2009 Hop garden picture thread.

[Seabee John]

Minnesota Hops!
Here are the latest photos, all are leafing out minus one cascade that I ordered late... been in the ground about a week and a half and already 6 tiny shoots are poking through!

Here's the progress:

one half of my cascade crown:

the other half:

Fuggels: just look at all the shoots!

Goldings: Trying hard to catch up

Nuggets:

All in all things are going well... watering everyday and using plenty of cow poo.

 

[Dloucks]

Seabee.....that is a beautiful sight!

 

[Schlenkerla]

Just taken today...

Cascade Bush..

Nugget Bush...

Need to trim both

Finally added twine and the pole. (The Golden IBU Pole!)

 

[humann_brewing]

Just taken today...

Cascade Bush..

Nugget Bush...

Need to trim both

Finally added twine and the pole. (The Golden IBU Pole!)

Holy crap, those things look like shrubs. How deep did you plant those? I am beginning to wonder if my 4 maybe 5 inches is too deep with the above ground result I am getting.

 

[Schlenkerla]

I planted them 2-4" above ground and covered them with bark mulch. The ground settled flat and now they are where they are...

This is what I did. Dug a 18" wide hole 12" deep. Dropped in one 40# bag of compost/manure and then topped it with one bag of black dirt. Did a karate chop on the top of the mound to make a slit. Dropped the rhizome horizontal into the slit. Covered it up maybe with 2" max with dirt. Then covered the mound with bark mulch and water regularly for the first year. Eventually the mound settles flat.

The root base has gone flat-out crazy. I clipped 8-10 rhoot cuttings in March to give away rhizomes and they are spreading like a MOFO. I am kind of shocked about vigorous they are being that its still April.

Be advised this is year 4 for these bad-boys.

I need to trim those bushes they are too damned hairy!

 

[Schlenkerla]

Holy crap, those things look like shrubs. How deep did you plant those? I am beginning to wonder if my 4 maybe 5 inches is too deep with the above ground result I am getting.

They will be OK if your soil drains well. Water the hell out them if this is your first year. If you want to do it organic like let me know I use the zap-tap-crap lauter tun. Works great, maybe too good.

This is a nested-two-bucket setup. Top bucket is drilled with tons of holes to make a false bottom. I add about two shovel fulls of compost/manure to this. Then top off with water and cover it to perculate/ferment. A black bucket is best for this since it help with the heat attraction. Then I let it drain onto the root-base. Good $hit for your rhizomes. The hose is 3/8" jammed into 5/16 hole. No leaks to note. No valve to clog.

 

[humann_brewing]

They will be OK if your soil drains well. Water the hell out them if this is your first year. If you want to do it organic like let me know I use the zap-tap-crap lauter tun. Works great, maybe too good.

This is a nested-two-bucket setup. I add about two shovel fulls of compost/manure to this. Then top off with water and cover it to perculate/ferment. Black bucket is best for this since it help with the heat attraction. Then I let it drain onto the root-base. Good $hit for your rhizomes.

I should have built a mound for them but maybe I will dig them up and do that, I don't know at this point. I have really hard pan dirt here, but I dug the hols about 12-16" deep and filled in with compost and then planted about 4" deep so they have soft dirt below them for about a foot or so.

I will take some pictures this weekend but this is what most of them are going to climb

I also checked out your 2008 report, that is awesome!

 

[HBHoss]

you may have quite a job training the bines... they like to follow the sun as they grow vertically. It looks as though the angle from the planters to the post will be less than 45 deg. As long as the sun is on the opposite side of your post as the planters, they should follow better, but these buggers like to reach for the sun. Keep taking photos, it looks like it will really look cool in full bloom. Kind of like a hill side hop circus tent.

P.S., the first year, water them babies daily... if not twice!

The sun will be behind (to the left in the photo) and straight over head. It'll be interesting to see how it works out this year.
Thanks for the watering tip. I will do that.

 

[Schlenkerla]

I should have built a mound for them but maybe I will dig them up and do that, I don't know at this point. I have really hard pan dirt here, but I dug the hols about 12-16" deep and filled in with compost and then planted about 4" deep so they have soft dirt below them for about a foot or so.

I will take some pictures this weekend but this is what most of them are going to climb

I also checked out your 2008 report, that is awesome!

My dirt here was all red-clay. The only black dirt on my property is in planters or the holes I dug for the hops. It sounds like you did alright. I wouldn't dig them up. Water them well and let them do their thing. They will grow well if you have the water & sunlight for them.

 

[anderj]

Just taken today...

Cascade Bush..

Nugget Bush...

Need to trim both

Finally added twine and the pole. (The Golden IBU Pole!)

Is it going to be as droopy this year, I remember checking your pics last summer! It looked like you had a sturgeon on.
-Ander

 

[Schlenkerla]

Is it going to be as droopy this year, I remember checking your pics last summer! It looked like you had a sturgeon on.
-Ander

Hopefully not. I upgraded my posts to AL antennae posts. I really like the 4x4 wood post but SWMBO pitched a fit about the appearance. Can't figure why. Wood is so classic in appearance. fingers x-ed

 

[nystevecf]

Where are you guys getting those "keg buckets" so cheap?

