2008 Iowa Hop Report

[RonRock]

Hello Ted. Welcome to HBT. I'll be sure to check out Beer Crazy.
Thank You,
Ron

 

[Schlenkerla]

Just found this thread. Cool! I'm thinking about planting Hops this spring and was wondering how they would do in Gods Country. AKA-Iowa.

Didn't have time to read the full thread but I will. SWMBO want's dinner.

I'll be in Des Moines this week and plan on checking out the LHBS you got any pointers?

I'm in Des Moines. East Side to be more precise.

To answer your question. They will grow like crazy if you feed and water them every other day during the first year. After that they kind of do it by themselves. I started watering mine regularly after April. This last season I didn't water them at all but it was a really wet spring and summer.

 

[dillon1320]

Susan - Hello, I'm a fellow Iowan (Ames) and have recently gotten into the homebrewing! I'd really like to grow my hops and have a few questions for you about doing so. Do you mind? Where abouts do you live? Do the hops take any special conditions to grow (more or less sun, partial sun, regular watering, etc...) Like I said, I'm pretty new to this, and I'm very new to the concept of growing my own hops, so any information would be great! How long have you been growing? Does it take long after planting the rhizome to produce a large vine that produces hops? Thanks again for your help - Matt from Ames

 

[Schlenkerla]

Susan - Hello, I'm a fellow Iowan (Ames) and have recently gotten into the homebrewing! I'd really like to grow my hops and have a few questions for you about doing so. Do you mind? Where abouts do you live? Do the hops take any special conditions to grow (more or less sun, partial sun, regular watering, etc...) Like I said, I'm pretty new to this, and I'm very new to the concept of growing my own hops, so any information would be great! How long have you been growing? Does it take long after planting the rhizome to produce a large vine that produces hops? Thanks again for your help - Matt from Ames

Susan's the wife... Not me.

Been growing them 3 years going on 4

Getting big vines (actually bines) takes about 2 years. My first year resulted in a 4 oz/ plant but I watered them like crazy and set the soil up for great root growth. I used fertilizer/compost and fresh black dirt.

This was my first year set-up. This picture is from June '06, I believe.

They are easy to grow you just need to be dedicated to regular watering and doing the occasion fertilizing.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Been looking at the bines starting out of the ground this year. I'm gonna have to do some digging & cutting. There too many offshoots coming out right now. My main plants don't need the competition!

All I can do is smile though!

Its pouring cats & dogs and they are predicting 5" of snow.