1st Year Hop Experience

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@Beerisgud, Yikes!!! :ghostly:

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Here’s my magnum that I planted on April 16. I planted 5 different varieties. The other 4 were planted mid may
 

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So a few things I’ve learned so far...
The damage that a single Japanese beetle or oriental beetle can do Is pretty devastating. I’m out there daily tending and doing my best to crush any I find. I Fortunately I can reach all areas of my plants pretty easily with the 8ft ladder. Using neem oil/Murphy’s oil soap mix has helped with other pests like aphids. A white fluffy substance forms from planthoppers on the stems and under leaves. This made me think I had mildew at first but noticed the bugs hop away and the spray has helped. I’m maintaining a healthy population of ladybugs and placing them on my hops when I find them around the area. They lay Bunches of Small yellow/orange eggs under leaves so I use caution with the spray. When doing a small scale grow like this it’s important to be vigilant not having excess plants to make up for loss.
When training of the nugget horizontally, I noticed when the plant took the turn back In end of May it slowed its main bine growth and started to focus energy on lateral growth. These arms began to grow as long as 8/9 ft needing more support. That spread allowed more area for cone production now despite having only one bine from this plant.
The chinook looks okay, the late planting definitely took a toll on its growth but it’s growing. I can see why many say no cones the first year. Planting in early March gave the nugget and cascades one heck of a head start.
The cascades have surpassed my expectations and are vigorous, reaching my max height of 18-20 feet. I am now training some downward diagonally on the slack lines attached to the garage. Also noticed my first burrs forming! I may have a decent harvest this year :D
 
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Looking great! Cascades are seriously monsters. You’ll probably have 5+ lbs of dried cascade next year.
 
@Kaz15 I hope they turn out and make it thru the rest of the season. One change I would’ve done is use the 1/4” stuff for the angled lines up to the roof. I may have to wrap n tie em up with it if they stretch any more from these unexpected cones 😬
 
I’d be absolutely shocked if they don’t survive at this point. They all look very healthy and cascades are resistant to mildews.

I switched to the white, nylon twine this year because it doesn’t degrade and seems sturdier to me. Hoping to reuse it next year as well. Admittedly, it’s not as attractive as the brown twine.
 
Nice cones!
My Comet and Tahoma just started showing signs of flowering burrs at the top. About how long is the flowering phase?
 
That’s a great question. I honestly don’t have a great answer. It does appear to depend on the variety. My 3 other plants are all throwing burrs as well, but far behind my cascade. Even though the Cascade is well ahead, I know from experience that the cones take at least a month to ripen. I’ve brewed my wet hop cascade ale the 3rd weekend in August for 3 years in a row, like clockwork.

This year, one bine seems to be ahead of the others. My tentative plan is to harvest and dry those hops once they’re ready, first or second week of August. And then do the wet hop ale once the rest of the flowers are ripe. Nice benefit of not needing to chop the whole thing down at once.
 
Comets
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Tahomas
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3 month mark observations

The 2 Comet and 2 Tahoma have all made their way to the top, 8 and 10 feet respectively. They are thickening up with the side-arms I have also been training up the twine. Flower burrs are appearing more and more each day. I’ve started to add a blooming fertilizer to the feeding regimen. I know it’s been said not to prune the lower foliage of first year rhizomes, but my instincts are telling me I should...at least the first 8-12 inches. Any advice?

The two best things since the 2 month mark are: 1) I installed an automatic watering valve timer and drip lines. This has made life for me and the plants immensely better. All spring I was having to make judgement calls on whether to water or not. I made sure the soil was never dry, but I’m thinking my irregular watering was a big contributor to the hops that eventually died. 2) The companion plants I added from seed to the containers have taken off and actually seem beneficial. The best growers have been the Calendula, Borage, and French Marigold. The Calendula has been the target of some kind of moth that leaves green caterpillars behind. Before the companions were planted, I would find them on the hops, but they seem to prefer the Calendula’s low, broad, juicy leaves. Those caterpillars can really strip a leaf.

