My hops garden

First to break ground was good ol' Nugget!



Planted 5 hop types, 10 rhyzomes, in my tiny garden I made to share with my daughter's flowers.

So far the Columbus and Nugget have broken soil. Also planted are Mt. Hood, Sterling and Williamette. PVC pole is in and solidly foundated 3 feet under. Will add a second 10 ft. of PVC once these guys start taking off and I need to run them up bines. Plan to run two guy wires down and anchor to my side boards, each with a pully and ring system for lowering the hops down in the fall. Will also add a couple of lines to give lateral stability to the pole, perpendicular to the anchors underground. I will post more pix as/if things progress.

Pics dont work

Just a tip from experience, that's way too many varieties if they are all going up the same pole. The hops will get tangled up and you will end up with a "house blend" of hops. One or two is best for a small space.

cswest said:

Just a tip from experience, that's way too many varieties if they are all going up the same pole. The hops will get tangled up and you will end up with a "house blend" of hops. One or two is best for a small space.

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First time grower so my aim was to figure out what grows best in my area. I use a lot of Columbus, Nugget and Mt. Hood and I use Saaz for my lagers which is the reason for the Sterling. The space it 12 feet squared so I am hoping they can cohabitate. Thanks for the tip though. If I find the space to cramped I have another half acre I can use.:rockin:

davis119 said:

Pics dont work

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Still? I screwed 'em up first try but thought it was corrected (I can see 'em).

stonebrewer said:

Still? I screwed 'em up first try but thought it was corrected (I can see 'em).

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they work now
could you make them bigger lol ?

cant wait to have my own yard to grow
good luck

I dont know if i would trust a 17 foot piece of pvc to support all those bines even with guy wires. I picked up one of these sofar its working good. It comes with a base that you cement into the ground so in the off season i can take the pole down and store it in the shed.

Chrisl77 said:

I dont know if i would trust a 17 foot piece of pvc to support all those bines even with guy wires. I picked up one of these sofar its working good. It comes with a base that you cement into the ground so in the off season i can take the pole down and store it in the shed.

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Now that you mention it, that was one of my biggest worries. I see HFT has a 16' and a 20' version of this. Which did you install? I may have to rethink this. Good news is I have a week or two before I have to worry about bines. That's what I love about this site!!

Plus if using PVC pipe it should be the grey electrical because it rated for use in high ultraviolet light. Plumbing PVC gets very brittle with high amounts of sunlight. This is my PVC trellis

Mt. Hood and Sterling bines have broken ground now as well. Just waiting on Williamette to see all 5 types make it to that stage. Nugget has sprung 4-5 leaves already. These buggers really do grow quick once they get going, eh?!

Thanks ennis for the pix of your setup. Need to get going this weekend on how to correct mine. Sounds like it might rain so this should be muddy fun!

I'd make sure to put a looped rope with a label around each plant where it surfaces so that you can ID them after all this chaos. A wooden stake wood work too. Sound like a fun project, I hope you keep the pics coming to show the progress.

badbrew said:

I'd make sure to put a looped rope with a label around each plant where it surfaces so that you can ID them after all this chaos. A wooden stake wood work too. Sound like a fun project, I hope you keep the pics coming to show the progress.

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Sure thing! I actually made a map of the bed in powerpoint so I wouldn't forget who is who. Will do on the pix. We had a lot of rain this week and today will be sunny so I will probably take a picture this afternoon and show you where they are. I can actually see the Nugget bine from my kitchen window, so they are making progress. Williamette hasn't popped throught the ground yet so a little worried about that. I planted two rhyzomes of each type per hill to make sure I got at least one of each. So far, one of each except Williamette...This weekend I will try to dig out the PVC and put in a flag pole or use the grey PVC, so that should be fun.

Here's what's come up in my hops garden so far. Still waiting on Williamette.

My Mt. Hood is growing like mad:


Pole goes up tomorrow. Will post some pix of what it looks like.

