Anyone growing hops in MD

As the title said, anyone growing any hops this year in MD? I've got some rhizomes on pre-order with Midwest, 2x Cascade and 2x Goldings.

Any local experience would be appreciated!

Im growing 6 types of hops this year. Planted this fall in a leaf gro/compost/azomite/chickitty doodoo mix. I got 4 varieties from a friend who grows in Glen Burnie with moderate success (his soil is lacking). Not much experience growing hops but 10+ years of organic green thumb experience (including there cousin) and a 2k sq/ft veggie garden. Keep the soil fertile and well drained with a 1-2" deep mulch of shredded leaves on top. Get your soil tested at the MD extension if you haven't already, its about $10 http://www.hgic.umd.edu/content/SoilTesting.cfm (google "md soil extension") Highly consider purchasing a yard or two of leaf gro compost from a local nursery or garden supply store to amend your soil ~$25-30 yd. If you have any aphid problems purchase a tin of ladybugs off amazon and that will cure the problem.

Hope this helps!

yup, i've got 6 varieties going into year 2, in rockville.

i can attest to cascade doing well in this climate, it was my most successful plant last year. i don't have experience with goldings, but my research (see first link in my signature) says that they do well in heat. this is for US goldings, i'm assuming you didn't import british EKG's... those wouldn't thrive in our climate.

good luck!

I have Goldings that will be in their 5th year. They don't get enough sun. First 3 years I pretty much neglected them and got no cones. Last year I fertilized, watered and babied them. They were really looking good and then the wife had the house pressure-washed and my Goldings got sprayed with bleach. They recovered but again no cones.

I'd like to try Cascades.

I apologize if this is hijacking the thread, and I don't mind moving it to its own thread if needed.

I'm also looking for some advice here. I've got Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, and Willamette on order. I'm trying to get a feel for a good growing location on my property - I've read that hops need a good amount of sunshine, but I saw someone's blog where they mentioned that the summer afternoon sun here gets to be a little too intense. If folks don't mind taking a look at the attached picture and giving any hints or suggestions, that'd be great. I'd really like to find a good location to get these babies started.

A quick overview of the picture -
North is indicated by the arrow in the bottom left, the path the sun takes is indicated by the orange arc. The back of the property is mostly trees, gets a lot of shade, some indirect sunlight. The back right of the property has a small hill (maybe 5 ft high), sloping in the direction indicated by the arrow, and is more exposed to sun than the back left.

Locations -
1. There's a tree here that I could attach twine to. The south side would obviously get a lot of sun, the north side less so.
2. Gets quite a bit of sun, but would get some afternoon shade from the tree at location 1.
3. Basically gets full-on sun from about noon to sundown. Great location for a garden, but not sure if hops will like that.
4. Gets moderate sun all day long. Might have some drainage issues here.
5. Would get pretty good sun from a couple hours after sunup to a couple hours before sundown. Has some amount of shade from direct afternoon sun.
6. Gets mostly morning sun, until around noon. This is where the AC unit & generator are though, so that might get in the way.
7. Would get mostly morning sun.

Based on what I'm reading, I'm thinking that locations 5 & 7 might be the best, with maybe #2 as a strong 3rd. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice on the matter?

Thanks in advance!

I live in nottingham, and my damn cascades grew like they had roids. The rest weren't as good, but my beds weren't that well set up.

awshepard, I was waiting to see if anyone that actually has had success would reply, but here goes.
I believe it's better to have some sun all day long than full sun just in the morning or afternoon. The length of the day plays a big role in the growth cycle. The two locations on your south side (1,2) would give you that. Good luck.

I'm growing Cascade, Centennial, Nugget, Chinook, Fuggles, Goldings, Sterling and Liberty. They are fighting a bit of a battle with my Caneberry patch, but the Nugget and my 3 C's are going gangbusters after 2 seasons, the Fuggles and Goldings are intermediate in vigor and the Sterling and Liberty are performing very poorly. All have been treated the same. I have some afternoon shade in the heat of summer and it doesn't seem to negatively effect the hops. I also have a "generic" hop from Gurney's that is in full sun - I do not see a vigor or yield difference between them and my specific variety hops.

If a plant needs a certain day length to flower etc. is more related to actual night and day cycle and not sun intensity. That said some plants are definitely more sun "hungry" than others, hence shade vs full sun plants.

Well my rhizomes have been in the ground for a couple of weeks now. One of the goldings is going great guns, the other is in hot pursuit. One of the cascades has some decent shoots above ground, the second is still being a touch shy.

I'm on the lookout for some Willamette crowns if anyone has any.

Opps - I meant to say Willamette and not Fuggles - Pete - PM sent.