Not long after the 2 month mark, I accidentally snapped off the lone, tiny, brittle Hallertauer shoot that looked like it might make it. It did not come back. Ugh. But a funny thing also started to happen with my other Hallertauer that I thought was dead. I think it’s putting out another shoot, but it does not look like a normal hops bine nor have normal hops leaves. It is still small and having to fight with the borage for light. The Cascade has also produced very thin bines with irregular leaves from its damaged brittle original bine. It also has to compete with the french marigold, but al least it has something better to climb.

Hallertauer with Borage
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Cascade with French Marigold
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@Abejazon glad your getting some cones on the first year too! Companion plants like marigolds have been seemingly beneficial. It is good to get the low bushier varieties of any plants you put around the base to prevent crowding young shoots like the cascade and hallertauer. To promote airflow at the base, at their current amount of growth, go ahead and trim anything that is touching the soil, clean up like a foot from the base. The extra greenery is needed this year.
 
Really in love with these plants. I enjoy the frequent inspecting of a plant that I’ve never seen in real life. During cone formation you can see the relation to cannabis. The white pistils form on the burrs similar to young buds. As they mature to familiar cone shape the white pistils are pushed out by newly forming cone leaves and the hairs turn red orange. I have many more cones forming than I expected this year! Here’s a panoramic inside the “spider web” that’s what I’m calling it now @CodeSection
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I do have some spiders and other things hanging around
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Items that have been very helpful to me that I thought I would share.

Precision pruners, honestly a must-have for me
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Tinner’s snips 12” fits gloved hands, makes quick work of wire fencing
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Plastic plant clips that grip twine and keep growth where you want it to go
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Small hand sprayer, handy, safer on ladders, very fine mist for aphids, stream for stunning beetles so I can crush em, a must-have for me
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Lastly, a quality extension sprayer, great for precision watering tight areas, avoids spraying foliage. I like the multi settings for misting my head to stay cool, jet for mixing fertilizer watering cans, shower for gentle washing off foliage of aphids infestation. Another must-have.
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Happy with my design up to the garage. I can pick quite a bit without a ladder. My recycled drying rack with old window screens and a pvc storage rack.
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"During cone formation you can see the relation to cannabis. The white pistils form on the burrs similar to young buds. As they mature to familiar cone shape the white pistils are pushed out by newly forming cone leaves and the hairs turn red orange."

Right on, even the male inflorescence! And just like with cannabis and other dioecious types of plants, the male (staminate) and female (pistillate) reproductive organs develop on separate plants. Good shot of my boy 'Tatoo' and this one showing the characteristic 'burrs' (stigmas = pollen catchers) forming on one of the experimentals from a few years ago:
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After some insane wind from the Tropical Storm Isaias I couldn’t believe my plants are still standing. I’ve never seen such a concentration of trees and limbs down from a storm in all my life. I’ve been without power since and it’s not looking like it will be back up for a couple more days. It’s huge mess of limbs and debris everywhere! Fortunately my garage, fence, and crop were saved from our one red maple in the yard. It’s currently grappled with a massive leaner and now we’ve got a big job on our hands. Hope everyone’s safe out there and hope some of your crops survived!
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Glad your hops survived, and hope your power is back. We only lost it for 24 hours, lots of debris too. My hops survived but they’re attached pretty good to the obelisk I grow them on.
 
@Leezer Good to hear! The diagonal design is pretty vulnerable to wind so I anchored the longest bines with some extra twine and clips before the storm. I’m wondering if it had been a little drier and closer to harvest I might have cones all over the ground. Power came back on but is going in and out as they make repairs in the area. I consider us pretty lucky since we are surrounded by a very tall wood line. No shortage of free firewood this season that’s for sure!
 
@Leezer Good to hear! The diagonal design is pretty vulnerable to wind so I anchored the longest bines with some extra twine and clips before the storm. I’m wondering if it had been a little drier and closer to harvest I might have cones all over the ground. Power came back on but is going in and out as they make repairs in the area. I consider us pretty lucky since we are surrounded by a very tall wood line. No shortage of free firewood this season that’s for sure!

Beerisgud - glad your plants made it through unscathed! Ive found that the plants are pretty hearty and strong. Had a wind storm roll through Michigan and watched it whip the hop plants around pretty wildly. Checked the bines and all is good.

