Here's a pic of my first Cascade cones, earlier than ever. Crappy pic, I had to hold the bine still with one hand because of the wind.
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Hop crop 2017
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Senormac
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Haha !!
OP
OP
I've got my watering system pretty well dialed in so hopefully this year will be much better that last year. We're gone for the month of June every year and last year we had 20 days over 100F and no rain while we were gone so my hops really suffered.
I always cut mine back until May 1st based on the advice of commercial hop growers. It sets them up to start flowering right at the end of June. You're supposed to get a bigger yield doing it this way. Also prevents the hops from going brown in the heat of the summers longest days.
How much weight are you all harvesting per plant (wet), with these backyard hops? Trying to figure out how much I'll have to brew to use all of mine
I get about 4 to 7 wet lbs off of a plant, which is anywhere between 12 and 20 oz. Dry. So, about a pound of dry matter per plant
OP
OP
I'll pick my first Cascades this weekend, it will be interesting to smell the lupin intensity on the first ones.
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OP
OP
Rupert, I've done that, not on purpose, it didn't make much difference. I harvest continually from June until November
How many harvests do you get per plant per year?
Does the flavor profile change from harvest to harvest?
Just asking b/c I only get one harvest up here in WNY
Maybe my growing conditions just aren't as conducive to continuous harvesting. The technique has helped MY crop.
Norselord
Well-Known Member
The Cascade and Chinook came up weeks ago... the Horizon and Magnums did not
I'm in the ATL area as well - my Centennial is barely a foot off the ground. It does not appear to want to climb onto my guide wire (it is a synthetic 5/16" rope with plenty of 'roughness' for the bines to lock onto)
Wondering if i should clip some of the side shoots to encourage the main bines to grow...
How long do you let the bines go before you cut them? Do you cut them once the emerge?
I let mine grow to about a foot long and then cut them, if they get that long before May.
actually i never cut them... they are probably 5 ft by now... once they start they shoot out of the ground...
I just cut them when I have the time. I try not to let them get too long though. It seems like I am letting the plant waste too much energy on the doomed bines if I do.
I have three Centennials and one Chinook in their second year. Today I widen the area around them all so I was less likely to hit them with the weed whacker later this summer. I also trimmed them all back today. Then laid down some organic dirt to give them a new coating this year, but without covering the buds that are left from the trimming. Watered them with some fertilizer. The bines that were sticking out were at least 6 inches or longer, so I figured it would be good to trim them back. Went through my "Hop Lover's Guide" from BYO to see what they printed and refresh my memory.
Below are some pics of what they looked like before I trimmed them and added a new layer of organic soil.
Like @Sbe2 being in WNY we only get one harvest. I can't imagine having my hops producing multiple harvests like the OP. I hope I can get some cones to harvest this year. Last year I just let them grow and they produced cones, but not many but I knew that being their first year.
Below are some pics of what they looked like before I trimmed them and added a new layer of organic soil.
Like @Sbe2 being in WNY we only get one harvest. I can't imagine having my hops producing multiple harvests like the OP. I hope I can get some cones to harvest this year. Last year I just let them grow and they produced cones, but not many but I knew that being their first year.
OP
OP
I accidentally weedwhack some of mine every year, they always come back, but they really don't do better or worse than any others. Sbe2, our winters are short but reasonably intense, so my plants are usually up in late February or early March, and our first freeze isn't until mid-late November now so the growing season is very long. As cones get ripe, I pick, dry, and vacuum seal them until I have enough to use. So I don't ever cut the bines and pick the cones, I just gather cones all season. I get a fair amount in the summer if we have a decent monsoon season, and starting late August through October I pick lots of hops. One real advantage to growing hops in the desert is that we don't have a lot of the pest and mildew problems growers in more humid areas have, as long as I water enough the plants do great.
Mine are 5 or 6 feet at least...
Norselord
Well-Known Member
I think that is wonderful.
How can you help me get my little pissers to be as big as your'uns.
OP
OP
I can't imagine being able to just dig grass from around my hops and having clean soil. We are infested with Bermuda grass down here, it sends off underground runners so it can never be eradicated with anything short of a tactical nuclear bomb. That's why I end up cutting some bines with a weedwhacker every year. The last time I replaced my pool liner there were Bermuda roots 1/4 inch in diameter running the length of the pool, nothing stops this stuff.
Norselord
Well-Known Member
So my spot has great morning sun, gets light from 7:00AM through 3:00PM, and has several cubic feet of amazing soil.
Just first season blues?
EcuPirate07
Beer is a food group
I've already cut mine back twice. Almost did it a third time. But I'm gonna let them run from here on out.
Could be, I cant remember how they did the first year...but the last couple they have grown a lot, I wish I had planted them further apart
Don't underestimate the power of pulling weeds! Including grass. Pull it enough, break it enough, and it will die. After an initial blitz (few weeks), taking care of invading rhizomes, stolons, and seeds will be less hassle. All feasible if you just have a few plants and the patience for it.
Plastic barriers can help, though. Or bottomless pots.
OP
OP
You've never dealt with Bermuda grass, it is it's own special category. To remove it temporarily I have to dig all the dirt out, down to a depth of at least 25 cm, run the dirt through a sifter and put it back in place. But within a month the grass is back. I live in the desert(kind of). If I go to a section of yard that is only dirt, no grass or weeds within 20 meters, and I pour water on the ground, within 2 weeks a Bermuda grass runner will find it. It goes through plastic weed barriers, plastic sheeting, it is unstoppable. Rototilling just chops the roots into smaller pieces and redistributes them. If we don't get rain for 6 months(not uncommon) the grass turns brown and disappears completely, but a 15 minute shower turns the grass green again in a week.
Another issue down here is the wind. This is our windy season, daytime winds of 60 kph are normal, windy days of 100 kph are not uncommon. These winds bring tumbleweeds and other seed bearing weeds that sprout continuously. I spend a couple of hours every weekend pulling and chopping weeds, but every weekend there are more. One tumbleweed landing in my yard can drop thousands of seeds, and these are the ultimate drought tolerant plants. They sprout and can grow 10 cm per day with absolutely no rain and relative humidity in the 5-20% range. They can get 2 meters tall with a trunk 10 cm thick in a couple of months. I
I don't live in a normal area but I'm well adapted to it and make the best of what is, not what I would like to have.
On a happier note we inherited my wife's parents' farmhouse in France, I will be planting Cascades there one month from Sunday. Gardening is much easier over there, and better suited for hops.
From New Mexico State University Agriculture Department on Bermuda grass: The use of bermudagrass for home lawns certainly makes sense from a water use point of view in periods of droughts, even in Albuquerque. During the summer, when bermudagrass grows actively, it is extremely wear-tolerant and recuperates well from traffic stress. All these advantages, however, come at a cost for home gardeners and people who love their flowerbeds. Bermudagrass spreads aggressively by stolons (above ground runners) and rhizomes (below ground runners) and can become a nuisance when it invades flowerbeds and gardens.
Well, not everyone has my patience (or zeal?) for weeding. I've worked on farms, I've spent days and days manually weeding fields between plants on the rows, as well as to make fallows cultivatable. Takes time and work, but it's hardly impossible.
People tend to not like weeding, and do half-assed jobs. To win against weeds, persistence is required. Some species can actually proliferate faster as a result of botched weeding.
Rhizomes are food stockpiles. Growth drains these stockpiles. Photosynthesis renews them. You gotta deplete the stockpiles to win, which means *frequent* weeding, otherwise the leaves will make enough photosynthesis to compensate for your efforts. Seeds are of no concern with frequent weeding. Seedlings of all species are fragile. Chop that rootlet, it dies. And since it depends a lot on surface humidity, standard hoeing suffices, don't even need to pull on it.
It's the same principle for all species. Some just require more frequency than others. The only thing that differs between aggressive weeds is what will happen if you fail. In commercial fields, some of these weeds are problematic because the labor required is too expensive. But for a couple of plants in the backyard? Everyone needs a bit of fresh air...
People tend to not like weeding, and do half-assed jobs. To win against weeds, persistence is required. Some species can actually proliferate faster as a result of botched weeding.
Rhizomes are food stockpiles. Growth drains these stockpiles. Photosynthesis renews them. You gotta deplete the stockpiles to win, which means *frequent* weeding, otherwise the leaves will make enough photosynthesis to compensate for your efforts. Seeds are of no concern with frequent weeding. Seedlings of all species are fragile. Chop that rootlet, it dies. And since it depends a lot on surface humidity, standard hoeing suffices, don't even need to pull on it.
It's the same principle for all species. Some just require more frequency than others. The only thing that differs between aggressive weeds is what will happen if you fail. In commercial fields, some of these weeds are problematic because the labor required is too expensive. But for a couple of plants in the backyard? Everyone needs a bit of fresh air...
Preach brotha preach:rockin:... I am going to focus on weed management and soil nutrition on this year's hops and see if I can get a better harvest.
Bermuda grass sounds like a PITA though, glad I only have to deal with crab grass and dandelions
OP
OP
I love the confidence of ignorance! If you have never dealt with Bermuda grass then you are totally clueless and really have no business putting me down for just being lazy.