Plants received today and in the ground. One really nice big one, hopefully it takes hold nicely. Many thanks for your generosity!

My pleasure, This is good planting weather!

I have a farm in old town, MD will ship anywhere or could meet you with many types to choose from, inbox me for detail. I have chinook, Willamette, centennial, nugget, magnums, and cascade

robfar said:

I have Goldings that will be in their 5th year. They don't get enough sun. First 3 years I pretty much neglected them and got no cones. Last year I fertilized, watered and babied them. They were really looking good and then the wife had the house pressure-washed and my Goldings got sprayed with bleach. They recovered but again no cones.

I'd like to try Cascades.

Click to expand...

I have many cascades rhizomes if you still need?

Well almost all of them look to have died, except for one cascade which seems to be hanging in there, albeit growing very slowly.

Looks like I'm going to dig out the holes a lot more and fill them all with potting soil, I think they suffered from heavy rain packing down the soil.

PeteNMA said:

Well almost all of them look to have died, except for one cascade which seems to be hanging in there, albeit growing very slowly.

Looks like I'm going to dig out the holes a lot more and fill them all with potting soil, I think they suffered from heavy rain packing down the soil.

Click to expand...

pete, i strongly suspect your crowns didn't die. they went in to shock and dropped all their leave. be patient, new shoots will emerge. it's what happened with mine last year. i wish they're include warnings to this effect...

@organarchy,
I'd be interested in a couple of those Cascades rhizomes. if you still have them.

Taken this morning in scenic Frederick. Deck is facing South-East.

i need to post a pic of my newport... it's over 10 feet tall. i suspect it will top its telephone pole before the growing season is done.

Fredrick? You're just up the road from me then. I'm on 108 near Elioak Farm

sweetcell said:

pete, i strongly suspect your crowns didn't die. they went in to shock and dropped all their leave. be patient, new shoots will emerge. it's what happened with mine last year. i wish they're include warnings to this effect...

Click to expand...

I pulled them up and put them back down with some compost, mulch and a little fertilizer. I'll keep on waiting.

PeteNMA said:

Fredrick? You're just up the road from me then. I'm on 108 near Elioak Farm

Click to expand...

That's a long road

I was in Columbia just Tuesday...

Update:

The centennial rhizome finally decided to grow some bines with only ~1 months delay Better late than never! :rockin:

First flowers on some of my hops plants are forming These pictures of my Magnum hops were taken this morning:

From below:

Well the only thing I've got left that's still alive is one lone Cascade, which is currently in a flower pot full of potting soil. It's growing tall but the lower leaves are dying it seems, I've been spraying it with some pyrethrin spray after spotting a few spider mites, but I'm still getting leaves turning brown at the edges and withering.

Any ideas? I was toying with planting it back in the ground now it's got some height on it (almost five feet tall now) in a much bigger hole with some more potting compost.

Show us some pictures. I don't think planting it back into the ground would be a good idea. Transplant shock at this time of year could seriously set them back. It's just too hot - and you'll destroy whatever root system it's been able to develop in the pot.

It could just be nutrient deficiency - with all the rain we've had any potted hops are going to be nutrient deficient - esp Nitrogen - which will often present with yellowing and death of the oldest leaves as the plant scavenges N from them to feed the new growth

Of course the other option is the dreaded Downy Mildew - which does like damp weather - but the symptoms you describe don't sound like it.

I'd start with a nice general fertilizer - lower leaves that are turning yellow most often means Nitrogen is lacking but I'd bet you are short pretty much all nutrients after all this rain. Either way it can't hurt.

Try it and let us know how they look by the weekend.

I'll grab some nitrogen containing fertilizer from my local friendly hardware store and give it a go.

Well the thing grew off the top of the cane I had staked in the plant pot, so I moved it to the back of the garden to try and train it on my string setup. Gave it some fertilizer and a watering and now all the leaves have fallen off.

robfar said:

awshepard, I was waiting to see if anyone that actually has had success would reply, but here goes.
I believe it's better to have some sun all day long than full sun just in the morning or afternoon. The length of the day plays a big role in the growth cycle. The two locations on your south side (1,2) would give you that. Good luck.

Click to expand...

I have been growing hope for overrors ten years. This is cascade 2014.

For anyone growing hops in Maryland. A few of my fellow homebrewing/hop growing friends set up a Facebook group called Maryland Hop Growers. We set this up to post pictures, ask/give advice, and set up some post-harvest hop trades. Feel free to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1435251073422438/

There's another page called Maryland Hop Growers Association, but I believe that it's through Milkhouse Brewery at Stillpoint Farm and it site mostly devoted to their hop growing effforts. It wasn't really conducive to the home hop grower.