Container growing in GA

So I received my rhizomes from ThymeGarden.com last weekend, I pre ordered rooted cuttings for all but Cascade as they didn't have that as an option for them. I ordered 2 of each of the following:

Fuggle
Willamette
Cascade
Perle
Northern Brewer

I am pleased at how large the rooted cuttings were and how many little buds they had sprouting on them.









I will be growing these in containers (Earthtainers actually) with a blend of potting mix, perlite, and pine bark nuggets to help keep the mix from compacting. I have added some pelletized flower fertilizer in the soil and will be using small doses of a liquid flower growth mix found at a hydroponics shop where I got the perlite from. I have these containers in a row with a SS cable strung about 18' above them between two trees in my backyard. I will be using coir yarn to run lines down to each container for the hops to grow on which should give each of them about 15' to run up. I'm trying to keep some of the more sensitive ones like Fuggle and Willamette in afternoon shade so hopefully they will do well, we will see.

I'm excited to get into this stuff and can't wait till second or third year growth to see how well they really produce. I will be happy with any cones that I get this year and can't wait to brew with them.

My current container setup:


Sorry for the long post.

I almost built some earthtainers to do the exact same thing. Decided to just drop them in the ground though. I'm excited to see how well your plants grow.

I ordered nugget and mt. hood cuttings and a cascade rhizome from them. They showed up last week and got planted Wednesday in grow bags with a mixture of top soil and manure with some fertilizer. It rained a little Wednesday night and I watered yesterday. They both have already broken soil with bines. Definitely worth the extra few bucks to get those cuttings.

YAY! all my plants are starting to poke little buds through the soil. :rockin:
I'll see if they are a bit bigger for pics tomorrow.

Looks good, I am going to follow along as I have a similar set up here in Socal....

Just out of curiosity, why in containers rather than in the ground?

I wasn't sure how well they would do im my GA clay yard, plus I kinda wanna control the root spread from these as I don't want them to start mixing with each other or taking over my yard. This way I can control the soil conditions and with these containers I can't over or underwater them as long as I keep the reservoir full. My job keeps me on the road Monday through Friday and this seemed like the easiest way to control things and have my wife water them for me if needed.

So here are the picture updates of the little guys poking out of the soil mix after week 1. These were taken about 5 mins ago.
Northern Brewer


Perle


Cascade


Fuggle


Willamette is just breaking the surface right now; hopefully it will do better.

I'm growing in containers in Marietta also...transplanted second year plants to pots since I moved from TN and haven't bought a house yet... looking forward to your progress...

Looking good. Im growing second year Centennial and Chinook in the ground in Roswell. I had a Cascade last year that was doing great but was dug up by squirrels. I replanted two more Cascade last week. My Centennial is doing great and is about 2.5-3' already and my Chinook just poked through the other day. Good luck and keep the pics coming. Ill post a couple on here later.

Well so far they are growing good, but looks like I'm already starting to get some nibbling pests (little holes in some of the leaves, mostly on northern brewer) and I think I've spotted some red spider mites. I'll be taking some preemptive action tomorrow after work, wanna catch them early before they become overpopulated.

Well sprayed them down with fine mist from water hose and then sprayed with a water bottle that had a few drops of normal dawn and some cayenne pepper in it.. hopefully that will help some. All plants seem to be doing good but more are showing little holes in it with no sign of who the culprit is (nobody hanging out on the plants that I can see). Pics to come probably tomorrow.

Ok so here's a picture of the leaves on my Northern Brewer that are just being chewed up. It's hard to tell if the rain we've been having lately or the soapy/pepper mix spray is doing anything, but they came out of the ground growing the best and now seem like they've stalled cause of the leaf damage.



Not sure what's causing it and I'm hesitant to go to chemical means as I wanna try to keep as many beneficial predatory bugs around as possible.

Update pics of all the plants taken a few minutes ago. I'm glad to see willamette cruising right along and the Perle is awesome to watch go.

Northern Brewer - kinda stalled and haven't seen any other shoots yet


Perle - Doing awesome


Cascade - Close to the ground you can see about 4 or 5 more shoots starting up


Willamette - Nice to see you


and Fuggle - Glad to see it growing so well, hope it stays that was as the summer heats up


I'll probably stake my coir yarn runs down this weekend as I'll be out of town next week and the rate these guys are coming up they are gonna want something to climb pretty soon.

Been a while since I've updated this thread so I figured a few pics were in order. All 5 of my hop plants are growing well up their strings with Cascade only a few inches from hitting the top and Perle already over the top. Northern Brewer, Fuggle, and Williamette are all between 10-14 feet tall. Cascade and Perle are budding and putting out cones already. :rockin:

Pics of the hops growing up the lines from about a month ago.


Pics of the hops from about a week ago.


Cascade Cones.


All of these are from first years.
Anyone know how big the Cascade cones get before I should start harvesting?

I'm in Alpharetta growing in earthtainers. Working real well for me, they are starting to bud, but no cones yet.

looking good!

Time to update for year 2.

I was lazy and didn't really try to harvest much on first year growth, but all 5 varieties did pretty well reaching the top of their lines an average of about 16 - 18 feet tall. I left them up over the winter and let them die off and dry out naturally. Within the past 2 - 3 weeks all of the plants started sprouting back up and were all taking off like crazy. I cleaned up the lines from the old dead vines and strung a second line to each Earthtainer. I am currently running 2-3 bines per string and I hope to see some decent yields from here on out. So far as of today some of the bines are already reaching 10 - 12 feet up on the lines and are growing quickly. :rockin:

I'll be breaking off the growing tips once they have topped out to reinforce putting the plants energy into growing side arms and cones. I'll try to keep this updated with pictures as the growing season progresses, here are some from today.


Figured it was fitting to drink a tasty 4-20 today while working with hops.


Strung the bines I wanted to keep and pruned the rest.




Overall trellis system.