Where to plant hops in high heat relative to the sun(Dallas/Ft Worth)

[eustacesk]

Hey i have a first season cascade plant that needs to be transplanted elsewhere. I feel like the only/best spot is to run it on the side of my house. It is mostly south/slightly west facing and would receive sun pretty much from sunup-sundown. What i am most concerned about is the late afternoon heat baking the leaves. I intend to mulch heavily and provide several deep waterings per week/daily, but not sure if i will have success or not. There doesnt seem to be many folks successfully growing hops in my area or at talking about it on here. Any tips/advice for mitigating the summer heat?

Thanks!

Kyle

 

[B-Hoppy]

The heat really isn't your big concern. Take a look at the average temps between Dallas and Yakima (they grow about 75% of the hops in the USA right in the Yakima valley): https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/yakima/washington/united-states/uswa0502 and https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/dallas/texas/united-states/ustx1575. While you compare the high temps, also look at how much cooler it gets at night in Yakima. Those plants are pushed really hard during the heat of the day but they get a really nice break from the heat overnight.

I also know that the high humidity you folks deal with would help any disease issues that may be present to flourish during the growing season. One of the other major contributing factors for folks not growing many hops in your hood probably has to do with the duration of sunlight you get on a daily basis. Those plants in Yakima receive almost two extra hours of daylight (PER DAY) during the growing season than they would get in Dallas: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/dallas?month=6&year=2018 compare to Yak: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/yakima?month=6&year=2018

You can probably do it but most likely won't get close to the yield as if you were growing them a couple states to the north. Keep us posted on results!

 

[eustacesk]

The heat really isn't your big concern. Take a look at the average temps between Dallas and Yakima (they grow about 75% of the hops in the USA right in the Yakima valley): https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/yakima/washington/united-states/uswa0502 and https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/dallas/texas/united-states/ustx1575. While you compare the high temps, also look at how much cooler it gets at night in Yakima. Those plants are pushed really hard during the heat of the day but they get a really nice break from the heat overnight.

I also know that the high humidity you folks deal with would help any disease issues that may be present to flourish during the growing season. One of the other major contributing factors for folks not growing many hops in your hood probably has to do with the duration of sunlight you get on a daily basis. Those plants in Yakima receive almost two extra hours of daylight (PER DAY) during the growing season than they would get in Dallas: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/dallas?month=6&year=2018 compare to Yak: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/yakima?month=6&year=2018

You can probably do it but most likely won't get close to the yield as if you were growing them a couple states to the north. Keep us posted on results!

Thanks for the response! While im not going to get the same amount of sunlight, I believe it will be adequate (Approx 13-14 hrs) during peak growing season. What few threads there are on this topic for my area advise to stay away from the afternoon heat due to leaf scorching. That is not possible the way my house is set up. So I think i will just plant it on the south side and water the heck out of it. I realize the average high on the link you posted shows it around 95F, but we consistently get weeks of 100F+ nearly every summer. Mainly concerned that this will kill the plant..

Ill try to remember to post back next summer to let you know how it went.

Thanks again

Kyle

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Thanks for the response! While im not going to get the same amount of sunlight, I believe it will be adequate (Approx 13-14 hrs) during peak growing season.

The fact that hops grow so well in Yakima Valley is a tribute to the efforts of irrigation engineers and the toughness of hop plants, but it's not really "home". They are temperate plants - places like Saaz and Kent are north of Vancouver - and they have two very specific requirements as a result. They need frost in winter to reset them and are very sensitive to day length for regulating processes like setting cones, and you need to be north of 35N (or south of 35S) for that to work. You may be able to fake it by eg giving them a few weeks in a fridge in winter, but you are really too far south for hops to grow easily (unless you can persuade ABInbev to let you have some of the South African day-length-neutral ones).

 

[eustacesk]

Yea i am generally aware that i do not have ideal conditions to grow hops. I talked to the brewer at Lakewood brewery here in Dallas and he told me he grew a ton of hops here. So it can be done, but I did read to stay away from the nobles and try to plant American varieties. Im going to transplant the cascade and water the crap out of it during the high heat times. I have a feeling i wont be able to keep up if we have a terrible summer, but worth a try. Whether this fails/work I am going to try a neomexicanus variety next. It seems logical to be much better suited for my climate. Ill try to post some pics here when the growing season starts

Thanks!

 

[brewcat]

Just a piece of advice on watering. They like water but don't like wet feet.

The biggest thing will be timing. If I have heard right a big problem farther south is too early cone formation. They then dry out in the summer heat and never fully mature.

