Who's growing Hops this year?

I'm going to take a crack at it this year. I'm ordering Hop Rhizomes soon and will try and grow some Hallertau, saaz and cascade. I don't really have a green thumb, but i heard it's fairly easy to grow and my father and law can grow roses out of shyte.

Anybody else growing any?

fuggle, cascade and hallertau...2nd season

oooh...i want to grow some saaz

How was your yield the first year? Was it hard to do?

i have been growing hops now for a few years and have a lt of the results in the freezer in bags. hops need LOTS of water once they get growing and they usually aren't prolific the first season.

Bulls Beers said:

How was your yield the first year? Was it hard to do?

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Mine yielded only 6-8 cones from 4 vines, but I planted very late. I've got Santiam and Tettnang. Hopefully this year will be a good harvest.

Yeah,I heard that the first season doesn't yield alot.

I'm going to try a few plants and see what happens.

Ill be planting if i can get a hold of some rhizomes.

I plan on starting a hop garden this spring also. Gonna plant some Nugget, Willamette, Sterling, and Centennial.

I will be planing about 10 different strands

From this http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a357/nflder/?action=view&current=PHOT0003-1.jpg and this http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a357/nflder/?action=view&current=PHOT0006-1.jpg i got this http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a357/nflder/?action=view&current=PHOT0005-2.jpg which means about 10 OZ of dried Hallertau and 1 pound of dried Cascade. I have more planted now to increase my yeild. Gotta love fresh hops.

Did 2 brews using my cascade as flavour and aroma additions and man what a great fresh cascade flavour. Well worth the effort to grow them, to say nothing of the shortage that will happen with cascade this year.

I have four plants going... got them started late this year so they resulted in nice vines and no cones. This will be their second year and i'm hopeful for a decent yield. Who am i kidding? I'd be happy with a yield!

Bulls Beers said:

How was your yield the first year? Was it hard to do?

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easy as hell...just kept them watered and gave them ropes to grow up. We had a pretty good yield for the first year!



we made some wonderful brews: a california common, a coffee porter, a dunkelweizen. yummy stuff

Jeez Deathbrewer, I'm jealous. Maybe if my wife and I get a house, I'll give it a shot.

as soon as I got my mr beer kit, my dad offered to grow me some hops. he's a former landscaper so he doesnt have a green thumb as much as its shoulder-down green haha

my question is where can i find the hops rhizomes, whats the typical season for growing, and what else should i try to have him grow (like spices I could use in a marzen or winter brew next year like cardamom, cinnamon, etc)?

cilantro

I'm going to grow some too.

When's the best time to start looking to buy? I noticed that many sites currently are out of stock of rhizomes.

I'm growing some at the moment, first year, (southern hemisphere - still in vegetation), quite easy to grow, I think the main thing is don't try too hard with them.

I acquired a rhizome from a guy who planted a seed he found in a cascade hop, so not likely to be 100% cascade but apparently is quite similar.

Also looking to get a smoothcone, an open pollinated cluster, rhizome soonish to see if I can start getting it established for next season if it's not too late.

I have four two year old plants in the ground now and I recently pre-ordered 8 more from http://www.beer-wine.com/category_page.asp?categoryid=188&sectionid=1

chris21274 said:

I'm going to grow some too.

When's the best time to start looking to buy? I noticed that many sites currently are out of stock of rhizomes.

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Usually around March or the end of March is when most companies will be selling Rhizomes. Just search the web for them and bookmark those pages.

I got some Rhizomes last year and all but my Cascade died. Since then I've bought a house and will be transplanting it there.

My first years Centennial and N.Brewer

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I got about 4 oz of each so I was pretty happy with my first year haul.

Brew-boy said:

My first years Centennial and N.Brewer

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I got about 4 oz of each so I was pretty happy with my first year haul.

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Great shots Brewboy. Man, I hope I can get some growth like that my first year..I'll be psyched...

Anybody else have any pictures of there crop?

the_Roqk said:

Usually around March or the end of March is when most companies will be selling Rhizomes. Just search the web for them and bookmark those pages.

I got some Rhizomes last year and all but my Cascade died. Since then I've bought a house and will be transplanting it there.

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Sweet, I took Evets recommendation and pre-ordered 3 from beer-wine.com.

Can't wait!

What hop shortage??

GloHoppa said:

my question is where can i find the hops rhizomes, whats the typical season for growing, and what else should i try to have him grow (like spices I could use in a marzen or winter brew next year like cardamom, cinnamon, etc)?

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To answer a couple of your questions. Just like anything else now adays internet. For anything growing in New England plant after the last frost and harvest before the first frost of the fall.

the_Roqk said:

I got some Rhizomes last year and all but my Cascade died. Since then I've bought a house and will be transplanting it there.

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Do you think it was the heat or can you pinpoint something else? I'm in Tampa and would like to grow some but from all I have read most hops just don't adapt well to our climate. Any ideas anyone?

My Bro lives in N.C. and also brews - he has an acre and a half and will be growing some this year - maybe I'll contribute to his plot for a portion of the yield...

