Artificial Light at night and Hops!

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archthered

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I'm planning on growing hops for the first time this spring. I have done a bit of reading up on the subject and feel that I will be ready, except one nagging issue. I plan on locating the hops bines along the southern edge of my house and garage, yes both are 15+ feet tall. The issue with these locations is that they get alot of light from a street light. This issue is not brought up at all in most, and the most authoritative, of the resources I've used while I have seen a few resources that say light at night will not allow your hops to flower. This makes me wonder if the other resources simply never considered the issue or what. I have found a few places, including one thread here, that say that you don't need to worry about light at night however these are few and often several year old, the one here is from 2008 I think.

At any rate hops growing has become much more popular lately and I wanted to know if any of you out there have had issues growing hops with street lights, specifically the amber colored kind if that matters, around? I hesitate to change my growing spot because to avoid street light I need to move the hops to the north side of these structures or put it out in the middle of my yard!

Thanks!
 
I hesitate to change my growing spot because to avoid street light I need to move the hops to the north side of these structures or put it out in the middle of my yard!

Thanks!

What's wrong with that?
 
If anything they will grow faster and bigger as light is needed by the plant. For example farmers can grow crops in Grande Prairie or High Level https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Level) because they get so many more hours of daylight. In your case the spectrum of light will play a factor in whether or not you see any difference, but in any case a southern exposure with street lights will beat out a northern exposure.
 
What's wrong with that?

Normally I'd agree with you about putting the hops in the middle of the yard. In fact I had actually toyed with the idea of getting a nice looking ornamental trelis etc for them to grow from and act as decoration, however our yard isn't big enough. We are already losing space to the veggie garden we are adding, if I put the hops in the middle of the yard then the kids won't have any outside space to play in.
 
If anything they will grow faster and bigger as light is needed by the plant. For example farmers can grow crops in Grande Prairie or High Level https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Level) because they get so many more hours of daylight. In your case the spectrum of light will play a factor in whether or not you see any difference, but in any case a southern exposure with street lights will beat out a northern exposure.

While in general, "more light" = "more growth", most plants react poorly to "no night". A few hours of darkness typically favor optimal growing conditions.

For hops specifically, photoperiod has various impacts, including inducing/delaying flowering. Some hop varieties are said to be best used in certain latitudes, due to photoperiod, and may perform poorly elsewhere.

I cannot predict, however, what impacts his specific lamp will have in his specific location on his specific hops, though. But as you are just growing a few for your own use, it might not matter much. The difference between "I'm making a profit" and "I'm losing money" can be small for commercial growers, but for the home grower, that same difference could just be "I've got way too many hop cones" to "I've got a little too many hop cones". Ideal growing conditions may not be required. ;)
 
OK so the take away here is that most people have not experienced any real problems with growing hops with a bit of night light but I may experience slightly reduced yields or late flowering compared to complete darkness, however these impacts are likely to be negligible for homebrewing and only of concern for commercial growing. Thanks ALL :mug:
 
OK so the take away here is that most people have not experienced any real problems with growing hops with a bit of night light but I may experience slightly reduced yields or late flowering compared to complete darkness, however these impacts are likely to be negligible for homebrewing and only of concern for commercial growing. Thanks ALL :mug:

I don't think it will make that much difference to your yield
 
Provided the light isn't right on top of the bines, you'll be fine.

My neomex hops are lit every night by a couple LED floods that hang off my house. The plants are probably 15 feet from the lights and I had no yield issues.

My Willow Creek was more sensitive to the LEDs than my Multiheads and did throw a couple male flowers which pollinated a few of the cones, but as anyone will tell you - lightly seeded hops won't really change your brews.
 
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