 

[eustacesk]

Thanks! Yea im afraid you are going to be right. I wont open the flood gates watering unless we're 100F+ for any length of time. Im planting them where they will receive mostly full sun from 8am till the sun goes down, and it gets flat out brutal from 3-6PM during the summer. I once had a cactus die on my balcony. Im probably due some blame for that, but still..

 

[Zuljin]

I grew Casscade here in the DFW. They did just okay. Until the great flood of 2015 drowned them. A big challenge I had was the Eastern Comma moth caterpillar. I picked off dozens of them. They are eating machines.

I'm searching now for what to grow this year. They'll go in a slightly raised hugelkultur bed that will get some afternoon shade. Hopefully during the hottest part of the day.

 

[nick_a]

Great Lakes Hops has Southern Brewer available. It’s one of the South African varieties mentioned above that are supposed to be more tolerant of shorter day length. It might also be worth looking into some of the Neomexicanus varieties, as initial testing seems to indicate that they handle high heat and drought conditions a bit better.

 

[eustacesk]

I grew Casscade here in the DFW. They did just okay. Until the great flood of 2015 drowned them. A big challenge I had was the Eastern Comma moth caterpillar. I picked off dozens of them. They are eating machines.

I'm searching now for what to grow this year. They'll go in a slightly raised hugelkultur bed that will get some afternoon shade. Hopefully during the hottest part of the day.

Interesting. I grew cascade at a different residence, but only for one year. It seemed to do fairly well, but was shaded from the late afternoon sun. Hard to tell from a first year plant though. Hugelkultur is a interesting idea. It would help water retention during the hot weeks.

Feel free to comment back on what hops youre going with this year. I plan to expand out the garden based on the results i get

 

[eustacesk]

Great Lakes Hops has Southern Brewer available. It’s one of the South African varieties mentioned above that are supposed to be more tolerant of shorter day length. It might also be worth looking into some of the Neomexicanus varieties, as initial testing seems to indicate that they handle high heat and drought conditions a bit better.

I was talking with a friend this weekend about neomexicanus. He said in his limited experience that he remember the variety he tried as being harsh and not that great. Harsh is a term i consistently see to describe them so i think he might be right. I am interested in trying Medusa. It has fairly solid review and is heat tolerant.

Thanks for the South African suggestion. Really dont know much about that. So ill read up on it

 

[zekevin]

I don’t know if you read BYO but there was an article a few years ago by Chris Colby about growing hops in Bastrop, TX (south of Austin). I can’t remember the specifics but he was getting a decent yield growing hops in large planters.
When I was living outside of Austin my neighbor had tried to get some Hallertau and Saaz to grow but he didn’t get anything off of them.
I’m in the hill country and am planning on putting a few in the ground this year to see what happens. Good luck!

 

[eustacesk]

I don’t know if you read BYO but there was an article a few years ago by Chris Colby about growing hops in Bastrop, TX (south of Austin). I can’t remember the specifics but he was getting a decent yield growing hops in large planters.
When I was living outside of Austin my neighbor had tried to get some Hallertau and Saaz to grow but he didn’t get anything off of them.
I’m in the hill country and am planning on putting a few in the ground this year to see what happens. Good luck!

Thanks! Ive heard to steer clear of the noble varieties and try to focus on american developed breeds. From what i have read it seems like some have had luck with cascade. I think im going to plant the neomexicanus(medusa) this year as well. I looked into the SA varieties and it seems nearly impossible to get rhizomes. Great Lakes hops sell Southern Brewer. Still not sure if i want to try this or not. I think it would do well, but it doesnt have the greatest reviews.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

A number of the early Wye varieties had substantial neomex parentage and might be interesting to try growing at low latitiudes, but I can't imagine you'll be able to get hold of things like the Keyworths and Ernest.

 

[mschoeffler]

Sterling has worked in OK for me, but none of the Halletauer species do well (which I really want). They really stall when it’s over 95 degrees. A couple of cooler days will wake them up nicely.

 

[Anthmonkey]

I just moved to Shreveport LA, and plan on just planting a few different varieties and see what happens. Could fail miserably, or I might get some hops out of the deal. I am thinking about planting them in the backyard where I get full sun, and building a tall wooden trellis for them to climb. What is your game plan?

 

[leirbag]

I don’t know if you read BYO but there was an article a few years ago by Chris Colby about growing hops in Bastrop, TX (south of Austin). I can’t remember the specifics but he was getting a decent yield growing hops in large planters.
When I was living outside of Austin my neighbor had tried to get some Hallertau and Saaz to grow but he didn’t get anything off of them.
I’m in the hill country and am planning on putting a few in the ground this year to see what happens. Good luck!

