2013 Hop garden photo thread

April 10, June 3rd, June 9th, and June 24th. Most have a few flowers, the Chinook has a bunch.

 

So, I bought crowns (Zeus, Goldings, Chinook) and one rhizome (Centennial) this year. The crowns took off growing very quickly, but the rhizome caught up (surpassed) and now has 3/4 inch long cones where the all of the crowns have just started budding cones on them. I just found that kind of interesting. I'll get some pics up soon.

 

I wonder if it takes more energy for a crown to get back up and running when transplanted vs a rhizome.

 

Here is a few pics of my first yr from left to right, Chinook northern brewer and magnum

 

My first attempt at hop farming, growing some Willamette's.

 

I really like the set up with the cross rope. How tall are the pvc pipes?

 

I moved all my hops this spring and set them up on a new trellis system. The pair of top wires are about 17ft off the ground and all the hops are now in tubs to prevent spread.





This is my dwarf variety.

 

3rd years going YOLO in Chicago! Tons of sidearms, many of which are starting to flower or show signs of budding.

I have been using 5-1-1 fish emulsion.

The plants on the back row have intertwined on the power lines. I hope this doesn't cause any potential hazards. What do you guys think?

 

i don't think there are many risks to you or the lines.

however, the utility company has the right to hack down your hops if they swing by for maintenance. so what is most at risk are your hops. i also have hops growing on a telephone pole and the have reached the top. like you i'm rolling the dice on that one, and there is nothing you can do if they cut down your hops.

 

Hops look way better than powerlines .......

 

It's been an exceptional season for hops here in Michigan so I thought I'd share some pictures of my crop. The beanstalks in the first two pics are Willamettes that have been in for about five years. This is the Southeast corner of the house so they get plenty of sun and get watered by the sprinkling system twice a day. It's 36 feet to the eaves. The smaller bines closer to the house are Cascade that have been in for three years.

The last pic is of the Centennial, Magnum and Nuggets. The wall they are growing on also faces Southeast and they get lots of water as well. These are the oldest at about seven years. I generally get a harvest of four to five pounds of dried hops, more than I can use. I didn't even pick them last year because my freezer was full.

Tom

 

Wow figbash, those are some huge leaves. Never seen them that big

 

Wow unreal, Tom!

 

Any burrs yet?

 

The Centennials and Nuggets are showing a few, the rest are still filling out.

 

What part of our great state!? And i have to say ive never seen leaves that big.. And i thought my cascades where doing well at 22+ feet already!

 

Farmington Hills, just NW of Detroit. It must be something in the water.

 

So these are my first year plants going pretty good. From Left to right Cascade, Kent Golding, Fuggel, Whit Viking, Thor.

I do have a question as to what everyone uses for pests on their plants? Mine are starting to get little fuzzy white bugs not many but I want to stop them before it gets out of hand.

 

All the gardens seem to be doing well so far, even though we've had more rain than sun this year.

 

Already have tons of cones, should i expect an early harvest?

 

We'll have to trade, my centennial took off, but cascade not so much.

 

I need to harvest some of mine now (in fact I waited a bit too long for some of the cones). Last year, I took multiple times from some plants/

 

Third year Centennials, all organic, sexy and massive.

 

Have tons of cones.

 

Another michigander with cones.. My 3 buddies and i dont have cones yet here on the westside.. And thats roughly 15 different varieties with nothing yet? Whats going on here!?!?

 

Works for me - let me know when you're harvesting. :cheers:

And one more pic of those cascade cones:

 

I went with standard 10' PVC, and the bottom 5' is slid over a chunk of 1/2" rebar. Will see how it goes this year, might have to add a couple of feet - and can already see that I'll need some sort of a pulley system too.

 

As a homeowner with both brown recluse & black widows on my property, my research tells me that they prefer darker protected places like wood piles and crawl spaces. Experience has told me the same, so it is very unlikely you will find a recluse or a widow in your hops.

 

Apparently i am living in the wrong location for hops growing.. pictures look good guys & gals.

 

It seems the Miracle Gro i gave my two first year stunted plants a new life and they are back on their way upwards after being stuck at like 5 feet for over a month.

It seems that the soil i planted them in is just way more nutrient deficient than where i planted my cascades. All of them were planted in the same compost mix, i just think the surrounding soil was crap and nothing i did organically seemed to help.

My first year Cascades are easily 25' right now and still growing, while the Columbus and Newport were stuck for a long time and yellowing. Im still convinced it has to do with the fact the two stunted ones were planted over top of an area where bushes were pulled out that probably just sucked every bit of nutrients out of the ground, and the cascade was planted on top where a bunch of yearly bulb flowers were that I was always too lazy to cut back and just rotted and composted into the ground over fall/winter. Getting those bulbs out was a nightmare they were all one giant mass probably 1.5' wide and a foot deep.

 

Here are some photos of this years garden.

All my babies. these are cascade and willamette, all are around 2 months in the pots. I am going to put them in the shed this winter and figure out where to plant them in the spring. I seem to be addicted to rooting clippings as I have another 24 in the aeroponic box.


This is my third year cascade its a monster the pic does not do it justice. My EKG and fuggle are growing on the opposite side of the arbor. Its easily 3 times larger then both of them.


Here is an EKG rhizome I clipped off the main plant this spring. I am using it to decorate my pool side bar.


Here is a pic of my Willamette and nugget.

I need to do a better job stringing these next year. The top line is around 17 feet at that spot but the both overgrew it and mixed together at the top. Gonna be fun harvesting the top of them without mixing them up. These are my best growers this year. I have another 6 growing just not as well, most of them are first year rhizomes from the main plants.

 

Tennessee!

 

When u say rooting clipping, can u root side shoots or do they have to be clippings from the rhizome?

 

Probably not the best hobby for someone with a nearly debilitating and irrational fear of bugs, but here's my progress. 3 of 5 original plants have survived. One is taller than my friend here so probably around 7 feet. Just did some weeding and sprayed em down with neem

 

Bine clippings i dont know if side shoots would work. All my clippings where late shoots coming out of the ground that i was getting rid of. I clip the bine into sections with 1the set of leaves per section. Once the section made roots it would grow a new shoot from the node at the leaf.

 

Slightly different picture this week...of all my ladybugs!

Every one of those black dots is a ladybug larvae, or an adult..i have them all over my Newport which has quite a few aphids.

 

Ladybugs are savage aphid eating machines. I had some artichokes that had tons of aphids, and I unleashed a couple bags of ladybugs onto the plants. The ladybugs went into a feeding frenzy, chewing up aphids as the reached for more. In some cases they were just biting hunks out of them as they went for the next one. I'll never view them the same again.

 

Yea i did two seperate releases two or three weeks apart. My hop leaves are littered with ladybug egg sacks, so i should have a constant supply for the next 4-6 weeks as they hatch and grow.

 

I went outside between thunderstorms and snapped a few pics. The Sunbeam has tones of cones.

The Willamette has exactly 2 cones but has a bunch of the spurs.

And nugget is approaching 25 feet and still reaching skyward.

 

Here is what mine are looking like this year. On the left is my Glacer, and on the right is my Cascade, going wild.