Hops in South

[nolabrew85]

I got some nugget and cascade growing. They grew up nice up the trellis during the spring and early summer. They are in a large pot and I used a good soil and fertilizer as directed by Northern Brewer. They get approximately 8-9 hours of direct sunlight per day from the east. They are blocked by late afternoon west sun. Recently some of the leaves have been to die and/or dry out (yellow and then brown). Are they getting burnt by this extreme heat in Southeast Louisiana? I have been watering them. I also notice that something it is eating some of the leaves, but it does not appear to be devastating the plant. No cones yet. Might not get them. First year. Thanks.

 

[nolabrew85]

I am guessing no one has answered this because, as it seems, only about 10% of the people posting on this site are from the south and even fewer have tried to grow hops. This is the hottest summer I can remember.

 

[bbohanon]

I am in NC and will tell you between the heat and the beetles this year, I have not even attempted to grow hops. I had some in planters last year but they did not fare too well.
The good news is I have a few brew buddies that are growing hops here locally with great success. I have even brewed with some of the hops they grew and they are awesome!

All the C hops(Centennial, Cascade, Chinook) grow well in the south due to their heat/disease tolerances. Nugget fares good as well as Magnum. The battle you face with growing them in the south is the heat and the bugs though. One my buddies actually has a rig where he pulls up a large screen (the screening you would use on windows) during the heat of the day to keep the sun on the plants but the beetles off the plants.

Here is a great article you can go through on growing the right hop varieties in the south:
http://www.nchomebrewing.com/grow-hops-in-southern-us/

One thing I will agree on is that there is no many active, posting NC Brewers on here from my experience (or southern folks in general). Its odd as NC is full of craft breweries..
Even the NC specific forum here is for the most part dead...

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, pictures will provoke more responses...

Cheers!

 

[Skep18]

I live in the south and planted my two Cascade rhizomes this past Spring and they're growing like wildfire. My lower leaves have been turning yellow/brown as they fall off the lower woody portion of the bine, but the top is doing great. I do water them daily.

 

[SmCranf]

I live in NC, and the heat got to mine this year, partially my fault though. Chinook if you were wondering.

 

[Skep18]

Not sure if OP is returning but here are some photos of what I've managed this year. Two first year Cascades.

I planted them sometime in late March or early April.

April 18, 2015:

May 25, 2015:

July 8, 3025:

They're facing south and as mentioned before, I definitely give them a lot of water. The soil has some Black Kow (I think it's called) mixed in.

 

[beernutz]

I'm in lower Alabama (about as low as you can get) and planted first year Magnum and Centennial bines. I've had very good growth and a ton of cones but none of the cones I've dried smell remotely like what I expect hops to smell like. I break open cones all the time and see some yellow lupulin but it is not bursting out of them as some people describe.

One of my two Magnum bines which has grown the most already has many totally brown cones at the top but I can't harvest them because the other bines around them would also have to come down and they are not ready to do that yet. I am kind of chalking this year off as a learning experience slash root establishment year and hope next year will be better harvest-wise.

I do have a number of leaves on bines that are being apparently eaten by something and I periodically spray with neem oil to limit that happening but I can only spray the lower half of the bines even with a step ladder. I am giving all the bines another few weeks then everything is getting harvested for better or worse.

 

[wyowolf]

Here in Atlanta. I had my first year cascade take off and do great! then suddenly they withered and died! but a few weeks later it came back again, not sure what or why... but they are loaded with hops now... the cascade and chinook. Now i just have to figure out when to harvest.

 

[VonRunkel]

First year in sc... My NY wild hops took off like a champ. 30+feet, side arms... No cones.

The sterling, liberty, cascade, Willamette, and Chinook.... Not so much. The cascade and Chinook died before they sprouted, Willamette is about 4 ft high. Liberty is maybe 10 feet tall, sterling died, and then came back.

I'm going to be building a trellis this year and hopefully they produce cones next year.

I have noticed some following and splotches on the lower leaves of the wild hops. The other hops have crinkly laces and a bunch of holes in them. The soil kind of sucks... More fertilizer!

 

[Skep18]

I've got tons of hops on my bines. New growth keeps emerging on lateral branches and each of these shows signs of more hops. Not all the hops are growing in dense clusters like I'm seeing online but I suppose that probably will come as the plant matures over the years.

Since I have new hops showing promise I am going to attempt to harvest without cutting down the plant. I've also read for first years it's not a bad idea to not cut down the bines while growth is still happening to allow the crown to continue to grow as long into the season as possible.