

Cascade


Columbus(On left)


Newport (On Right)


As you can see the Cascade is a bit ridiculous, im having to constantly take the screen out of my window and reach out there on the left side and reroute those long bines that are flying to the left trying to grab onto the Columbus line. Ive already looped the first bine back to head to the right, i need to get the 2nd bine you can see floating there about to grab on.

FuzzeWuzze said:

Still no real hops forming, there are some burrs that look like they are starting though...but as i understand it us here in Oregon have a later flowering season than the rest of you? Makes sense i seem to remember picking my friends hops in late August-Early September.....

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Same here last year. But the early warm weather combined with lots of rain have mine at least a month ahead of schedule.

FuzzeWuzze said:

Still no real hops forming, there are some burrs that look like they are starting though...but as i understand it us here in Oregon have a later flowering season than the rest of you? Makes sense i seem to remember picking my friends hops in late August-Early September....

These are all first year plants.

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Those are some of the healthiest first year plants I have seen. You have the green thumb for sure !!

Here are my first years loaded with cones

basementbrewbrad said:

Here are my first years loaded with cones

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your setup is awesome

My first year fuggles. Looks like some critters have been helping themselves to the leaves again

DoubleAught said:

This is my first year. My 8 crowns are coming along nicely it would seem.

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Awesome! I would put a bench or table under that and enjoy the shade beneath my hops!

I pulled off a cone to see what the lupulin content looked like. Think I should pick them now or wait? Its a first year chinook and i have about 20 cones that are close to this size and more that are just starting to bud.

Hop_Hero said:

I pulled off a cone to see what the lupulin content looked like. Think I should pick them now or wait? Its a first year chinook and i have about 20 cones that are close to this size and more that are just starting to bud.

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They should feel papery, spring back to almost original shape after squeezing, most will usually brown slightly on the petal tips(showing they are drying out) the lupilin will also darken a little. I usually sacrifice a few and grind them between my fingers. If there ready the petals fall off pretty easy and I'm left with a good amount of resiny lupilin on my fingers.

Here are the Newport and Hallertau that are second year vines. Already harvested a quart container of dried hops. Then here are the first year Newport and Zeus.

Getting some burrs on my first year cascade. Pretty excited

1st year Zues just about ready

NCSDhops said:

1st year Zues just about ready

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based on the brown tips of the bracts, i'd say those hops are definitely ready. get picking!

NCSDhops said:

1st year Zues just about ready

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First year? wow, that's got a lot of cones. If you ever want to get rid of a rhizome let me know.

NCSDhops said:

1st year Zues just about ready

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How the hell? My second year cascades haven't even started to produce cones!

got home from work yesterday to find a bunch of these on a first year Willamette plant





Pretty stoked!

Looks like I'm using my own hops to brew this fall

I only have 1 plant (first year cascade) with 1 bine but it's making lots of cones

First year cascade. No cones, but lots of burrs.

So jealous here in Florida. I have some land in Tennessee that I might cultivate next year. Anyone hopping in the Knoxville area? If so, what?

The first picture is a few weeks back, the second two a few days ago.

I've got a few questions:

Will these burrs turn into cones? Is that what happens? Second, in the later pictures, you'll notice the leaves look brown on the edges. That started happening the same time the burrs came along. Any thoughts on this? I think I am giving it adequate water.

Overall, pretty pleased with the cascade on the right. It was a better rhizome to begin with than the sterling to the left.

First pic is Chinook second is Centennial :rockin: