Harvest Time in TN

[ctheis]

Well the Nuggets are ready to pick and there are lots of them. They are pretty early this year -about 2 weeks ahead of normal. Guess all the rain and the heat have been good for them. Even the late transplanted ones are coming out of shock and putting up new bines quicker than expected.

We had a new lab open up not far from here thats doing AA testing so Ill finally be able to get them tested.

Ill get some pics in after we start picking. Its supposed to be 95 today so I am probably on my own picking today. Luckily I transplanted most everything this year and only a handful of plants escaped so not so many plants to harvest but the ones that were not transplanted have a lot of nice big cones ready to go.

Cheers

 

[Pappers_]

Wow! When did the bines start to come up? I would never have imagined that hops would be harvested this early.

 

[1234]

Where in Tennessee are you growing these hops?

 

[ctheis]

The bines start poking through in the first week of March. Burrs start in April and normally by the first week or second week of June I start harvesting the high alpha varieities. Ill get another harvest from these same plants in late August..early September.

Im in North East TN - Johnson City

Normally I get a dual harvest from all the High Alphas I have - Nugget, Chinook, Brewers Gold and I think the liberties and Mt Hoods are going to go Dual harvest...but Ill have to wait till next year to see for sure as everything but a handfull of nuggets were transplanted to new beds. Santium may be a dual harvest varieity as well...Ill know more this time next year..but for certain all my high alphas are dual harvest.

I added 40 Cascade and 20 hallertau this year to see how they do...but got them in the ground late and they have not started to poke through yet.

So I have Liberty, Spalt Select, Santium, Sterling, East TN Golding , Nugget, Cascade, Hallertau, Mt Hood, Centennial, Brewers Gold, and Chinook. All in all about 220 some odd plants.

This february Ill get in some more rhizomes and fill out the beds to 45 plants of each variety. Going to try this year with cuttings to see how that works and see if I can get the beds filled out this year with some plants that at leaset get a minimal root system in place so I can get all the beds filled and ready for next year. If that pans out then Ill use the rhizomes to expand out further. I expect to have a bit over 2200 plants on the acre I set aside for hops. I think I calculated 2460 but I think thats a bit overambitious - guess Ill see.

 

[edsrockin]

i spoke with ctheis while he was transplanting. he has about 2 acres up there and has plans to eventually turn all of it into hop production. personally, i think he is just trying to get out of having to mow the lawn. ;j

(chris check your email)

 

[Eric]

I picked today in NC- Magnum, Centennial, and Cascade. The biggest cones were starting to brown a bit, so from past experience figured I better not let them go any longer in this heat. Same here with 2 pickings, though I'm usually done by mid August.

 

[ctheis]

Mostly I am done in late August ,early September. Just depends on variety. After I am done with this harvest Ill cut everything back and let it all grow again.

How many plants do you have going Eric?

And as for just not wanting to mow the yard -I agree

 

[Eric]

Mostly I am done in late August ,early September. Just depends on variety. After I am done with this harvest Ill cut everything back and let it all grow again.

How many plants do you have going Eric?

And as for just not wanting to mow the yard -I agree

Small time here...just five plants. Honestly, that's enough picking for me, though I wouldn't mind trying Nugget also.
I'm curious about cutting back at this point. I never thought about it, just harvest what comes off the side bines. Makes sense you'd get a bigger yield and I'm guessing would help with disease getting rid of older growth.

 

[wildwest450]

Awesome, I wish I had your gardening resolve. Until I get some, in hops direct/fresh hops I trust.


_

 

[anonymousbrew]

Mostly I am done in late August ,early September. Just depends on variety. After I am done with this harvest Ill cut everything back and let it all grow again.

How many plants do you have going Eric?

And as for just not wanting to mow the yard -I agree

So when you pick your first harvest, you "cut back". All the way to the crown? or just some pruning to promote growth?

 

[ctheis]

I keep the plants trimmed off the ground about 2 feet....so when I cut back I leave about 4 to 5 feet of bine. Cutting back to the crown..as I have found...is not so good a practice...just leave some growth and it wont take long and new shoots will start appearing. I like to leave all the new growth and not trim before I cut back. This way new shoots are allready available and will take off immediately...if you have allready trimmed your plants just make sure and cut up high enough that you have some greenery left on the plant and your fine.

Cheers

 

[anonymousbrew]

I keep the plants trimmed off the ground about 2 feet....so when I cut back I leave about 4 to 5 feet of bine.

I dont get it - would you happen to have a picture?

If i'm thinking it through right, you're trimming off all side growth below 2' above ground and then cuting the entire bine at 5'?

Thanks,

 

[Retrofit]

As I read it- yes.

The two feet is redirect the energy upward to cone production.

The five foot bine is to allow for new cones to grow. If you cut it to the base the bine would have to regrow before it could try to produce more cones. I am trying to encourage ny friend with one plant to pick his cones off the trellis rather than take the plant down. I suspect he will have two good harvests if he does this.

 

[ctheis]

ok here is the deal...you need to keep your plants trimmed to the bine at least 2 to 4 feet. This is to help with air circulation and helps to keep pests from having a ladder to go up the bine. It also allows the underside of the plant to dry and not retain moisture that will lead to Downy Mildew or other nasties.

See below -

In the above there are 2 hop plants that have been trimmed about 2 feet up the bines.

After I am done harvesting from these I will cut the existing bines - either to the crown or as with the plants in the above pic..Ill cut these and leave about 5 ft of the bine. This will leave some greenery to help with the production of the new shoots. Plants that allready have new growth...as shown below -

Ill cut all the existing bines that I have finished harvesting from to the crown so that the new growth will not have any competition.

Hope that clears it up.

 

[Retrofit]

Great pics it's nice to know this isn't urban legend and it in fact works. Very cool.

 

[anonymousbrew]

THANKS! did this to my 6 plants over 2 days, and they have ALREADY responded. I had a lot of spindly skinny crappy shoots growing, especially on my cascades plants. They have responded by beefing up the main bines up high and a couple new bines have emerged and are already thicker than the main two. It's also made things look alot nicer by getting rid of some of the old unhealthy looking leaves down low.