Going To Grow Hops - Arizona

[MT's AZ Ale Haus]

Next fall, I am going to start growing my own hops. This year I will get my ground prepared and and set up the frame and irrigation system.

I am buying 4 plants from Burpee's Seed Co.
Cascade
Centennial
Chinook
Mt. Hood.

I am going to cross pollinate 2 each of the plants and create my own hybrid hop, I am looking forward to not only growing the hops but also brewing some fantastic beers with my own personal hop variety

I plan on Cross pollinating the Cascade with the Chinook, and the Centennial with the Mt. Hood.

 

[JohnSand]

That sounds interesting, though I'm content to just grow some and toss them in a batch.

 

[B-Hoppy]

Here's some info that may help you out: http://www.uvm.edu/extension/cropsoil/wp-content/uploads/jason-presentation.pdf

 

[MT's AZ Ale Haus]

Here's some info that may help you out: http://www.uvm.edu/extension/cropsoil/wp-content/uploads/jason-presentation.pdf

That is so awesome!
Thank you.

 

[MT's AZ Ale Haus]

Now that I have some intellectual ammunition under my belt.

The hunt is on to find Hop seeds and hopefully propagate some male plants.

 

[MT's AZ Ale Haus]

I found some Calypso Hops seeds.
My new plan is to hopefully get at least 2 male plants from the seeds.
Then I will cross pollinate the Calypso with each of the 4 above plants. Then I will have 4 hybrid plants.
From there I will brew four, 1 gallon SMaSH beers with each of the hybrid hops and see what the profile is.

 

[MT's AZ Ale Haus]

Calypso seeds are in the ground, I will post pics when the seedlings sprout

 

[MMM2]

My limited experience of trying to grow hops in the 'high desert', southern NM:
Our altitude here is ~4250feet. Some times we reach highs of ~110F,
lows in winter nights often in the 20s.
Can be more extreme; that's when we covered them for the nights.

In 2014 we started 4 different kind of rhizomes:
columbus, cascade, chinook, nugget.
The ground for them was well prepared.
We watered them regularly. We talked to them.
In summer we tried occasional shading but we couldn't keep down the heat.
None of them died in the 2 years while we tended them.
But neither one of them ever thrived.
And most importantly: In those 2 years none of them ever set a single bud!!

Not really sure how much the heat problem is relatable to where you live!
After 2 seasons those rhizomes got dug up again and transplanted to a much milder climate in the east.

Wishing you more luck!

Maybe this was already posted around here, but I found this link quite helpful:
http://cesonoma.ucanr.edu/files/238645.pdf