Grow Journal of Sorts

[hazedandconfused]

On May-1-2011 I planted 1 Cascade rhizome, 1 Nugget rhizome, and 1 Centennial starter. I was given a planter box next to our garage/barn in which to plant my hops.

05-01-2011
You can see the little wooden stakes in front of where each was planted. From left to right there is Cascade - Nugget - Centennial. The centennial is the one on the rope and is about 6 inches tall.
Unfortunately I planted these at home and had to return to college, so I wasn't able to water them or watch them grow. While I was away one of my dogs dug up the nugget rhizome and took off with it - my neighbor noticed the dog pull up the cascade and take off with it and she saved from my dog and even replanted it for me. Unfortunately all the bines on the cascade broke off.
While away at college I got the urge to start a couple more varieties in pots so that I could transplant them when I got home For this I chose a Sterling rhizome and a Magnum rhizome. They were each planted in plastic pots with miracle grow potting soil. The sterling already had a good sized shoot growing off it so that stayed above ground when I planted it. Here's some pics of the sterling

05-05-2011

05-07-2011

05-10-2011

Here's one of my magnum

05-10-2011
I returned home from school for the summer strung up some strings for the other two spots and measured my outside plants on 06-13-2011 and my cascade plant was 1 foot tall and my centennial was exactly 5 feet tall. Today on 06-14-2011 my cascade measured at 14 inches tall and the centennial was 5.5 feet tall

Centennial 06-14-2011.
Tomorrow I will transplant my magnum where the nugget used to be and transplant the sterling somewhere else. I fear the sterling has sustained too much damage in transport and might not survive. Ill take a pic or two periodically show how fast they grow over the season.
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I checked them today and took a picture but am too lazy to post it. I transplanted the magnum to where the nuggets were.

As of today (June-17-2011) the heights are:
Cascade= 16 inches tallest bine.
Magnum= 27 inches.
Centennial= 6'3 tallest. ~5'10 shorter bine.

Something is eating my hops. The cascades look like a hop skeleton and there are holes all over the centennial. Good news about the cascades today is that i noticed another 2-3 bines starting to come up.

I made up a 1/2 strength fish fertilizer solution and lightly watered the hoppies. Will repeat in another week or so.
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June-18-2011
Cascades= 16.5 inches
Magnum= 27 inches
Centennial= Tallest bine 6'7

Light rain all day long here so far. Something is eating the sh#t out of my cascades - and their moving on to the centennial. Looks like the centennial has some sort of nutrient deficiency by the browning of the lower leaves.

Here are some pics i took yesterday and last night June-17-2011

Those munched on leaves are from my cascade plant but the pics do not do the damage justice. That centennial is growing about 4 inches a day which is pretty good considering the amount of sunlight the plants are getting.

 

[hazedandconfused]

Heres the centennial today 06-18-2011

 

[tchuklobrau]

lookin good for 1st year

 

[hazedandconfused]

06-19-2011
Cascade= 17.5 inches but mostly destroyed by bugs.
Magnum= 28.5 inches
Centennial= 7 feet

Something is completely destroying the cascade and starting over on the centennial. I stripped some of the bottom of the centennial and just planted the leaves and sidearms in the dirt - hopefully they don't die.

 

[hazedandconfused]

06-20-2011
Cascade=same as the day before.
Magnum=same as th day before.
Centennial= 7'5 and the shorter bine is 7'1

 

[hazedandconfused]

6-21-2011
Cascade= 20 inches
Magnum= 28 inches (shorter than before?)
Centennial= 8 Feet

I trimmed the potted sterling so that theres only the new shoot coming off the main bine - as opposed to the new shoot and a dying section of bine about a foot long.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Looks like something is munching on the leaves. You might need to treat them with something. I use Neem oil and it works fine on most problems. Looks great for a start up.

 

[hazedandconfused]

6-23-2011
Cascade= 23 inches
Magnum= 28 inches
Centennial= 8'6

I trimmed the bottom foot of the centennial and will do so again (up to two feet) in a week or so. I also gave a diluted fish emulsion fertilizer to my hops = 10-5-5.

 

[hazedandconfused]

06-24-2011
Cascade= 25 inches
Magnum= 28 inches
Centennial= 8'10

I measured these in the morning so the centennial has probably hit 9 feet by now. The magnum is suffering from transplant shock I assume and the tips of some of the leaves has turned a whiteish color-so I snipped off the bad ones and am keeping an eye on the rest. The cascade has 4 shoots now but the new ones are each less than 5 inches. The centennials shorter shoot is about 8'3. I also measured the amount of direct sun that hits them = 5 hours almost exactly. So they dont get all that much. All of my cuttings are still alive - but the sterling cuttings leaves are getting a little beat up from spider mites.

 

[hazedandconfused]

Ill post the pics I took earlier today at some point in time soon.