I know I'm late to the discussion on fertilizers and plant food, but thoughtbid mention my procedures. Keeping in mind that I grow in 22" planters on an east facing deck. At the beginning of the season I buy a bag of manure/ hummus mix and a bag of potting soil and top dress at the beginning of the season. That usually lasts into the beginning of summer. I watch the leaves and when the lower leaves start looking a bit pale I dilute a 24/8/16 water soluble plant food down to 3/1/2... you'll nottice some yellow leaves in on 9f the pics attached...I was late to the game on feeding. about a week ago I bought a slightly inverse ratio plant food (9-4-12) and dilute it down by 1/3 to roughly 3/1/4. Using these dilution rates I havent had any issues burning the plants and have pretty decent success. However I did buy a soil test kit to try and figure out what NPK deficiencies are and a bag of bone meal to make up the gap in P levels where needed.

I've got 3rd year Chinook and Challlanger plants that should have pretty good yield this year. Also have a 1st year Centennial some cones and a 1st year Sterling that doesn't look like it's going to produce this year.

The first two pics are the Chinook, the third pic is the Challanger and the fourth and fifth pic are the Centennials.

Great thread! Keep the pics coming!
 

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@LagerLover78 dude hell yeah love seeing some more pics thanks for the input also. I agree with dilution of ferts I’ve learned it’s always best to start low and slow. I’ll be picking up a soil kit before they start coming up next year. It looks like your plants are happy as can be. Great to be able to grow in pots on the deck for close observation and ease of harvest. I wish I purchased centennial rhizomes in place of cascade since they are “super cascade” and would need less in the boil. I think after a few years of testing out the potency of these hops I will swap them out with something unique. Hopefully some delicious patented ones will be available soon. That’s the beautiful thing about these plants dying back to the crown every year. Loving my new hop garden and looking forward to my first full volume all grain batch with homegrown hops. I did a one gal all grain kettle sour and it was such a tease!
 
Great to have am awesome resource like this available to chat and compare notes on our hobby!

I hear ya! I made a 5 gallon pale ale couple weeks ago with some home grown cascades and magnums. It's still carbing and should be ready for consumption in a few days. I did sample a bit the other night. A bit flat, but tasty tasty! Unfortunately, I tried transplanting those two plants in the yard last year...they didn't even break ground and pretty much discentigrated!:mad: Was pretty ticked off...2 years down the drain!

One thing I'm curious about is how to approximate AA levels. I've read a bit on the dilution method and, I want to say I've also heard there are services that will do that for a fee. Worse comes to worse, suppose you could take the average for the strain and adjust up or down for future batches.
 
Taking a closer look at the petunias, marigolds, and other companion plants they have served their duty. I’ve squished about 30 caterpillars on this one pot.
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Nuggets are starting to develop some more, noticeably slower and smaller cones than the cascades
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Chinooks have shown some more growth
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Cascades are looking a full, more open, and duller. No brown tips yet but the crinkle sound is audible. Look at all those cones from just two little rhizomes 5 months ago!
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Lookin' good and green! Appears you'll have some nice product to play with after harvest and drying is done! Well done sir!

How far apart did you plant the companion plants in relation to the hops? How are the snow peas doing? Do the bees love your hop plants in CT as much as they do here in MI?
 
@LagerLover78 Flowers in planters in front of cascades, pot near the Chinook arbor and near the nugget. My rose bush in the front of the garage had been annihilated by Japanese beetles and aphids. Then in all four corners of the hop boxes I put single French marigold plantings. The peas did great into early summer but can’t handle the heat. When I removed them those nugget side arms had a space to climb into. It worked out nicely. I can’t tell if they are eating any bugs or just the honeydew from all the plant hoppers but the bees sure do love hanging around my hops!
 
Sounds like you have hop lovin' bees too! I found 4 bees nests about thr size of golf balls right under the mature plants (Chinnook and Challanger).

Keep those pictures coming! Great job!
 