Every day on my lunch hour or after work, usually both, I pull or hoe weeds in my hop garden. I actually enjoy it. But Bermuda is a different enemy. It attacks from underground, and above ground. There is no way to treat it or kill it from the surface, all that can be done is to trim it. It's underground runner entangle themselves with hop rhizomes so in order to temporarily slow down the Bermuda I'd have to dig up my hops at least once a month to clean out the Bermuda. If I did somehow manage to completely clean my soil of Bermuda roots, I guess I could dig down 3 feet and build concrete walls around each plant, but Bermuda would eventually go under and I'd be back in the same situation.
Bermuda grass doesn't fabricate energy. Do I have experience with bermuda grass? Honestly, I don't know. In the world of weeds, I don't work in English, and when it comes to vernacular names... It's hard enough sometimes when discussing with vernacular names in one language, translating them between languages is a game of its own.
Stolons and rhizomes can be chopped. Once chopped, they are on a timer to make new energy before they run out. Some weeds are extremely efficient, sneaky, and hardy. But none can create energy out of nothing. And almost all plants require photosynthesis, thus photosynthetic cells exposed to direct sunlight, to accumulate energy. Removing the rhizomes can, in some cases, allow it to dry up in the sun, killing it. Otherwise, unearthing the rhizomes is not always worth it, especially if it means uprooting your crop???
Did I call you lazy? I don't know how much time you've put in your efforts, I don't really care. You might be, you might not be, I'm not judging you personally. Takes time and energy, I said, now I'd add it also takes efficiency. Not all weeding techniques are equally efficient against every different weed, and trimming is rarely an effective weeding technique, especially against grasses. Maybe your problem with bermuda grass doesn't involve laziness at all, maybe you just make a bigger deal of it than I would (or do?). Might just be about attitude. Because honestly, I don't live anywhere near where you do. I might not have bermuda grass. Or it might behave completely different in my parts. I don't know, because I don't know what the English names for the weeds I have to deal with are.
But if you think that New Mexico is in any way special and is the only place that has to deal with noxious weeds...? Because weeds that propagate by rhizomes and stolons and are hard to kill and tend to be multiplied by tilling and disking sounds like a lot of weeds I have to deal with. Whether I have that specific species or not does not exclude the possibility of having equally invasive ones. I frequently hear people say similar things than you do about species that I know for a fact I regularly deal with, so I tend to be rather dismissive of all such allegations.
Stolons and rhizomes can be chopped. Once chopped, they are on a timer to make new energy before they run out. Some weeds are extremely efficient, sneaky, and hardy. But none can create energy out of nothing. And almost all plants require photosynthesis, thus photosynthetic cells exposed to direct sunlight, to accumulate energy. Removing the rhizomes can, in some cases, allow it to dry up in the sun, killing it. Otherwise, unearthing the rhizomes is not always worth it, especially if it means uprooting your crop???
Did I call you lazy? I don't know how much time you've put in your efforts, I don't really care. You might be, you might not be, I'm not judging you personally. Takes time and energy, I said, now I'd add it also takes efficiency. Not all weeding techniques are equally efficient against every different weed, and trimming is rarely an effective weeding technique, especially against grasses. Maybe your problem with bermuda grass doesn't involve laziness at all, maybe you just make a bigger deal of it than I would (or do?). Might just be about attitude. Because honestly, I don't live anywhere near where you do. I might not have bermuda grass. Or it might behave completely different in my parts. I don't know, because I don't know what the English names for the weeds I have to deal with are.
But if you think that New Mexico is in any way special and is the only place that has to deal with noxious weeds...? Because weeds that propagate by rhizomes and stolons and are hard to kill and tend to be multiplied by tilling and disking sounds like a lot of weeds I have to deal with. Whether I have that specific species or not does not exclude the possibility of having equally invasive ones. I frequently hear people say similar things than you do about species that I know for a fact I regularly deal with, so I tend to be rather dismissive of all such allegations.
thunderwagn
Well-Known Member
Hmm, maybe I should have practiced the same. Mine are looking pretty rough after the weather we've had the past week. I think another hard freeze is coming tonight. Some of mine are over 6' tall already. I wonder if I should cut back and start over...
It's not a bad idea. The idea is for the burrs to form around late June. Then the shortening days are the signal to the plant to flower heavily. I give the plants a drink of full strength fertilizer once a week once they are trained. I stop the fertilizer as soon as I see burrs forming. Then just water and wait for the flowers. I harvest in late Aug to early Sep.
I just weeded my hop bed today. No Bermuda grass here, thank you Jesus
I am a long way from my beds looking like that, but man yours look fantastic.
Senormac
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OP
OP
What do you guys use for string? I found a roll of electric fence on clearance a few years ago and use it. It's stainless wire wrapped in UV resistant plastic string so it's strong enough to hold up in our winds and continual bright sunshine. But the roll is almost gone so by next year I may need another option.
