First small hop farm. Help Please. Questions

In the first picture,
Towards the back are cascades. (1ft -2.5ft) They were the first out of the ground and about 10/25 got straight mowed over by rats. As you can see they are coming back strong anyways.
The ones that are considerably smaller and towards the back half of the truck are horizon. The horizon only sprouted up a few weeks ago and has recently started exploded. They are short and stalky but are shooting up bines everywhere. I have them in my truck so that I can move it to a more shaded area on a really hot day and so there mobile for when I start putting them in the ground.

In the second picture,
It is just another look at the same plants but in this pic you can see the centennial towards the very back (last two rows). These bines came out of the ground right after the cascades but then seemed to hit a wall with their growth. Actually a lot of the first shoots that came out started dieing and then new growth came up and now they are looking pretty good.

I need to get better pictures but right now its hard because of the different areas they are in currently. I have an area where I started them all that was fenced in, there is a 100 plants total with a few extras of each. All plants have started growing except for about 14 zeus. Zeus has been the hardest one to get to grow and then when it does finally come out of the ground it seems to have a little bit of a hard time before getting situated. So to say the least I am hoping to nurse the Zeus through this first year. I think it was just a plant that focused on its root system first because the bines that do come up are way thicker then any other of my variations. (Cascade(25), Centennial(25), Horizon(25), Zeus(25)).

This whole process from GLH crowns to actual plants has been a long road of getting the trellis and area ready for where these plants are going to be going and also maintaining the plants to make sure they are growing good. I just started last week giving some of the more established plants Humboldt nutrients which I have been very happy with in the past.

 

Here are some more pics of some of the plants. The taller one is cascade.
The rest of the pics are just to give a better idea of what the grow area looks like also our anchors.

 

Here are some more pictures to check out.

 

Just ordered some of this organic paper with some neutral fertilizer built in.
Im going to be using it to cover the mounds instead of traditional mulch.
http://www.weedguardplus.com/products.php?cat=10

 

Question for you guys, I started working on my irrigation last weekend and so far all I have done is ran 1/2 black drip line down each row suspended about a foot above my mounds. I already bought 4gph emitters, and have plenty of 1/4 dripline. Should I just use the 4gph emitters or go for something slower like 2gph for a better controlled soak?
I was just going to have one emmiter per plant but can do more if needed. I am on a well and have two tanks so water isn't much of an issue.

 

Depends on your soil texture..what mixture of clay/loam/sand. Figure that out and then I would suggest either calling the drip emitter company with that info or a UC extension office (youre in CA, right?) The UC extension offices are basically a govt-run agency to help farmers out.

 

I took your advice and got some info. I will just be using adjustable emitters (1-10gph).
Here is a updated picture. Everything is all done finally!!! We are planting this weekend. Our plan was to plant last weekend but I want the root balls to get a little drier first.

 

Looking good. What type of cover did you put over the hills?

 

Thanks!
We used a organic paper that is biodegradable and as it breaks down it also releases 5-5-5.
it was $150 for 500 feet. This is the link to the company who makes it, pretty cool stuff.
http://www.weedguardplus.com/products.php?cat=10

 

I know I have been bad about uploading pictures as this project has been in process and that's because of how busy we have been. Well we finally finished about a week and a half ago. All plants are in the ground and the trellis is all done so because I have been about uploading pictures up on here I decided to do kind of a grand finale of pictures and will continue to post pictures of the plants growing as they come along. Thanks for all the help!

 

Beginning!

 

Getting those poles up....

 

Trenching and mixing amendment into our dirt.

 

Using the boom truck to get the wire up.

 

Time to start hanging the coir rope.

 

Rope...

 

After doing all the rope, installing the organic paper (mulch), irrigation is ziptied to bottom wire with emitters going down to each plant, then planting.

 

Final product....

 

Update for the plants!!!

 

few more

 

I'm curious once you have the hops do you plan on drying them yourself? How do you plan on selling them, is there a distributor you can sell to that sells them to the end user or will you do that?

 

Awesome thread.. I anxious to see how these will be next year, once they are more established.

 

First of all sorry it took me a little while to get back to you. I have been busy maintaining the hops yard and building an oast to dry hops.
@ Slimasaurus: Currently I am drying them myself with a simple screen setup and a few fans. I am planning on selling locally in the future but quite haven't gotten that far yet. I have a local brewery.

@ syd138: Thank you! Lots of work but I am hoping it will all pay off next year. Thanks for checking in!

 

Did your Zeus ever get going?

 

Believe it or not, Zeus not only ended up being are tallest but also are best producer. Almost all the Zeus ended up being 19 feet tall.

 

Where are you located? The area looks familiar. Near Aguanga?

 

Edit: Found my own answer. Looks like plants average about two pounds of hops each.

 

Good amount of plants to start with. I started with 250 a few years ago and up to 2800 now. I agree, no need to use stainless cable, I use galv cable and it is doing fine. plus at least half the price. Be careful with natural bailing twine, if you instal your rope the middle of may and start harvest the middle to end of August the twine will rot and come on done with your plants 14 or 15 ft. tall, its a real pain in the butt trying to save them. I use a 1/4" mania rope so I can compost it the end of the season. A few rot right where the W clip holds them in the ground.

Happy growing

 

Here's a update, lots more pics on the way...