Here's an update from today. As recommended, I removed the white PVC and put in a flag pole from Harbor Freight:



Also, some good news! My Williamette that I planted has finally popped to the surface with a couple of bines. More than a month after my Nugget popped out of the soil, Williamette has finally joined the party!!:

My Columbus took off and doesn't look like a first year. Others are starting to do what she did over a month ago. Lots of nugs on this plant. I couldn't be happier!

When should I pick these? A few more weeks?


Are these male seeds and what should I do about them?

Part of my harvest of my Columbus plant. Not bad for a first year, outproducing all of my other bines combined! This first year fella produce 3 pounds of wet hops. I am very happy with the yield!

<insert jealousy>

Holy crap! Am I reading these dates on the posts correctly? Did that Columbus grow that high in two-three months time!?!

Dang. I really wanted to start growing hops this year, but I live in an apt. and can't have a plant that big!

yeah they did, i saw them.

hops grow like weeds. i was listening to a podcast recently where a grower was saying that during the peak summer months the plants can grow 12" a day... you can literally see them grow.

hops need to climb, but they don't necessarily need to climb straight up. that's their natural preference but apartment-dwellers have grown them on balconies by using trellises and getting them to grow more horizontally than vertically. example: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/first-time-growing-apartment-hops-high-desert-319857/

sweetcell said:

yeah they did, i saw them.

hops grow like weeds. i was listening to a podcast recently where a grower was saying that during the peak summer months the plants can grow 12" a day... you can literally see them grow.

hops need to climb, but they don't necessarily need to climb straight up. that's their natural preference but apartment-dwellers have grown them on balconies by using trellises and getting them to grow more horizontally than vertically. example: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/first-time-growing-apartment-hops-high-desert-319857/

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Aha! I see, thanks!

I plan on only living in the apt for another year or so, so hopefully I would be able to plant them outside after the first year. But this helps me start sooner!

That Columbus plant was a total freak of nature for a first year plant. I did not expect to get even an ounce out of what I planted, but she filled several gallon bags for me. When I took the lines down in the fall, her bine was as big as my thumb near the ground! I made a nice harvest ale with her flowers and it is really different from anything I have made to date. This was my first year growing hops and really enjoyed the whole experience; from worrying if anything would grow, to worrying about what bugs were eating my babies, to worrying if I would get any cones, to...hey, sounds like a lot of worrying and no fun! I think now that they have established themselves, next year will be a blast watching them all climb! Also, this year was a banner year in MD for growing stuff. My two tomato plants produced from May until just a few weeks ago!! I am sure we got a thousand or more tomatoes off those two plants; and they were HUGE! Good luck with whatever you end up doing. I would suggest you use a large pot like others have and give it a try with one or two plants. I think you'll have a blast and can transplant the rhizome or full plant when you change addresses. Cheers!

Man what a harvest! Where do you buy seeds from? I would like to try growing some after the winter is over.

For hops, you don't start with seeds instead you plant what is called a rhizome which is like a chunk of root. In the spring, there are a lot of vendors that sell them. Alternatively, you can buy whole plants or crowns, if you want a faster start. I got some of mine from Williamette Valley and others from another source online which I would have to dig up. Search this forum and you will find a lot of references to good places to get hops rhizomes, crowns, and plants...good luck!

Thanks for the info!!

I just sent out an email to Great Lakes Hops (Zeeland, MI)

Great Lakes has rave reviews on here and if I had seen them before I decided to order I probably would have given them a go. I like the idea of harvesting hops the same year as you plant. A season is a long time to wait and two is waaaaay longer than I wanted to. I got really lucky with the Columbus, which I use in great quantities so it turned out very well for me. If I was doing this next year, I would go the route you are heading on. Most of the folks that sell hop rhizomes and whatnot only do so in the spring, BTW. You might have to wait until then to get your crown, which is a superior way to go IMHO. Best of luck and do post pix of your plant(s)!!

Cheers!

PS - I may grab a crown of cascade next spring from GLH as I am thinking I need it for a backup when we have bad years of Amarillo like this year!