I started 4 last year and am adding 4 more this year. Plant food and plenty of water did them well.

Mostly newer Varieties and aroma types.

The Glacier yielded 8 oz, Horizon 3 oz, Liberty struggled to get going, and contrary to most around here my Cascade never came up.

Next year I am adding Centennial, Crystal (if I can get it), Fuggles and maybe Mt. Hood.

Barry

Nice crops Brew-boy and DeathBrewer!

That's some deadly lloking hops you have there Brewboy. Congrats on a fine looking crop.
Mine were considerably smaller than yours.
http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a357/nflder/?action=view&current=PHOT0004-1.jpg and although they did grow a littler larger than this there were never-the-less smaller than I had hoped for.
On the other hand they sure tasted nice in my recent APA's.

cclloyd said:

Do you think it was the heat or can you pinpoint something else? I'm in Tampa and would like to grow some but from all I have read most hops just don't adapt well to our climate. Any ideas anyone?

My Bro lives in N.C. and also brews - he has an acre and a half and will be growing some this year - maybe I'll contribute to his plot for a portion of the yield...

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For me I think it was the soil. Even though I fertilized the soil before I planted them, they still didn't take off like I've seen others do. I did water those buggers every day. Here in Florida the soil is mostly sand, and trying to get something other than weeds to grow can be very hard. Next time I'm gonna get me some cow manure and topsoil mix it thoroughly with the native (FLA) soil and hopefully it'll work. Of course you never know, could be I got a bad batch of rhizomes. Either way I'm not done, especially with hop prices. Besides.. growing my own hops is just another part of making my homebrew more personalized.

I'll be growing Nugget, Clacier and maybe a couple others as well.

I was talking to a friend the other day who grew hops for a few years but he has given it up. His main problem was the variation in flavour and bitterness he was getting. He was even finding that cones picked from the same area of the same plant were giving variation. He therefore found it hard to get predictable and consistent aroma, flavour and bitterness. Do other growers have this or any other problems?

I'm going to give it a try this year. One of my friends lives in northern WI and he and his son always use their own hops and have had great results with them. I'm trying to go local with other food items, so why not hops?

Dang, nice hops DeathBrewer. I have one crown I replanted inside Tettnanger and hope to get some rhizomes for Cascade, Hall, and Saaz this year started outside. I have a 30ft ceiling for my Tett and I hope they like the 68-72*F climate inside.

wortmonger said:

Dang, nice hops DeathBrewer. I have one crown I replanted inside Tettnanger and hope to get some rhizomes for Cascade, Hall, and Saaz this year started outside. I have a 30ft ceiling for my Tett and I hope they like the 68-72*F climate inside.

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That is freaking awesome if you have lots of light!

I ordered

2 cascade

1 Magnum

1 Mt Hood and

1 Northern Brewer

rhizomes for this spring. Igot them from The Thyme Garden. All organic, reasonable prices no shipping nice people to deal with.

I can't wait!

I have been and will continute to this year

Does anybody have information or a link that could offer some pointers for hop growing?

Soulive said:

I have been and will continute to this year

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Is that your breakfast!!
Hey soulive: I'm in the mid atlantic area as well. Which varieties do you grow? Any perform better than others. I have an unamed variety that I hope to determine it's name this year. It's a heavy producer but I haven't harvested as I just returned to brewing this fall after a 7 year hiatus.
arturo: chack out this site, I just joined it.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grow-Hops/
here's some info sites:
http://www.fortunecity.com/boozers/brewerytap/555/hops/hops.htm
http://oregonhops.org/culture2.html
http://powersbrewery.home.comcast.net/~powersbrewery/hops.html
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/hop.html

arturo7 said:

Does anybody have information or a link that could offer some pointers for hop growing?

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http://www.freshops.com/garden.html
http://***********/feature/116.html
http://www.ratebeer.com/Story.asp?StoryID=186

They all say about the same thing.

I would like to see some testimonials from people who cut off the first few bines, and those who let it go au naturale.

balto charlie said:

Is that your breakfast!!
Hey soulive: I'm in the mid atlantic area as well. Which varieties do you grow? Any perform better than others. I have an unamed variety that I hope to determine it's name this year. It's a heavy producer but I haven't harvested as I just returned to brewing this fall after a 7 year hiatus.
arturo: chack out this site, I just joined it.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grow-Hops/
here's some info sites:
http://www.fortunecity.com/boozers/brewerytap/555/hops/hops.htm
http://oregonhops.org/culture2.html
http://powersbrewery.home.comcast.net/~powersbrewery/hops.html
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/hop.html

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That's my version of Wheaties! I grow Cascades, EKG, and next year hopefully some other good aroma hop. The Cascades do really well for some reason. I haven't figured it out but I just think they're more aggresive growers. I planted the all in the sun, I fertilize them, and they're watered almost every day briefly. Try your hand at Cascades first...

My father has a garden, and said that I could have 80 feet of it.. So I am going to have 4 lateral crops of hops!

2 cascade, fuggle and hallurtau