 

[hazedandconfused]

06-25-2011
Centennial= 9'3

I forgot the other numbers. I think there might be burrs beginning to form on the centennial but im not sure. Im crossing my fingers that I might get some flowers this year.

 

[hazedandconfused]

06-26-2011 @ 11:30 Am
Cascade= 26.5 inches
Magnum= 28 inches
Centennial= 9'5

The cascades are starting to take off but they are still being dominated by bugs. The next tallest cascade shoot is 22 inches tall and one of the new ones is 6 inches tall. The magnum must be suffering from transplant shock it looks a little paler and has not grown very much at all - I noticed when I transplant the magnum that there was a very small root structure surrounding the rhizome. The centennial is still flying.

Here's some pics from the past little while.

06-19-2011

06-22-2011

06-24-2011

06-26-2011

I cut away the bad looking leaves - except for the bug eaten ones.

 

[hazedandconfused]

06-26-2011

The beginnings of burrs???

 

[hazedandconfused]

06-28-2011
Cascade=31 inches
Magnum= 29 inches
Centennial= 10'3

I measured them this morning so they are probably a little taller now. My guess is that the centennial will top out its trellis in the next two days - which is 11' tall.

 

[hazedandconfused]

07-01-2011
Cascade= 38 inches
Magnum= 30 inches
Centennial= ~ 11'6 inches

The centennial maxed out its trellis which is a little more than 11 feet and has begun to wind around the wire that supports the trellesi. The centennials sidearms are beginning to grow faster now. The burrs I thought might be forming did not. The cascade is thickening up and the magnum actually grew a little.

 

[hazedandconfused]

Also, my indoor sterling is beginning to pickup in growth but is getting dominated by spider mites. Im thinking a tobacco spray is in order.

 

[hazedandconfused]

07-03-2011
Cascade= 42 inches
Magnum= 32 inches
Centennial= ? 12'4 maybe more?

Sidearms are growing in on the centennial real well - vertical growth is still strong. The magnum is beginning to grow. The cascade is picking up the pace and has 3 shoots going. Somebody shut the sterling in the door and cut the top of the sterling off.

 

[hazedandconfused]

07-5-2011
Cascade= 48 inches
Magnum= 33 inches
Centennial= ??? Top of 11' trellis and growing sideways.

Both centennial bines are over the trellis and growing sideways - its sidearms are getting long. Bugs seem to have been leaving outside plants alone.

 

[hazedandconfused]

07-7-2011
Cascade= 54 inches
Magnum= 35 inches
Centennial= X

 

[hazedandconfused]

07-10-2011
Cascade= 62 inches
Magnum= 38 inches
Centennial= X

 

[hazedandconfused]

Also, all of the cuttings that I just planted in the ground are dead and gone. However, all but one of the cuttings that have been sheltered are still alive and all of the cuttings that were placed in a container of water have roots growing. Im not sure about the ones placed in small pots of potting soil because i cant see if there are any roots - the ones placed in potting soil dont look as healthy as the ones in water. The sterling has thousands of spider mites on it so i took it outside and am letting mother nature have her way with it - at least I have some cuttings started from it.

 

[hazedandconfused]

So my magnum is no more. I went to grab my cell phone at the barn and noticed that my magnum had been torn up into little pieces and there were paw prints around it. The only dog that was even here today was a guests who we had over for a couple of days - so it really could have only been that dog.......... the same freaking dog just busted my nintendo wii last night by pulling it from off a ledge and dropping it on the floor. Great guest. So I took the bigger more intact pieces and trimmed off a little on each end and put them in water to try to root them. Im so pissed off right now - the magnum just started to grow; albeit, very slowly in comparison to the others. I just hope that it has enough of a root structure to grow back next year.

 

[hazedandconfused]

WOW!!! My phone is still logged into the website like 5 months after my last post. So, we had a fire that burned down the garage and the horse riding arena/barn next to it, killing my hop plants. All my cuttings died as far as I know with the exception of maybe one. I'm not sure which one though. I can hopefully figure out the strain from pictures though. My sterling ended up getting destroyed by the dogs and a couple weak shoots came out and grew out about four feet or so. Currently the only plant that Im sure is still alive is the sterling rhizome that has about five fat shoots - each about an invh or two long coming off of it. Wish me luck with the sterling and whatever I end up planting this year. Oh, I also scattered some of the seeds I collected from my goldings, cascade, and centennial hops used in brewing last year. Lets see what happens, I might need some encouragement from you guys on homebrew talk to get another grow log going, so let me know what you think I should do. I was thinking i would take one picure of all my hops evey day or every week throughout the season so pwople can get a rough idea of what to expect when they grow their first crop as well.

 

[B-Hoppy]

Sorry to hear about the fire and all but my thoughts would be "FiretrUCK the hops" and just be thankful the horses are OK. My bets are that the hops will come back- later than sooner and that all will be good. After all, didn't the Ducks just do a good one!! Peace to Glen and keep it tight! Hop On!