First of my 5 hills to produce vegetation and it is the queen mother Columbus hop that was the pride of my garden last year. My Mount Hood has a single sprout as well. The other 3 are not breaking ground and one or two may not have survived the winter as they were very weak producers last year. Expect the Columbus to be a big plant this year!!

stonebrewer - pshaw! wait 'til i upload pix of my newport tonight... about 20 bines poking up already, several a foot and a half tall!

do need to get me some of that columbus!

all of my plants are up. newport is clearly in first place, sterling is #2, centennial and cascade competing for third. santiam and nugget are laggards, but are up.

I hear ya. That picture was taken yesterday. Some of those bines are now a foot long!! From this morning when I went to work until I came home they grew 3 inches or more! My Nugget also broke ground with about ten sprouts by the time I got home. Won't be long until I need to put my pole back up. Are you planning on cutting your back now or are you just going to let them sprout all over the place?

stonebrewer said:

Are you planning on cutting your back now or are you just going to let them sprout all over the place?

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i've been doing a lot of research on whether or not home-growers should cut back first growth and opinions seem mixed. there are very good reasons why commercial growers should do it (ensure even growth, disease control) but for us little guys who have a few plants that we can tend to individually... there are arguments for and against. at this point i'm leaning towards not cutting. well, at least not all of them. i'll let them grow for another week, pick out the 4-6 strongest bines, and cut down the rest.

sweetcell said:

all of my plants are up. newport is clearly in first place, sterling is #2, centennial and cascade competing for third. santiam and nugget are laggards, but are up.

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1. newport
2. nugget
3. santiam
4. sterling

5. cascade
6. centennial

edit: i swear the plants grew overnight. i had a glance at them as i left for work this morning and they all looked taller than the pix. crazy.

NICE! Looks like a bumper crop so far! Hope we have the kinda hop loving weather we had last year. All of your hops look to be about a week ahead of schedule of mine, which is weird since we only live about 3 miles apart...I checked mine again this AM and it was a few inches taller than last night. Should take daily pictures for a while and do a time lapse on them.

A fox got into my hop yard and dug up my new rhizomes (cascade and centennial). DOH! Replanted them but not sure if they are going to be okay or not as the centennial really dried out. Will post pics of my gals in the next day or two. Columbus is out of control!! Still thinking it might be a good idea to cut her back some. Sweetcell you got a summary of pros and cons of that yet? Would be nice to weigh them...

So after one week this is how much my Columbus has grown! Compare to the picture one page back...

that's a sweet looking columbus!

stonebrewer said:

Sweetcell you got a summary of pros and cons of that yet? Would be nice to weigh them...

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we can talk about it in person, but in a nutshell i haven't found a convincing reason why the home-grower should hack off all the new growth. personally i'm not going to cut all the first growth.

however, i am trimming my plants back. although i'm planning on letting 4-6 bines per plant grow to full length, in the short term i'm keeping 10-12 of the strongest growth. i will cut back to 4-6 in a week of so. no use growing 20+ bines when the majority of them aren't going to be kept anyways.

with that in mind: stonebrewer, looks like your columbus could use a haircut

So after 5-6 weeks where I have been mostly in Hawaii, got back this week and took a quick peak in the ol' hops garden. I have fully developed cones on some of my bines!! What the heck! Bines are as tall as my flag pole and still reaching for the sky (queue Jimmy Hendrix). Looks like it is going to be a bumper crop this year with 6 inches of rain in the last month a great sun the rest of the time. Happy harvesting all!

stonebrewer said:

I have fully developed cones on some of my bines!! What the heck! Bines are as tall as my flag pole and still reaching for the sky (queue Jimmy Hendrix). Looks like it is going to be a bumper crop this year with 6 inches of rain in the last month a great sun the rest of the time. Happy harvesting all!

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yup. half of my plants are way ahead of the curve, the other half are in what i would consider a normal stage of development. for the half that already have cones, i'm thinking i might get 2 harvests.

Thread bumping here if OP is still around.

How did using the flag pole workout? Is that a telescoping pole?