How long before I see a sprout

I planted on Monday (6/1/2015), should I be seeing a sprout by now?

I assume you planted a rhizome? Was it still dormant? (looks like a dried up stick) I'd give it a couple weeks before getting worried.

Frydaddy said:

I planted on Monday (6/1/2015), should I be seeing a sprout by now?

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It's gonna take at least 9 months.

Wait, what?

GilaMinumBeer said:

It's gonna take at least 9 months.

Wait, what?

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I retract my dried up stick question.

Yep, planted six of them and all of them did look like a dried up stick. I was worried I let them sit too long before I planted them. I bought them on May 7th and they sat in my refrigerator until Monday when I planted them.

Frydaddy said:

Yep, planted six of them and all of them did look like a dried up stick. I was worried I let them sit too long before I planted them. I bought them on May 7th and they sat in my refrigerator until Monday when I planted them.

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Should be fine. Keep the soil from drying out but not soaked or they'll rot. Should see some growth before too long.

Sweet... I've heard/read that once they sprout up they grow like crazy?

First year rhizomes might take a little while to get established. They will put up bines and then seem to stall while the roots grow. Before long, they'll be knocking on the back door inviting themselves in to dinner!

They'll probably take 6-8 weeks to see anything. You should have planted them in May but just water them like a seed and don't stress over it.

I would expect them to break ground in 3 weeks, plus or minus, based on what I have seen in the past,

Mine started sprouting within a couple weeks and then took off to about three feet and have kind of stalled but I think they're picking back up now after a couple weeks at the same height.

smfish said:

Mine started sprouting within a couple weeks and then took off to about three feet and have kind of stalled but I think they're picking back up now after a couple weeks at the same height.

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That's totally normal. The top growth stalls as they grow out roots. They'll jump up soon.

Meant to post this Sunday... I saw the first sprout Sunday afternoon and now I'm up to quite a few on 3 different rhizomes, still waiting for the other 3 to sprout up.

I have seen a lot of variance in my first year hops so far. Some broke ground within two weeks, other rhizomes of the same strain (Cascade) in the same dirt/light/water took over two months to come up. It surprised me when they sprouted. I just thought they were dead.

jkovac said:

I have seen a lot of variance in my first year hops so far. Some broke ground within two weeks, other rhizomes of the same strain (Cascade) in the same dirt/light/water took over two months to come up. It surprised me when they sprouted. I just thought they were dead.

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Good to know... I planted 6 Cascades this year, same dirt/water/sun, and 3 have sprouted so far.

So I have a few questions as I am in the same boat here. I planted 60 rhizomes on April 18th and half of them popped with 2 weeks, the rest struggled along and were mostly up within 4 weeks. I had several failures and decided to order from a new supplier, to replace the failed Centennials and decided to put in some galena as well. Planted these new ones on May 22nd and all 4 of the Centennials popped up and were fine, but 10 of the 14 Galenas seem to have croaked. I had 10 pop up and start with the little leaves like FryDaddy, but then within 3 days or so they just shriveled up and died, shoots shrunk down to nothing. 4 are still going strong though. Not sure what I did wrong or if it was the extreme heat we had, then cold rain for 3 days, and now back to extreme heat. I cut ice cream buckets in half and put them on the south side of the plant to disperse the direct sunlight...seems to be working so far. I dug up the failed ones to see what's going on and they have lots of fine roots, but no remaining shoots and they are very soft.

So the questions are, when is it too late to plant rhizomes and what causes them to actually start growing and break the surface? Is it a temperature change, going from frozen ground to warm ground in the spring, or is it absolute temperature of the soil, say 50 degrees and they start growing? And I know this is a tough one, but what causes them to just shrivel up and die after looking so good?

Thanks all for the help.

kilohertz said:

So I have a few questions as I am in the same boat here. I planted 60 rhizomes on April 18th and half of them popped with 2 weeks, the rest struggled along and were mostly up within 4 weeks. I had several failures and decided to order from a new supplier, to replace the failed Centennials and decided to put in some galena as well. Planted these new ones on May 22nd and all 4 of the Centennials popped up and were fine, but 10 of the 14 Galenas seem to have croaked. I had 10 pop up and start with the little leaves like FryDaddy, but then within 3 days or so they just shriveled up and died, shoots shrunk down to nothing. 4 are still going strong though. Not sure what I did wrong or if it was the extreme heat we had, then cold rain for 3 days, and now back to extreme heat. I cut ice cream buckets in half and put them on the south side of the plant to disperse the direct sunlight...seems to be working so far. I dug up the failed ones to see what's going on and they have lots of fine roots, but no remaining shoots and they are very soft.