 

[Eves]

I have nothing to photograph yet. Just planted my rhizomes last weekend. Sadly I had stored my rhizomes in the fridge for 3 weeks due to nasty weather. My centenial and williamette 'appeared' healthy but the cascade looked a little dry by the time I was able to plant them. Thankfully hops are supposedly hardy plants.

Funny thing is I still haven't figured out how in the world I am going to attach twine or anything else to the roof of my house.

 

[Schlenkerla]

I have nothing to photograph yet. Just planted my rhizomes last weekend. Sadly I had stored my rhizomes in the fridge for 3 weeks due to nasty weather. My centenial and williamette 'appeared' healthy but the cascade looked a little dry by the time I was able to plant them. Thankfully hops are supposedly hardy plants.

Funny thing is I still haven't figured out how in the world I am going to attach twine or anything else to the roof of my house.

You don't have to... I use tomato cages and one big pole and two smaller ones on either side. The strings are multi-stranded and connected all together in an "A" shape. I also put three strings going up from the cages to the main line. Its pretty simple.

 

[calpyro]

Pic of hop garden this AM:

 

[HoppyDaze]

wow; those got off to a good early start!

 

[DBbrewing]

Here is my 1st year hops, this is my Northern Brewer;

 

[HoppyDaze]

Centennial

Cascade

Nugget

Willamette

 

[svengoat]

WOW those are HUGE... What year are those??

 

[calpyro]

WOW those are HUGE... What year are those??

Second year

 

[adamjab19]

My Centennial hops. So I have one rhizome, one planter. You could say I put all of my "hop" into one basket. I will attach a hook somewhere along the facia so they have at least 12 feet to grow and then I will start to lower the string. The side of the house gets sun for at least 5 hours a day but the planter gets sun all day long.

 

[Battery_BreweryNJ]

1st of the bunch...
Northern Brewer

 

[bmorris1]

Got a question for the seasoned growers out there. Has anyone noticed first year bines coming up away from where the rhizome was planted?

I have some Zeus, Cascade and Centennials that were all planted in the center of my planting circles (over 18 inches diameter) and added mulch on top.

Each sprout/bine is coming up near the outer edge of the mulch, and seem to be healthy.

I just found it strange that they are poppin up 9 inches away?

Anyone ever see this before?

 

[anderj]

As they get older they will shoot bines out a couple of feet away. As soon as I see that I get out the clippers but with a first year plant I would just let them do their thing. My first year I made the mistake of putting the trellis up and putting in the twine before they came up. They came up quite a ways away from where I thought and it took a few weeks (maybe a month) before they were long enough to reach the twine.

I believe that this is one of the reasons for planting them in a hill in the first place. As the crown continues to send out shoots laterally, they end up popping out of the side of the mound. They can then be monitored and nipped in the bud so to speak before they take over.

 

[bmorris1]

cool, just thought I was going nuts. I did the same, buried them (in the center), mulched, then ran my lines.

Then they come up a little ways away. Just thought it was crazy for first year bines.

 

[flyangler18]

First year Cascade (foreground) and Chinook (background) doin' their thing:

 

[humann_brewing]

My Willamette is the only one getting about 8 hours of direct sun right now and you can really tell. It has grown quite a bit more since this picture last Saturday too. The others are probably 5-6 hours of direct sun.

 

[greatfookin]

I used chain-link top rail, attached to existing fenceposts.

Cascades

My asst. gardener Ian with his favorite hops

My neighbor thought I was putting up a net to keep balls from going over the fence.

All hops 2nd year- 1 Sterling, 2 Centennials, 1 Cascade, 1 Willamette, 1 Zeus, and 2 Fuggles.
Next year all will be leaving the pots, and planted in hills right where they are now.

 

[humann_brewing]

Great first post there!

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Got a question for the seasoned growers out there. Has anyone noticed first year bines coming up away from where the rhizome was planted?

I have some Zeus, Cascade and Centennials that were all planted in the center of my planting circles (over 18 inches diameter) and added mulch on top.

Each sprout/bine is coming up near the outer edge of the mulch, and seem to be healthy.

I just found it strange that they are poppin up 9 inches away?

Anyone ever see this before?

No surprise at all! After the first year that twiggy little rhisome you planted can spread out in every direction and by the end of the year may reach 4 foot across. Keep in mind, that while these plants are vigorously reaching for the skies above ground, they are also reaching out below ground to set their anchors, propogate, and multiply.

After a couple years, it is good practice to think about root pruning, lest a few years go by and you find you have hops emerge 10 to 15 feet away from where you originally planted.

I dunno the actual stats but, I have read that the hop plant puts anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of it's energy into propogating itself underground while the plant is also focusing itself on upward growth. Once it starts putting on laterals and burrs, it starts to switch gears and gradually focuses it's strength on the bloom production.