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Sounds like a great project. Hopefully some of my experience can help. I have been sprouting for the past few years - potting up around 500 plants to date. You can read more here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=397219 My best results have come from a cold stratification period...

Great question - it truly is a tangled mess! We went an alternative route and have been taking cuttings from the most interesting specimens. A few have already rooted.

So... harvest time is upon us and I never got around to building a picking machine. Time to scale back a bit. Rather than a motorized machine, I'd be happy with a hop rake at this point. Originally, I was going to try welding together the tines on a regular leaf rake to form loops. Then I came...

You can dry hops fast - or - you can dry hops to taste good... but you only get to pick one. I'd start them on the fan and get a friend to check in on them.

Visited the 2016 babies. These were all seeds a few months ago - and - only about a foot tall back in June. They've all now topped the 16' trellis! The bird netting seems to have worked wonderfully. Though, I doubt that I'll be able to remove the bines and reuse it next season, which is a...

Looks like a water issue to me. Since they are in a pot, you need to make sure that they have good drainage, but never dry out completely. What size is that container?

Just be cautious. Preharvest interval is often set for orchards (apples, oranges, etc), where the fruit will be washed post harvest.

I don't have data on late stage neem application, but understand people's concern. Since you don't wash the end product, any remaining residue would be transferred to your beer. What pests are you fighting? For aphid control, I can't recommend ladybugs enough. They will set up shop and keep the...

Nothing to report yet. Lots of new plants to sort through.

Yes - that's one of the reasons that I love them.

Alaskan fish is great stuff. I need to pick some up for the rest of my garden. I like to use a 'ripe' blend after bur development in July and a 'hardener' a few weeks before picking. Both are from kelp4less and intended for hop's cousin, but honestly ... they work great on hops, tomatoes...

If you have good soil, I wouldn't recommend foliar feeding until late in the season - at least until burs start to form. Years ago, I thought I would give them a N boost - just ended up with huge plant, fewer cones, and lots of "angel wings" However, I have had good success with feeding high PK...

Visited the other yard, where we planted the 2016 sprouts - all 300+ of them! It's already a jungle already, but that was to be expected. We're going with a "plant them all and let Darwin sort it out" mantra for these ones. We went with bird netting as a trellis.

She's not the tallest of the bunch, but is doing well. And we still have a lot of growing time left this season.

And here is a close up of the little mutant with the strange, elongated leaves. I thought she might outgrow this, but it seem to be permanent! I'm excited to see where this goes.

Here are the cones on one of the neomexicanus/nugget crosses. Might just be a fluke, but we'll be keeping an eye on this one.

Okay... Lots of pics, so I split this up between a few posts. In the spring, we dug out all the plants from the 2 hop yards and selected 42 contenders from the initial hundreds. We were not gentle with the crowns at the time, yet they are doing surprisingly well. Most have reached the top of...

Funny you should ask. I just went out to the experimental hop yard this weekend. Everything looks really good. Lots of burs - and - there were even a few full size cones on a neomexicanus/nugget cross. I try to post some pics later in the week.

A "genetic lottery" is the best way I can describe it. Each seedling is a diverse set of phenotypes from the parents, grandparent, etc. Some may be similar to the previous generations, but others will be wildly different. Attached is a USDA family tree for hops. Notice that many of the well...

Unfortunately, hops do not grow "true" from seed. So, you would not end up with Galenaz or Salena - instead, every single seedling would be a new, unique plant. This is where the trouble starts. I am 4 years in and have sprouted over 500 seedlings...