Unattended Hops

[SOB]

My parents bought some farm land and next year I wanted to put up a big trellis. i would be moving my 1st year container hops out there and then buying some new rhizomes. The land is about an hour from my house so driving to check on them, fertilize, etc is not a big problem. The problem is watering them in between rains. Has\is anyone growing their hops without a water source (other than the one above) and how did they turn out? It gets pretty hot and dry here in Ohio in the summers. I am currently watering my first year hops daily so I could see them drying out quickly if we didnt get any rain.

Any thoughts\experiences?

 

[abstonhops]

i'm in southern indiana and last year we had to do quite a bit of watering. this year the rain has been plentiful, but with august coming up, we'll get back to it. being an hour away, i would think could be a potential problem.

 

[weirdboy]

Could you use a wicking system and maybe just fill the reservoir once in a while?

 

[SOB]

Could you use a wicking system and maybe just fill the reservoir once in a while?

You mean like a large reservoir that constantly, slowly drains? This might work but I then have the problem of getting water into the reservoir. I could put in a sistern (sp?) but then it's beginning to be a bigger operation than what I wanted.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Watering could be an easy fix. Some hose, a digital 7 day timer and done. Or even a drip system.

the big problem will be BUGS! Left unchecked for very long the crop could be lost. If you have much sign of butterflies on the ponderosa you'll be expecting to see hops nearly devoured over a matter of days.

 

[Brewer#19]

contrary to what you may read on here, hops will grow based on natural aka rain watering. depending on the seasons weather it may be too wet, just right, or too dry and thus affect overall output, but they'll still grow.

case and point, a co-worker bought an old farm and found he had hops growing up a cable going up the side of his silo. he's not a homebrewer so he does not attended to them at all, they just grow as nature does and at the end of the season, if any one (me last year) wants to spend a day picking them, he invites them over to do so.

his hops were over 30' last year and i netted 34 ozs (dried) of beautiful cascades. not to mention i probably tossed out another 15-20 ozs that were past peak and burned out and browned.

so yes you can grow hops unattended; can you increase output with monitored watering, fertilzing, etc., of course, but you don't have to if you're willing to live with the consequences of mother natures variation.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Maybe try a 30 gallon trashcan, drilled about 1" from the bottom, install a garden hose connection & put an inline timer valve on it. Use aquarium sealant, or epoxy to prevent leaks. Run a drip tube to the root system(s). If there's power available you could use a sprinkler timer, if not you could use a solar powered timer, battery power, or maybe even a mechanical timer. You might need to hual water if there's no other water source, but once properly adjusted & set, that 30 gallons should last you a while. Be sure to set the trashcan up on cinderblocks so gravity can do it's thing. I know this sounds pretty "ghetto," but it might just be a reasonably cheap & effective answer to your problem. Regards, GF.

 

[SOB]

contrary to what you may read on here, hops will grow based on natural aka rain watering. depending on the seasons weather it may be too wet, just right, or too dry and thus affect overall output, but they'll still grow...

I would think my current, first year, container hops (that are doing great!) will be fine unattended next year when I transplant but I was thinking of putting in new rhizomes too. They are the ones that scare me without me watering them. Once they get a root base I think they'll be fine.

As GMB stated though, the bugs are gonna be a problem. Not sure how to handle this. My parents will be out there almost daily checking on their crops so hopefully they will at least glance at my babies and see if their getting eaten up.