My Hops Garden Project

[Randar]

Aurora has an ordinance against chickens as well.
Randar I wanted to add that last year you were very helpful in educating me and influenced the design of my garden. I was at a hop gathering and my garden was described as ideal and my yields pros would love to have. Just saw some pics of your garden. They have no idea there are other better gardens out there. Thanks for all the comments and advice.

Glad someone found my comments useful! And thanks on the garden compliment. I had to add 6' sections of 4x4 to my 6"x6" main posts as the last 2 years have been a tangled mess at the top. 17' now. I think that is about all I can manage before the village comes and sends me to the looney bin. Hopefully I don't kill the potatoes this year. I have as much money invested in those silly potato cribs and seed potatoes as I do the hop trellis! 100 lbs in 4 sq feet my arse!

 

[Gridlocked]

As of today, I finally have all of my hops in the ground which feels great. I also did a bit of training and trimming this afternoon and snipped off the shoots that I had coming out of the ground at the edges of the boxes. The Cascades in the corners are going gang-busters and are reaching about 8-9' tall.

This poor Willamette had about 3' of growth until I tried to move it. Whoops.

 

[Gridlocked]

The Cascade in the corner has nice side arms already.

 

[JMaslar]

Great grow thread; it is full of awesome tips as well as showing the last 2 seasons. Keep this thread going for years.
I will be starting one sooner than later; got to find the time. It should be a good one....

 

[astinson]

Finally got the trellis up and the Cascade's and Willamette's are going strong. Hopefully the Fuggles in the middle catch up soon. Thanks for all the great posts and picture's of trellis' were quite inspiring. My wife think's it's a little big but I don't think it's big enough. I did what I could with the room can't wait to move out to burb's and have a huge hop garden!!

Cascades, Fuggles, Wilamette's

Cascade's

Willamette's

Trellis up and ready for some hop growth

 

[Gridlocked]

astinson, that trellis looks great!!!

 

[Gridlocked]

Here are some pics as of 6/19/11.
The Cascades have hit the eves and started filling space - it's pretty awesome. Both plants on the fence are doing very well. I made some custom plant markers by using a sharpie on popsicle sticks and then packing tape to keep them dry but I don't have pictures of those due to the patent pending. We've been getting plenty of rain and have had nice warm weather here in Minnesota and I've applied one round of BioBloom (3 weeks ago) and put down about two cups of compost per plant on Friday.

 

[mhumm1]

awesome thread! laughed hard at the weed donation.

I just put up a simliar set up on the underside of my eves. my plants are between 6-10 feet (magnum, zeus, willamette) so hoping they will reach the gutter.

so here's my question - at the end of the season, how close to the ground to you trim back the vines. In a couple of the pics early on, it looked like there was quite a bit of bine exposed from the previous year. I have second and third year plants, but each season I've cut them back flush to the ground - is that too short??

 

[Gridlocked]

Yeah, whoopsie - live and learn. I am damn glad that I put the boxes around the plants this year, I have shoots popping up and out of three of the four. I'll have plenty of rhizomes to sell or give away next year- for sure.

I think I left 5-6" of vine above the ground, but that's just what I did due to what I found/read last year. These plants are pretty darn tough and I don't know if that makes a difference or not. I covered mine with leaves before it snowed.

I think that this year I am going to leave the vines 5-6' tall, curl them up on top of the plant and cover everything with dirt. I want to see if those vines will turn into rhizomes over the winter.

 

[Gridlocked]

update as of today

 

[Gridlocked]

Ten days apart. Amazing

 

[bengerman]

update as of today
...

looks like some easy pickin'.

 

[Gridlocked]

HA! Yeah, right up until I fall out the window getting a little to ambitious.

 

[Paulasaurus]

Looks awesome Ted.

That trellis looks like a house!

 

[Gridlocked]

The update as of today.
I've added a 3 year old as a scale

 

[Paulasaurus]

Ha! I'm sure you have matching Superman outfits, nice.

Looks Awesome Ted.

Is the one on the back fence Chinook only? (4th pic down)

 

[Gridlocked]

We do have matching outfits, but they're spiderman ones.

And yep, that's one Chinook plant. It's massive.

 

[Mr_Pear]

Mmm looks wonderful. I have hop envy. Planted some late rhizomes this year so my guys are quite a bit shorter and it looks like my Zues isn't going to come up at all Kind of bought them on a whim so next year I'll get a better plan of attack. Used my first Chinook's in an IPA earlier ths week and they smelled amazing! Anyway great pics!

 

[Gridlocked]

Thanks Mr. Pear! My Zeus didn't come up either but considering the size of what I got, I'm ok with that. I may not be planting as many in 2012 simply due to lack of room.

 

[beng]

2nd fence picture makes it looks like the plant is trying to eat your kid!!

 

[retsyn]

read through the thread and was inspired to join HBT and post a few pics just for fun.

two pictures of a willamette that is ~9' and my struggling chinook ~4'. also a picture of the whole set up. started them at first on a short t-post. from there i ran a wire to the top of a 4x4 post and then 3 horizontal lines off each of those to three 4x4 posts ~10' away. in the picture i'm still short 2 posts... on each side of the lines i have turnbuckles for ease of taking down lines (or tightening them up if necessary).

let me know your thoughts/improvements!

ps- the weed story was hilarious

 

[retsyn]

a few pictures of my chinook plant i called out last post... apparently it needed some motivation
first pic on 7/29 - 12 days after the last pic
second pic was this evening. looking good!

willamette plant stopped vertical growth (may have been hail damage) but is becoming quite a bushy plant. cones are getting bigger and bigger (8/3)

 

[Gridlocked]

Looking great! Here are some pics as of this afternoon.

The Centennial on the fence has some nice cones.

 

[Gridlocked]

The Chinook is taking over the tree

This is one of the Cascades by the house

And some of the first years are going to produce

 

[Gridlocked]

harvest time is not too far away! I'm going to pick up a Vaccuum sealer and (most likely) a small chest freezer for hops (and venison) soon.

 

[retsyn]

dry hopped venison... that sounds delicious

 

[Gridlocked]

I found out tonight that my hops can **** themselves. This makes me slightly uncomfortable. Transgender hops? strange.

 

[tchuklobrau]

Woweverything looks awesome gridlocked. transgender hops seems to be a common thing this year. Heat or water stress in your area?

 

[Gridlocked]

Thanks tchuklobrau! It wasn't too bad, it rained pretty frequently and I watered as needed. The plants dried out and a few turned hermaphroditic toward the end of the summer so lesson learned, keep the water heavy until the end.

last night I chopped one of my Cascades down and most of the buds were ready but I did end up pitching quite a few of them as they weren't dry enough

and I was enjoying a few of these

 

[Randar]

Grid, I had my first hermies this year as well. Mostly on my Columbus, a few male parts on the Magnum (giggle) and even noticed one small cluster on the Cascade. Pretty crazy.

I watered like crazy during our very hot stretch but the heat alone may have triggered the stress. Have also read that Columbus in particular is very apt to try to **** itself.

 

[Gridlocked]

Really - you had hermies too? How old are your plants? I completely forgout about the week long stretch of 7,000 degrees. I figured I didn't water enough... My Magnum and both of my Cascades hermie'd out. Neither of my Columbus showed male bits... Strange.
Did you leave the weeners on your hops, or did you trim em?
Edit, I don't have a Columbus, I was mistaking that for a Centennial.

 

[B-Hoppy]

Really - you had hermies too? How old are your plants? I completely forgout about the week long stretch of 7,000 degrees. I figured I didn't water enough... My Magnum and both of my Cascades hermie'd out. Neither of my Columbus showed male bits... Strange.
Did you leave the weeners on your hops, or did you trim em?

Hey kids,
I kinda think they do their own thing no matter what. This was the hottest/driest of the three years for my Zeus and the year I had the 'least' male bloom. That was even after I split the crown this Spring. If the whole 'stress' theory is true I would have to say that a stressful growing season for Zeus consists of temps in the 80's and adequate rainfall because this year was averaging close to 90 with very little rain. I think I actually put some water on them twice. Everything else came out fine with about the same amount of bloom on the Cascades (4 or 5 spikes). Just keep good notes and make sure to keep yourselves well hydrated!

 

[Randar]

Really - you had hermies too? How old are your plants? I completely forgout about the week long stretch of 7,000 degrees. I figured I didn't water enough... My Magnum and both of my Cascades hermie'd out. Neither of my Columbus showed male bits... Strange.
Did you leave the weeners on your hops, or did you trim em?

I left em, as most of what I have read has hermies as being predominantly sterile. My plants are 3rd and 4th years (except the Columbus which was a crown from BHoppy, thx again!)

And our stretch was 2 full weeks of well over 90 with no rain... followed by epic torrential record setting rain for a week. I watered them thoroughly every other day at a bare minimum, often times every day, during the hot stretch.

 

[Retrofit]

Just to jump in, I'm also in Chicago region. This year I ran my garden with soaker hoses that shot blasts of water every six hours for ten minute intervals.

I noticed even when the soil looked dry, under ground it was at least moist. My centeniall had one tiny boy bit, but the rest of plants were true and healthy. I love my timers, best garden investment I've made.

 

[KAMMEE]

Sort of off topic, but not really, Gridlock you did a good job showing off your hop project on Brewing TV. Love the dice. Cheers!

 

[Gridlocked]

Hey, thanks Kammee!!!! It was CRAZY fun.

 

[Espi]

I was watching some stupid online show thing I check out all the time last night and then I was like.. wait I kicked it in that guys back yard or something..

Then I was like.. oh wait.


Cool episode and I get caught up on the numbers and sticking to a recipe. Great job and I think I will try something like this to get me to try new things.

Thanks and great looking yard.

 

[2BeerSpeer]

Great thread...I just bought my first (7) "hop plant starts" and they should be here in 2 days. I'm thinking about getting them started under lights through the winter in my basement, increasing the light as we near spring. Any Suggestions?

 

[Gridlocked]

Thanks guys!
ESPI - You recognized the back yard from the Brewing TV episode?! That's awesome. I brewed with some of the Cascades and they are delicious.

2BeerSpeer, where are you getting rhizomes or starters this late in the season? Have they broken ground and started growing or are they sections of rhizome? No idea what to do, we are in very different climates.

 

[pksublime]

Thanks guys!
ESPI - You recognized the back yard from the Brewing TV episode?! That's awesome. I brewed with some of the Cascades and they are delicious.

Which episode # - I wanna look that one up.