2016 Hop Growing Thread

My Cascade grew about a foot over the weekend, and is now officially taller than me. At the rate it's going, it will soon outgrow my vertical strings, so I'm going to want to start stringing some lines horizontally in the next week. Fun to watch, for sure.

 

Nice looking cones. My Cascade has some small cones on it so far.

 

Looking good! Those are some fat leaves.

 

Finally getting some sunny days between the cold and rainy ones here in CT spurring growth up to my knees so far. Year one rhizomes.

 

One week of sunshine forecasts and NO RAIN here in NJ! Just trained my one hop plant, and the other still has some catching up to do! Finally I am getting some good growth!!!

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Some calcium could help... Clean an dry egg shells worked into the soil a bit would suffice.

 

This is my first year with hops and as usual I decide to go all out first thing out of the gate. First pick is my mini nursery of the hop first years I got last week and the second is their permanent homes I built with a friend this weekend. Just had a big hail storm here in CO so prob good they weren't already super long up the twine (still need to install)

 

Nursery

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New trellis homes

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Trellis looks nice, why does she have to sleep outside?

 

Cut them all down to the dirt on 1 May. Trained them and gave them their first drink of fertilizer over the weekend. I'll bet some of them make it over the fence by Saturday!

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I need to get out in the yard but last week was too windy to apply fertilizer and this week is too wet to move soil. My plan is to hill the rows.

I was able to get some bone meal around the plants the other day. Need to apply some blood meal.

 

I never believed when people say you could "pretty much watch the hops grow" but sure as could be, last night I'm standing outside and I see the sucker moving. In about 60 mins I was outside, it grew about 2 inches.

Truly amazing. I think I'm going to be sad when it's over

 

I joined this forum as a farmer that is looking at commercially growing hops in Ohio. Doing my due diligence I slapped 6 plants in the ground last June just to figure out what I didn't know and go from there. I joined here originally to look at doing some home brew just to better understand the product that I am looking at growing. I'm quite excited to see an active hop growing community on here with lots of reading for me go through to help me learn more about what I don't know about growing hops.

Just starting out and trying to determine if its right for me - I went as budget as a could. I put in some 4x4s into the ground with about 10 feet sticking out of the soil (not really in deep enough, or tall enough, but it was quick and cheap for my test). I have 6 plants, each a different variety. Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Newport, Willamette, and Zeus.

As of Sunday the bines on the Newport were nearly 9' tall and over 10' now. Other varieties are lagging behind with Centennial being the least excited about reaching the sky so far. I look forward to seeing how they do for me and if this adventure warrants a proper trellis system expanded over a couple of acres to get me started, or if this just turns out to be a good excuse to make and drink good beer.

 

How do you have those PVC pipes attached to the deck? Looking to do something similar. Just moved and transplanted a 5th year cascade and Chinook and 4th year Crystal and Mt hood

 

What are the specs on those pipes? Get a lot of flex?

 

Nice, HotRod! Welcome to HBT and hops growing. Seriously though, do u ever need an excuse to drink good beer?

 

They are 3/4" PVC. They do flex, but not too much. I wanted some flex because we do get some fairly high winds and I'd rather they bend than break.

 

Jake,
I used wood furring strips. I simply took some zip ties and secured them to the vertical railing supports. That way they can easily be removed in the fall and winter and put back next spring.

 

First year growing hops, planted fuggle and nugget. Planted rhizomes around May 8th got a few inches of growth so far... Growing in my mom's flower bed, using 5gallon buckets with bottoms cut out to help prevent it from spreading too much. Placed eye screws into overhang to eventually tie ropes too..

 

Very valid point. Life is too short to NOT drink good beer.

 

Thanks. I'll post some picks when they start to take off. Transplanted them about 3 weeks later than I want to. Rain and life got in the way

 

Zip ties here too. I am starting to wonder if they are MORE important than duct tape?!?!

 

The first pic is my cascade (planted 4.16), on 5.20. The second pic is the same cascade on 5.25.

The third pic is my Centennial potted (5.19). Does it look like it will survive? I'm worried about it.

The last pic is my potted Chinook (5.19). Are these pots big enough?

 

I received my rhizomes from Farmhouse back in the middle of April. I started them in buckets because I had to have knee surgery. Well I am finally back so I can work some so I completed my Trellis and transferred the hops. I have 2 Mt. Hood and 2 Williamette. They are all doing well and I am looking forward to watching them grow. The trellis's are in my back yard so they hops can get 7 or8 hours of full sunshine. The 4X4 's are 16 feet long and I spaced them 23 feet from the back deck, so the hops have plenty of room to grow. I used parachute cord for the lines.
Will post more after they get going good.

 

Is there any hope for this Centennial?

 

Ripcord,
I would keep it properly watered and place it in filtered sunlight. You don't want to stress it too much. You still have what looks like one good bine so with some TLC it should survive.
Good Luck!

 

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First picture is my second year cascade. The second picture shows its leaves getting eaten by something. Sprayed it yesterday and today. The third is my second year Willamette. I didn't cut them back when they started coming up because I was away during the week for school. I've graduated now, so I can tend to them everyday. I don't really know the best path to take with them but they seem pretty happy. I'm hoping I can plant them in the ground next year and build them a nice high trellis to climb.

Brewshki

 

Attached are pics of some shoots from my Vojvodina hops. The bottoms have black areas and the tops are turning light lime green and appear stunted. I culled them out and will start with new shoots. I don't remember seeing this before, but now my Horizon plants present with this as well. I fertilized with composted cow manure this year and have had good results in years past. These are 4th year plants. If anyone recognizes what is wrong here I would greatly appreciate it. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464298228.484302.jpg View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464298245.340253.jpg

 

First year Cascades planted 4/10/16
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First year Centennial planted 4/10/16
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Root crowns planted April 13. Moved them out of pots and into this box I built on Sunday.

They like the extra space!
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I'm no expert, but I've been reading and watching YouTube videos. From what I've been reading and watching, that looks like it might be downy mildew.

Definitely don't take my word for it, but it might give you a starting point to figure out what's going on with it.

 

Thanks signpost. I will do some more research on it and act accordingly. I appreciate the help.

 

There is three points to it, one is separate and no longer attached. There is no true rhizome, but roots, and there is three just long stalks. No leaves at all.

Thats what has me worried.

 

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I had clipped these all down to the ground before I left a month ago for Puerto Rico My tallest ones are my my hood and cascade at about 7.5'. My willamette actually even looks good which has been difficult to grow in the north east for me.; lastly a little bit of my tobacco garden

 

My new little friend
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I finally got my trellis finished. I am hoping to build my raised beds around my mounds this evening. Most of the wood is cut.

 

I only just started finding real ladybugs around here. Fifth or sixth year and found two of them on my hops....YAY.

(ps. we have tons of asian beetles, those suck.)

 

Heretic!

Blasphemous talk!

;-)

 

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464400368.609818.jpg perle has some cones..... Kinda small but we will see what happens