Starting a small hop farm!!!!

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sok454 said:
Looks awesome man!
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ThanKs.


Yea. Looks like we're still on for harvest tomorrow. Few more pics



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Hey, I live in Waldorf, if you need any help next season hit me up. Will work for hops or beer ;)

What did you treat those poles bases with? Tar?
 
emyers said:
Hey, I live in Waldorf, if you need any help next season hit me up. Will work for hops or beer ;)

What did you treat those poles bases with? Tar?
Click to expand...

Sounds good. Can always use a little help!! The bottoms are all treated with foundation coating. U use that bc its non leaching. So you dont have to worry about it effecting the soil around it.

Thanks.
 
Thanks for sharing so much information. My family has some farmland a few hours south of you in the valley and I am starting to do some research in growing hops. I suppose the best thing to do first would be to send of a few soil samples for testing and then treat the soil over the winter to prepare for the first planting?
 
Well. The new season is quickly approaching and even tho we are fighting snow to get things done. We've been able to out there and get some work done.
Had some trench work that needed to be done for our new irrigation set up. And have conduit ran out to the center of the field for electrical. Just because your out in a field doesn't mean u shouldn't be able to jam out with some music.
Took advantage of nice weather last weekend and tightened up cables and anchors.

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Pleasant Valley Hops inc.
Carroll Brewing Company
Frederick Md
 
Thanks. Yea the top spill is pretty nice around this way. We still use Los of compost too

So I wanted to throw it out there. On July 12th. We will be having a home brew day at the farm. We have very good water and plenty of room and electricity. So no rig is too big. This will start around 9 am for all grain and 11 for extract. Please contact me if interested. We will have the grill going. Have some burgers and hot dogs. Just an enjoyable day brewing and hanging out.

You can email me or call with any questions.
[email protected]
(240) 529-2747

Thanks
 
I got them from Schmidt Farm in NY. Price was about $20 per 100 strings (20ft long coir, pre cut). I've seen that price other places on the web, but shipping from NY was much more reasonable.
 
Once again the bulk thing helps. Coir is up this year. We're tossing around the idea of switching to a paper product. But not sold on it yet. 20$ for 100 is about the going rate
 
Sorry no good updates. Here are a few pictures from what I hoe will bring some really cool video and still shots from aerial view from a done video company that came out. And the second is from an event we attended. Beer bacon music!! Was a great event for all.

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Nickeldeposit said:
Next time get yourself some bailing twine it's like .005 per ft for 350lb
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Lots of downside to that^ and at roughly .009 per ft. Id rather have someone else cut 6000+ strings to length!The time it would take to cut and organize that more than pays for the premium of using the right stuff for the job. For a home grower I'd say that could work. But it wouldn't work for us

Thanks tho. Always think outside of the box. Find new ways all the time to do things it make things more efficient
 
We cut back all first growth. And because of how winter was is why we waiting so long to do it. We trained 2-3 per twine. So normally as many as 6 per crown
 
Where were you selling those potted plants!? i'd love to get a couple for the garden!
 
PleasantValleyHops said:
Lots of downside to that^ and at roughly .009 per ft. Id rather have someone else cut 6000+ strings to length!The time it would take to cut and organize that more than pays for the premium of using the right stuff for the job. For a home grower I'd say that could work. But it wouldn't work for us

Thanks tho. Always think outside of the box. Find new ways all the time to do things it make things more efficient
Click to expand...

If you can find a good deal on a large coil you can cut measured lengths fairly easily.

Find a place where you can put 2 spikes into a board(s) the distance apart that you want the strings, wrap the line around the spikes then cut at both end at the spikes, or once through all the lines at the midpoint between the spikes. Voila! precut strings.
 
kh54s10 said:
If you can find a good deal on a large coil you can cut measured lengths fairly easily.

Find a place where you can put 2 spikes into a board(s) the distance apart that you want the strings, wrap the line around the spikes then cut at both end at the spikes, or once through all the lines at the midpoint between the spikes. Voila! precut strings.
Click to expand...

Good point. All in all i don't think the cost difference per ft is enough to want to cut ask that twine. I don't know tho.
 
Hey just wanted to remind folks we are inviting everyone out this Saturday July 19th. Home brewers bring your rigs. We will have a few folks brewing but others can just come or and check our the hop yard. Only a few weeks away from harvest! !!
 
3444 kaetzel rd. Rohersville md 21779. Go 340 toward Brunswick. Next exit rt. 67. 5 miles on the left! !! If you want to brew. All gain mash in at 10 am! So probably get her around 9. I have a grain Mill and plenty of power! !
 
This all looks awesome, really neat to follow, thanks for posting along the way. A couple of questions if you don't mind. And I hope the brew day went well!

I didn't catch exactly what string you're using? I tried sisal twine and am having many strings break.

Are you having any trouble keeping the grass from growing around the crowns? I have (a much smaller) setup like yours, with grass rows, and it's been a TON of weed whacking and hand weeding. Any secrets?

You mentioned access to a commercial picker, is that local? I'm way out in VA, but haven't heard of any commercial pickers anywhere except some experimental things in NE, and I assume NC has some setups now, but that's still a bit of a drive!

Keep up the good (and hard) work!!
 
I put a few plants in this year and tilled the rows then mulched heavily with straw. No weeds! (I was shocked.)

You could probably mow yours short, put down newspaper or some kind of biodegradable block, then mulch heavily with straw.

And that was an awesome open house at PVH. Inspiring to see just what's possible with a little (or a lot) hard work.
 
Man, I would have enjoyed the ride down too. I didn't see the invite until now but had a wedding anyway.
 
hardrain said:
This all looks awesome, really neat to follow, thanks for posting along the way. A couple of questions if you don't mind. And I hope the brew day went well!

I didn't catch exactly what string you're using? I tried sisal twine and am having many strings break.

Are you having any trouble keeping the grass from growing around the crowns? I have (a much smaller) setup like yours, with grass rows, and it's been a TON of weed whacking and hand weeding. Any secrets?

You mentioned access to a commercial picker, is that local? I'm way out in VA, but haven't heard of any commercial pickers anywhere except some experimental things in NE, and I assume NC has some setups now, but that's still a bit of a drive!

Keep up the good (and hard) work!!
Click to expand...

We are using coir twine. One of those heard bad things about strings breaking and didn't want to deal with that. Weeds are a pain. We are currently working on different spray applications that are still safe for everything. Ie. No round up! But as of now we do alot if weed eating. Their are 2 different pickers in the Frederick md area. And also a wolf in the western md area. So have a few options.

Should of come up on Saturday! !
 

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