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I harvested my cascade hops! I did the top half 4 days ago on Friday and then the bottom half on Monday waiting for them to dry a little more on the vine. I dried the top half in the garage, side door open w/ one low powered fan and one high powered away from hops circulating air. It dried slower due to humidity. By day 3 they were dry but still bendy. I took them along with fresh picked bottom half inside in a closed spare bedroom to finish drying with two fans on low. By this morning the bottom half felt as dry in half the time. Another day or so... Anyways, I took 5 oz dry from the upper trays and jumped straight into my first all grain with my homegrown hops! I’ll weigh the remainder as I vacuum package to see my total weight of the cascades. I planned on just doing a smash but I had some fun getting familiar with my new brew day. I did 10lbs 2 row, 8oz steel cut quick oats, 1.25oz cascade and a handful of wet chinook/nuggets @ 60 min, .5oz continuous cascade @ 30-20 min, 1.5oz cascade @ 10 min, Whirlpool 170F 2oz cascade. SafAle US-05. 5 gallons in the fermentor last night. Bubbling away this morning!
 
I harvested my cascade hops! I did the top half 4 days ago on Friday and then the bottom half on Monday waiting for them to dry a little more on the vine. I dried the top half in the garage, side door open w/ one low powered fan and one high powered away from hops circulating air. It dried slower due to humidity. By day 3 they were dry but still bendy. I took them along with fresh picked bottom half inside in a closed spare bedroom to finish drying with two fans on low. By this morning the bottom half felt as dry in half the time. Another day or so... Anyways, I took 5 oz dry from the upper trays and jumped straight into my first all grain with my homegrown hops! I’ll weigh the remainder as I vacuum package to see my total weight of the cascades. I planned on just doing a smash but I had some fun getting familiar with my new brew day. I did 10lbs 2 row, 8oz steel cut quick oats, 1.25oz cascade and a handful of wet chinook/nuggets @ 60 min, .5oz continuous cascade @ 30-20 min, 1.5oz cascade @ 10 min, Whirlpool 170F 2oz cascade. SafAle US-05. 5 gallons in the fermentor last night. Bubbling away this morning!

Thats awesome!
 
As a disclaimer: I’m sort of a haphazard brewer. I do my best to make good beers with the knowledge I have so far. I know I have a lot to learn about brewing still. Even after making a ton of kits and ciders over the last couple years. I haven’t begun to look closer at recipe making, yeast, and water profile. In order to make this brew fit my 8 gallon kettle I added 5.5 gallons and mashed in at 166F mashing at 154 for 60 min. After, fired up the burner, removed the grain bag/fryer basket, placed in another narrow pot where it sat at the top and rinsed 2 gals thru it for a total pre boil of around 7 gal. It was tight and had to watch for boil overs but I wanted to see if i could make 5 gallons of acceptable beer with current equipment.
 
After all that I didn’t even remember to take a gravity reading! o_O
 
I totally understand the haphazardness. I try to make it as simple as possible and focus on cleaning and sanitizing. Once you get a couple AG batches under your belt and get comfortable with the process, it feels less haphazard. I totally get it though, I've been out of the brewing game for a couple years and I'm trying to relearn my process and equipment. I found that going old school and keeping a physical log book to keep notes in has helped. I've had the book since I started brewing back in 2007. Helps to be able to go back and look at recipes and brewhouse processes and notes. That way I can relearn and make adjustments from batch to batch.

I'll be kicking off a batch of Czech Psudo Pilsner in the next day or two...had to delay due to priorities. On that same note I'm trying to make a yeast starter for the 1st time and trying a new yeast.

That's part of the fun of the hobby!
 
Keeping notes is great advice. I save my recipes and all my notes. Looking back is what made me choose to add a little oats and do a whirlpool. Being from CT, the first beer I made was a NEIPA in my tiny one bedroom apartment. Still the favorite one amongst my then girlfriend and friends although it was far from the style with a steeping/extract kit and lots of beginner mistakes. To brew my first all grain, something like my first brew, with first year homegrown hops was a cool “full circle” moment for me. Sittin there in the backyard at our new home with my now wife flickin hop flowers into the kettle. I’ve come a long way and the beers will only get better from here. Soon as it’s kegged and carbed I’ll post the on first pour!
 
I love this thread. I subbed to it awhile back and love when I see I have a new alert for it. I've yet to grow any hops but my wife is really pressuring me to give it a shot next year. I'm afraid that our yard might not be the happiest place for hops, but this thread makes me think I need to give it a shot!
 
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