Hops just will not grow, too hot in SO Cal?

I tried to grow hops this year but I think the climate here in southern California is just to intense hot. I planted and as soon as the first leaf came out we had a hot spell and it just withered. I watered but no joy. All the work of getting the soil ready did not help.

Does anyone else live in my area and grow hops? Maybe it's just the wrong technique?

Too hot here also. Next year I will be living in Colorado, so that's how I'm solving the problem.

I would suggest not allowing them to get too much direct afternoon sun. Mine were cooked in the heat of the day, and being up against a wall, it was like them being on a baking sheet.

i grew Cascade and Mt Hood 1st year in socal and they grew fine. You deffinitly have to water them every day or so of theres problems.....how did you have then growing? potted etc? and when did you plant?

plus i just mapquested you and your less than an hour away from me....

I grew mine this year for the first time. They will grow. I couldn't begin to tell you why yours didn't, though.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/picking-drying-75631/

Both you guys "Scinerd3000" and "Brewsmith" have no problem because you are near the coast and I am way inland in the valleys. My temperatures are 10 to 20 degrees hotter than yours for days at a time. I see no way to get by that problem.

Considering Yakima in Washington routinely gets 100-110F in the summer, I think it's mainly a matter of getting the roots started before it gets too hot. You might consider shading the new plants mid-day until they are 3-4' tall.

david_42 said:

Considering Yakima in Washington routinely gets 100-110F in the summer, I think it's mainly a matter of getting the roots started before it gets too hot. You might consider shading the new plants mid-day until they are 3-4' tall.

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I agree with this. Just the fact it was such a young plant could be the reason why.

Ok then maybe I will give it another shot next year when roots are available.

I have 4 that survived here in PHX. Covered them in shade cloth and watered for 15 minutes every day. I'll post pics later. These were cascade BTW.

olllllo said:

I have 4 that survived here in PHX. Covered them in shade cloth and watered for 15 minutes every day. I'll post pics later. These were cascade BTW.

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I'm really interested in this.. i've been pondering how I might grow my own here in NV.

olllllo said:

I have 4 that survived here in PHX. Covered them in shade cloth and watered for 15 minutes every day. I'll post pics later. These were cascade BTW.

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• How did you prepare the soil and did you use potting soil at first?
  
• Did you mix anything into the potting soil to feed the new vines?

I was stationed at Williams AFB near Chandler, AZ in 1962 so I know what hot weather is and I am really surprised that your hops did grow.

Post a picture if you can.

Yeah, I don't think it the coast. Mine were in full sun almost the full day and we had plenty of heat all summer long (80-90+). I made sure I watered them very often. I would start looking at the soil. I used potting soil, but I noticed there was a difference in what brand I used in some other small potted plants. The ones that did better, I used that brand for the hops.

These are first year, I was primarily interested in keeping them alive and that is why I kepth them low. This is in a raised planter using compost from the Phoenix dump.

I've now added compost from my own spent grain composter.

I put these in the ground as soon as I got them in early spring.

When it started to get in the 100's, I made a canopy of shade cloth to protect it from the sun.



Cones




Here is what happens when the bine tries to go beyond the safety of the shade.

That plant looks very good. I will try again next year.

They may come back next year. I have had transplants seem to die but will restart the following season. Hops are a really tough vine and are hard to kill.