1st Year Hop Experience

[Immocles]

Small, small yard with large walnut trees. I haves the most logical spot picked out, just have to dig up the vine that’s currently living there this fall. Nothing gets a ton of sun in that area and the overly sunny area is off limits to pretty flowers only.

 

[LagerLover78]

Ugh. I'm sorry. Digging up vines and roots is no fun.

 

[LagerLover78]

At least the wife is into the idea! Thats a plus!

 

[toadie]

Hey all I have been drying my hops on a screen in the attic. A pain to get up there but dry in a day (or sooner). I have also been drying mint. I plan on trying some tomatoes and some cannabis (which I also might try to brew with).

 

[Beerisgud]

@Immocles one way to make it work in the off limits area is an obelisk like @Leezer they look attractive in a garden when grown that way. Tell them but hey hops ARE pretty flowers! Show them his photos and you may convince them to make use of vertical space with something truly unique and a conversation piece. You will need to inlay a bottomless wooden box into the planting area to contain its spread. If that is not an option, just go for it in the less sunny area. Worst comes to worst you tossed a few bucks on rhizomes. Post a photo of your potential planting areas and maybe we can help you come up with a game plan.

@toadie awesome idea, I have a walk up attic and I never even thought about drying up there. I’ll try it with the nuggets and chinooks! My family grows lots of cannabis both CBD and THC and wants to collab on a brew. I think all IPA styles and maybe fruited sours? would be great infused with cannabis.

 

[Immocles]

@Immocles one way to make it work in the off limits area is an obelisk like @Leezer they look attractive in a garden when grown that way. Tell them but hey hops ARE pretty flowers! Show them his photos and you may convince them to make use of vertical space with something truly unique and a conversation piece. You will need to inlay a bottomless wooden box into the planting area to contain its spread. If that is not an option, just go for it in the less sunny area. Worst comes to worst you tossed a few bucks on rhizomes. Post a photo of your potential planting areas and maybe we can help you come up with a game plan.

I debated going that route with an obelisk, but Im just not too into that at the moment. It would be smack in the middle of her little enchanted garden, so Id rather not die on that hill haha. I do think the less sunny spot going up the garage might suffice, but I worry it'll get choked out when the trees are in full bloom. But I do plan on trimming those up this fall, so who knows. I figured I would probably give it a shot anyway. We hate the vine that grows and I keep hacking it off at the ground, so I just need to dig that baby up and basically plan a rhizome on top of it. If it grows, it grows. If not, then I find a better plan the following year.

 

[toadie]

@Beerisgud Yeah I haven't actually checked out the temp but when the sun is shining...wow. I'm in southwestern Ontario (Canada) and the humidity is crazy which affects drying. On a side note my hops don't seem to be as potent as similar hops from the drier west coast (also at a higher latitude). This also seems to be an issue with growing grapes for wine.

 

[Beerisgud]

Just kegged the first harvest ale. I’m really excited for this beer! The cascade hops just smell so damn good I couldn’t help but sip the beer drippin out the dry hop bag lmao. In total I used 5 oz in the boil and 2 oz dry hopped. I still have another 6 oz dry in the freezer so a total of 13 oz dry from my two cascades. Not bad for the first year!

 

[LagerLover78]

13 oz...Thats an awesome harvest!

Looking forward to hearing how the brew turns out after carbing

 

[Ridenour64]

I got 3 oz from my chinook and roughly 3 oz from my cascade. Both first year plants, so you doubled mine! Hoping to brew a harvest ale in the next week or two.

 

[LagerLover78]

I got 3 oz from my chinook and roughly 3 oz from my cascade. Both first year plants, so you doubled mine! Hoping to brew a harvest ale in the next week or two.

That is seriously a killer harvest! Between my Chinook and Challanger, I've got a little more than 6 oz dry and they are 3rd year plants, with not much left on the bine!

 

[Beerisgud]

Definitely happy with the amount I got from them. Honestly though I anticipated more weight and felt a bit dissapointed when they hit the scale. It takes quite a lot of cones to hit that 1 oz mark dry! It’s amazing how after harvesting, they showed a lot of new growth in the lower half of the plant. New shoots, side arms, and burrs everywhere I will likely have a mini second harvest with them. Also the chinooks are ripe and I will pick them today. It’s not much so I will be experimenting with them. Infusing gin or small batch Lemon/hop seltzer. Maybe make some soap. Hopped mac and cheese?
https://steemit.com/food/@haphazard...bonus-9-plant-wild-salad-too-thursday-s-greenThis woman is rad she has some cool informative vids on YouTube - Haphazardhomestead
Can’t wait for the nuggets to ripen, maybe 1-2 more weeks. These will be in my next batch for sure! I’ll post new photos of the plants later today

 

[myndflyte]

Well after having to dig up water logged and rotted rhizomes, fixing the planters and then replanting sprouted plants in June, I was able to actually get some hops from a few of the plants. Only got 0.6 oz of dried hops but it's better than having nothing and starting over again next year. I'm looking forward to them really taking off next spring.

 

[Beerisgud]

I have a theory about how I may have gotten a good harvest in the first year. The trellis design: I thought about how utilizing all that space and spreading out the plant can make the plant absorb the most sun (for my plants that’s 6/7hrs) and set the most flowers. Without having competition of lots of bines per twine these one or two bines per string were easily able to set bunches of flower sets without extra vegetation choking them out. Growing vertical during the first half and then angling the second flowering top half of growth, I think this is also similar to low stress training in cannabis where more of the plant that would otherwise be shaded in a vertical position is now exposed to more sunlight. I was amazed to see how it grew with such a small leaf to cone ratio. I did not use anything other than a couple doses of miracle gro and well amended soil. I only used beastie blooms 0-50-30 by fox farms in small doses once burrs already began forming. Additionally, I planted these rhizomes early March. That gave them time to get rooted and sprouting by springtime.

 

[LagerLover78]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Beerisgud]

@myndflyte at least you got something to throw in a small batch! What variety?

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Hops need sun. Lots of sun.

 

[Beerisgud]

@Tobor_8thMan No doubt that hops love sun. I’m honestly surprised at how well mine grew with mostly morning sun exposure. I think if you have less sunlight don’t be discouraged. They will grow fuller eventually. They are strong plants. If they get at least 4-5 hrs straight direct sun exposure and it’s not speckled thru trees I would still plant hops just for the small harvest and hop shoot harvest in spring

 

[myndflyte]

@myndflyte at least you got something to throw in a small batch! What variety?

I planted Cascade.

 

[LagerLover78]

Was just outside and saw one of these guys on the deck next to one

one of my plants