So the questions are, when is it too late to plant rhizomes and what causes them to actually start growing and break the surface? Is it a temperature change, going from frozen ground to warm ground in the spring, or is it absolute temperature of the soil, say 50 degrees and they start growing? And I know this is a tough one, but what causes them to just shrivel up and die after looking so good?

Thanks all for the help.

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The early sprouts I saw ended up dieing off and now I'm left with 3 very strong ones... 3 of the rhizomes have yet to pop. I may have over watered the early sprouts that died off.

kilohertz said:

. . . I dug up the failed ones to see what's going on and they have lots of fine roots, but no remaining shoots and they are very soft.

So the questions are, when is it too late to plant rhizomes and what causes them to actually start growing and break the surface? Is it a temperature change, going from frozen ground to warm ground in the spring, or is it absolute temperature of the soil, say 50 degrees and they start growing? And I know this is a tough one, but what causes them to just shrivel up and die after looking so good?

Thanks all for the help.

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Generally, if they're a little soft, they most likely have had a little too much water. Hop plants that are up and growing 8 inches to a foot a day are when they need lots of water. Even when they're just starting to poke out of the ground, they just need a little. The trick when starting with rhizomes is to keep just enough water on them so they don't totally dry out. If they get more water than they need, they'll drown/rot/get mushy as they have no way of getting rid of excess moisture like a growing plant can disperse some of that excess through it's leaves.


How late to plant? Can't really say but I've planted rhizomes as late as the 4th of July with good success (minimal top growth but a solid root system by the end of the season.

What causes them to start growing and break the surface? I've never seen it spelled out in black and white, but my guess would be that at some point when the soils begin to warm up, they get going. When rhizomes are dug in the spring, the farmers try to get out before the buds begin to elongate - sort, grade and refrigerate their cuttings as quickly as possible. The cold temps will keep them from sprouting for many months or until they're sold. Most years here in NEOhio, they begin poking up before all the frost is out of the ground? I also think that the planting depth of a rhizome may have an impact on how quickly it comes up. A few years ago I saw a picture of hundreds of rhizomes potted up in a greenhouse prior to planting in the field. The odd thing, the upper set of buds on every rhizome were at or above the surface of the potting soil. I tried this a few times after seeing that and they ended up taking off very quickly (like within a week after putting them in the ground). My thinking is that the warmth of the soil along with the sunlight possibly stimulating some internal enzyme activity gets them off to a quicker start? All I know is that each time I've done it, they get going much quicker than had they been completely buried. Hoppy growing~

B-Hoppy

Thanks man. That's some good info. We have had cooler WX here and the little guys seem to be hangin in under the bucket halves. We just had a major rain event today, and the ground is very wet...Supposed to be back to hot and dry this week, into the 30's again. Hopefully the little ones will hang in there. The new Centennials all seem to be okay, I have 4 good Galenas out of 14 and 1 little shoot struggling...the others are toast...mushy, no remaining sprouts...just some roots. I'll keep em in the ground and see if anything develops, but have pretty much counted them out.

Thanks again!

FryDaddy, keep us posted on your success. Glad you have 3 good ones so far!!

kilohertz said:

Supposed to be back to hot and dry this week, into the 30's again. Hopefully the little ones will hang in there.

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I've had highs of 42-46 now for a few weeks and mine are going nuts. Granted they only get ~3-5 hours of morning sun and water every day. But it can be done, some varieties are quite heat tolerant.

If it helps. I planted 2 rhizomes on June 5 or 6 that I received in late March/early April and kept in the fridge. One was half an inch out of the ground by the 10th and the other was just breaking ground. Now they both are moving along. Havent hit the peak growth rate yet but I think it is all dependant on the rhisome and temperature and how big the buds are (mine were 2-3 inches on one and half that on the slower grower).

I ended up with only 2 out of the 6 I planted... I'll snap a few pics tonight.

I planted 5 varieties this year. Within 48 hours of planting cascade was already peeking through the soil. I was pleasantly surprised.

Soil: mulch pile consisting mostly of horse poop.

FWIW, I am only a first year grower but already it has become very apparent that hops are invasive plants which will grow wildly in a multitude of conditions. Right now I'm happy that I have a lot of growth and quite a few cones but I can also envision the day somewhere in the future when I am wondering, what was I thinking when I planted these things? Kind of like how I feel now about the ivy my wife planted a decade ago.

How long before I see a sprout?

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I so want to make a Jolly Green Giant joke, but I am sure it will just get reported for being off-topic...