Jumping in to a somewhat old thread, but any issues with critters eating into the hop? Where I live in San Antonio we have squirells that wreak havoc on any thing that is planted. I've had a prune plant in my backyard that I've never been able to enjoy because of the critters.

 

[eustacesk]

Jumping in to a somewhat old thread, but any issues with critters eating into the hop? Where I live in San Antonio we have squirells that wreak havoc on any thing that is planted. I've had a prune plant in my backyard that I've never been able to enjoy because of the critters.

No squirrel issues yet, but i have already killed off a couple Eastern Comma moth caterpillars that Zuljin mentioned above. Im growing them in 50 gallon containers this year. Plan to put them in the ground next year. The Centennial have taken off really well, and the Cascade seem to be gaining some steam

 

[Zuljin]

I bought Comet from Austin Homebrew Supply last spring. They did about like first year hops do. One of them even put on a few cones.

I mulched over them when they turned brown in the late fall. Uncovered when I figured we were done with frost.

They started coming out again about a week ago. The bines are much more chunky and bristly than the Cascade were. The south one, which gets the most sun, is doing the best.

 

[mschoeffler]

It may pain you, but cut those bull shoots back and select what comes up next. I did my Sterling today.

 

[Zuljin]

I waited until today to cut the bulls. The idea is that these hollow bines grow their nodes farther apart and are primarily trying to spread the plant. The next growth will have closer nodes and make more hops.

 

[mashpaddled]

I grew hops on the north side of Fort Worth for several years. Humidity is a big problem because it means the hops don't cool off at night and get too hot in the late afternoon. If you can shade them in the afternoon and get the hops all the morning sun they will do a little better.

Spider mites and aphids are also a big problem there. They are a problem pretty much everywhere but because there isn't a long cold winter most years the eggs don't die so you need to be prepared to fight them early and throughout the season. You don't get mildew problems very much that far south so that is a plus for you but I'd fight mildew over aphids any year.

 

[RyanWeary]

Check out my post from last year - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/north-texas-hop-progress.650301/

This is the third year for my hops to grow and I've already got my Cascade and Columbus trained. Centennial is a bit behind the others. I'll take some pictures this week and post them.

 

[Zuljin]

Hop mantis.

 

[Zuljin]

First two pics are the one with the most sun. It's even put on some cones. Third pic is the one with some shade. It's starting to bloom.

Now that I see how wild and wooly this comet grows, it is spreading out all over, I'll be adding some bailing wire and more trellises next year.

 

[Zuljin]

Today's small harvest. Picking all at once isn't going to work. There are this many that have gone brown on the vine and three times more that aren't near ready. It's been in the 100s for over a week now. Dry, too. We did get a half inch of rain this week and I emptied a lot of my 275 gallon rain tote on the hops before that.

The okra like it. This one came in while I was away. They are about to turn on.

 

[Zuljin]

Second year Comet. A whopping 1 3/8 oz, zeroed for the bag, of course.

It was hot, upper 90s to 100F, and dry for the end of August, all through September, and until this week in October. It rained yesterday and is 36F this morning. I'm growing in a hurk and did water, some from my rain tote, for all that lasted, and mostly from the hose (city water).

The Comet in full sun was not happy going into hotober October. There is also some rabbit or squirrel damage. The one in some shade fared better, as a plant, but didn't produce as much.

I don't want to cut them down just yet because we're going to have a rollercoaster of temperatures here for a few weeks and I don't want them to try to grow back in that time.

I'll keep them both and add plan to add a Neomexian for next year. There will also be more line strung on, and some between, the trellises to allow more grow surface. It's fine if they grow together.

 

[RyanWeary]

Very cool! I originally planted three different hops - three years ago. Cascade, Centennial, and Columbus. I planted them too close together and the Cascade and Centennial overtook the Columbus. So far this year I've harvested about 1 lbs. total. 12oz. from Cascade and 8oz. from the Centennial.

 

[Zuljin]

Very cool! I originally planted three different hops - three years ago. Cascade, Centennial, and Columbus. I planted them too close together and the Cascade and Centennial overtook the Columbus. So far this year I've harvested about 1 lbs. total. 12oz. from Cascade and 8oz. from the Centennial.

Nice haul. Cascade was a good one for me. Tempted to go back if I can't get Neomexican.

Cleaned them out and mulched over today. Supposed to get down to the 20Fs this week. Found some shoots about 14 inches from where I planted. Okay. I'll take 'em. Also found some dead bines that pulled right out the ground. One had signs of life, so I cut it to living tissue and planted it.