2009 Hop garden picture thread.

mrkristofo said:

Hops actually grow really well in Utah (though you'd never guess it). I know of a few "patches" of wild hops growing in the hills that produce garbage-bags full each year. Pretty amazing to me that they can survive 500+" of snowfall and then put out 10lbs of cones.

I think this week is supposed to be the last hard snow of the season (for reals), but if the weather starts showing anything else happening I'm going to put them in some pots.

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I'm trying hops for the first time this year here in Flagstaff, Arizona. Right now, the days are nice (50-60 degrees) but the nights are still pretty cool (25-35 degrees). I have them in planters right now and bring them in at night.

Here are mine... hard to see the height. The Cascades are about 2"-4" high, so are the Willamette. The Mt Hoods are just popping up.

Cascade has about 6 shoots up, Willamette 5 shoots and the Mt Hood has about 8 as of now.

Willamette:


Cascades:


Mt Hood: Hard to see, but there are 8 robust shoots popping up in that pic.

I went out an looked yesterday. I have some shoots coming off of 4 plants. Pretty good for less than a week.

In hindsight, I should of potted them for awhile, until the frost stopped.

There is a definite difference in the shoots on the 2nd year hops... last year the shoots were pretty anemic, but thickened throughout the summer. This spring they are thick, very robust. We have had a succession of light frosts here, but they are growing right through it.

just took these this morning. both cascade. the four willamette are 2 inch high, the four Mt hood are 1-3 inch high, the four sterling are 1-2 inch high. none of those are in the pictures, and this cascade is about 14-15 inches. the other cascade bunch are all about 6 inch. the last two cascade plants had red crown rot and don't think they are alive. I saw a few healthy roots so maybe they'll pop up sometime. I have one of each pre ordered for replacements but looks like I won't need them on the willamette, mt hood and sterling. I pre ordered two cascade which will go in the dead spots. a magnum and centennial will go in pots.







last picture is last year. I added two more boxes for more veggies. that makes eight boxes, each with a seperate faucet.

VERY nice garden boxes... I am envious

Yeah, I also get envious when I see his garden pictures too.

thanks. everything is on a soaker hose with a timer. all that work so I could be lazy. I get busy and forget to water quite often. you can't do that in the deep south.

Noticed the other day that the plant I transplanted about a month ago has broken through the soggy soil!


The next shot is where I planted them on the corner of my cigar smoking shed, dubbed "the hack shack". The pink color is how I plan on training the vines... mostly "for effect". Can't wait!


Funny thing is that I'm fairly new here and I built this shed a couple years ago for smoking stogies and drinking. Little did I know that building these was somewhat popular on this site! I call it destiny.

Question: this hop plant is 3 years old and I planted a couple of them originally but they never really flowered (too shady a spot). I split one of them and placed it on my shed as pictured above (much more sun) and suspect this one will do better. Unfortunately I don't recall what kind of hop this is. When it gets bigger/flowers, will it be identifiable simply by its appearance?

zippyslug31 said:

When it gets bigger/flowers, will it be identifiable simply by its appearance?

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Always lots of talk/discussion about ID'ing but I have never seen any success come from this.

The short answer is no.

First time growing here, from Central Florida.

My 4 day old Willamette pictures





And my 4 day old cascade



The Cascade hasent taken off as much as the Willamette yet, but hoping it will soon. as for where i am going to plant them what i am thinking of doing is putting an Eye hook in the edge of my roofing, and running them up the corners of my house. i think it will give the house an extra added effect, and also to say "Hey he doesnt just have palm trees!"


I have 3 more different varieties of rhinzones to plant still, a Chinook
Fuggle, and Mt. Hood. I am hoping to get a different variety running up each corner of the house. But hey, its Florida, so getting to live is my first project

And i couldnt post pictures of the house in the last thread, but i would like yalls opinion on how the corner thing would look.




Thanks!

jshnks said:

...i would like yalls opinion on how the corner thing would look.

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Sorry, but what 'thing' is that?

I think he means growing hops up each corner of the house. If it was me I might just put them all on that long garage side depending on what kind of sun it gets.

[img=http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/7905/hop1.th.jpg]
[img=http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1456/hops2.th.jpg]


:rockin:

Here is my first hop garden in SE Connecticut. L-R Cascade, Fuggle, Mt. Hood, Sterling. They all had sprouts when planted - so I'm feeling pretty good about how they'll do! I ordered them from Thyme Garden out in Oregon and they arrived in a couple of days.

a_w_taylor said:

Here is my first hop garden in SE Connecticut. L-R Cascade, Fuggle, Mt. Hood, Sterling. They all had sprouts when planted - so I'm feeling pretty good about how they'll do! I ordered them from Thyme Garden out in Oregon and they arrived in a couple of days.
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It is hard to get a clear idea of the scale of your box, but upon first glance, it appears your hops are going to be one indistinguishable clump at harvest time... But the perspective could be making the spacing look close. Maybe you do have a good 5'-6' between varieties. If not, I would highly suggest doing so.

I do also agree the box looks small, but that it could just be the picture of it. You do want at least 3 feet in between varieties.

I am hoping that 3 feet is enough.

I know they say to put more between different varities, but that is all I had. I have quite a bit of vertical feet to climb so hopefully they won't want to go sideways.

Don't worry about the spacing for the first year. Just realize that this winter you'll need to dig a couple up and plant them elsewhere. My second year hops are about 2' apart and they are doing just fine, but are starting to send out sideways shoots. This winter I'll be moving one plant in the middle so that I have 4' between plants.

Hmmmm - that is a 6.5' box. Maybe I'll make a second next to it and figure out a trellis setup for both of them to utilize...

Thanks for the heads up!

Here are some updates on my end.





If you click through to my stream you'll find some more information about the plants and garden...

Northern Brewer #1 poking through. My Fuggle and Willamette from last year didn't make it through the winter, so this is my first hop of 2009.


I've got one more Northern Brewer, 2 Centennial, Cascade, Chinook, Golding, Tettnanger, Hallertauer, and Nugget cooking under a 24/7 light, hopefully they'll be poking through soon. The Northern Brewers have been under the light for ~1 week and the rest were potted tonight (got them yesterday). We just had ~6" of snow, so they're going to spend a little while longer inside, under the lights.

GearBeer said:

I've got one more Northern Brewer, 2 Centennial, Cascade, Chinook, Golding, Tettnanger, Hallertauer, and Nugget cooking under a 24/7 light, hopefully they'll be poking through soon.

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Is 24hr a good choice? Won't that trigger flowering rather than growth? I guess it doesn't matter if it's a small light though.

24 hr until they sprout. The one pictured and my tomatoes, peppers (green, red chili, habanero, and jalapeno), pumpkins, watermelons, and onions) are on a 14 hr light.

My grandmother has been starting plants on that pattern for >50 years.

Oh ok I thought they were already up I must have misread. Do you think you could grow hops indoors year round and cycle between growth and flower or no?

We have been cutting ours back for about a month now. These were taken today. It was time to string the twine. The hops shot up over 16" in 36 hours. These are Cascade. Not sure if you can see the twines or not but this is what I was doing today.

And the twine

That my friend, is beautiful

Jaybird said:

And the twine

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Gees, grow a few hops J?

magnj said:

Oh ok I thought they were already up I must have misread. Do you think you could grow hops indoors year round and cycle between growth and flower or no?

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Theoretically. It'd take a lot of space and you'd have to control the light cycle pretty well.

So I went out today to see how the hops are weathering the below freezing nightly temps here this week.

Cascade is growing the tallest at about 6", there are 7 shoots

Mt Hood is glowing the slowest, but I have 13 shoots... yes 13

Willamette is growing moderately at 3" and there are 7 shoots

Just checked my first years a few minutes ago:

Cascade led the charge (as expected) with 6 shoots.

Chinook in 2nd place with 4 shoots.

Willamette haven't broken ground yet.

Fly...

I have always read about how aggressive Cascades are... but last year my Cascades were first up, and finished last. The Willamettes were the ONLY ones to produce cones, outgrew the Cascades and Mt Hood... this year the Willamette were up first but the Cascades are reaching for the sky much faster now. It is fun to watch these things grow, they are incredible "weeds"

My cascade are slow and tiny compared to Chinook and Magnum which are really taking off even just sitting in the window. All I want this year is to make one nice big IPA at the end of the season with my own hops.

magnj said:

My cascade are slow and tiny compared to Chinook and Magnum which are really taking off even just sitting in the window. All I want this year is to make one nice big IPA at the end of the season with my own hops.

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that is what I am hoping too with my chinook, but I don't think I will get anywhere near what it will take for a Arrogant bastard brew in the first year.

Breaking News!!!! My Nugget just broke ground sometime between 8 this morning and noon. Went home at lunch and there it was. Its been in the 60's and 70's here in MD. But tonight is supposed to be mid 20's and tomorrow night around freezing. Perfect timing. Still no sign of my Cascade or Williamette. It has only been 5 days since I planted everything.

The Pol said:

Gees, grow a few hops J?

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I have been known to go all out on things from time to time.

Jaybird said:

We have been cutting ours back for about a month now. These were taken today. It was time to string the twine. The hops shot up over 16" in 36 hours. These are Cascade. Not sure if you can see the twines or not but this is what I was doing today.

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Well it is nice to see that a drool Anyways, I have read a lot where the big growers cut theirs back at the beginning on the season as it will result in more cones. Is that what you are doing here and do you literally cut them off at the dirt or what are you doing?

Highlandsbrew said:

I got my garden turned this last weekend and my 4 new hop plants in the ground, and new string on my hop pole. My last years plants have started growing, but the weather is supposed to turn cold again hopefully they won't freeze.

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Oh man, is that a bird house up there? Aren't you worried about bird poop on your hops?