2011 Hop Garden Picture Thread

[trevorc13]

You have a ways to go before harvest.It looks like you are just out of burr stage into cone.Looking good

Yeah I'm going to wait as long as possible, to make sure I don't pick them too soon. Waiting patiently. Looking forward to harvest day!

 

[RustyZymurgy]

Mid august growth.

 

[gbx]

Here are some pics of my first year hops I'm growing on my south facing Vancouver balcony. The first 2 pics are from June, the last three I took tonight. I ordered my rhizomes from Crannog ales. They were huge and grew like crazy. Nugget, Willamette and Cascade in 100L of potting soil in rubbermaid containers, Centennial and Mt Hood in large pots I already had. I ran lines up to the upstairs balcony and lowered vines into coils over my railing as they hit the top. Cascade is about 20ft long with more than 500 burrs. Next year I'll get rid of at least 2 of the plants as I definitely don't have room for them - I only ordered 5 because of the shipping costs and I didn't know what would grow. If I can't convince my friend to take them, I'll guerrilla plant them in the park. The weather has been crap here this summer (very cold and rainy) and I had some issues with aphids and mold. Lately its been great and I'm finally winning the war with the bugs. These are awesome plants to sit under, drink a pint and watch them grow - on a hot sunny day, they will do half a rotation around the twine in the time it takes to finish a drink.

 

[lschiavo]

Here are some pics of my first year hops I'm growing on my south facing Vancouver balcony. The first 2 pics are from June, the last three I took tonight. I ordered my rhizomes from Crannog ales. They were huge and grew like crazy. Nugget, Willamette and Cascade in 100L of potting soil in rubbermaid containers, Centennial and Mt Hood in large pots I already had. I ran lines up to the upstairs balcony and lowered vines into coils over my railing as they hit the top. Cascade is about 20ft long with more than 500 burrs. Next year I'll get rid of at least 2 of the plants as I definitely don't have room for them - I only ordered 5 because of the shipping costs and I didn't know what would grow. If I can't convince my friend to take them, I'll guerrilla plant them in the park. The weather has been crap here this summer (very cold and rainy) and I had some issues with aphids and mold. Lately its been great and I'm finally winning the war with the bugs. These are awesome plants to sit under, drink a pint and watch them grow - on a hot sunny day, they will do half a rotation around the twine in the time it takes to finish a drink.

Is there a better place to enjoy a beer than under a canopy of hops? Cheers!

 

[bourgeoisbee]

Wow gbx, those put my first year Cascades to shame. Looking great!

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Here are my first year cascades.

 

[unionrdr]

That's def a great place to sit & 'ave a pint,mate. I figure that since they're of the Canabinacea family,they would tend to grow quickly. Same family,different genus.

 

[Kylito87]

Went home again this weekend. Checked the status of my hops this is the cascade. The nugget and Chinook pretty much look like they did a few weeks ago with some nugs hanging on them. It is clear that the cascade will be the star of what ever brew I do with them. I plan on taking all of the hops from this harvest and making one insane IPA with them . Cheers guys.

 

[lemy]

I did not see one started for this year...

My first year at growing hops and my Centennials look terrific. I have thumb sized cones and I believe I should have enough to make a fresh hop ale for the Yakima Fresh Hop Festival homebrew competition.

To check out the live hop webcam - www.reedbrewing.com

 

[cyclogenesis]

All first year plants, Rhizomes from Northern Brewer

Chinook growing nicely on trellising around the patio

Cascade climbing nicely to create a screen for the deck

Some nice cones developing, no smell yet..

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Here's to the possibility of a second harvest.

 

[rniles]

Here are my first year cascades.

That looks gorgeous! Did the same with my first year hops. Made a harvest ale. Just used the average for the type of hop and it came out quite well. Picked and into the wort within 15 minutes. Yummy.

 

[jeepinjeepin]

That looks gorgeous! Did the same with my first year hops. Made a harvest ale. Just used the average for the type of hop and it came out quite well. Picked and into the wort within 15 minutes. Yummy.

Thanks. Those are in a big Barleywine (with too much chocolate malt) along with some chinook pellets. I am hoping for an all cascade harvest ale from a second harvest. If I am really lucky my Zeus will put out again and it will be a CTZ/Cascade DIPA as big as the hops will allow.

 

[NorthSide]

these are my first year centennials. i planted 3 rhizomes. i know i'm not supposed to expect much of a yield on first year plants, but i'm wondering if i can do something to induce cone production.
should i rdwhahb and wait til next year, or do they look like they might get some cones growing?

 

[MeatyPortion]

Man, the Japanese beetles have been terrible this year for my plants.

 

[zrule]

Hey NorthSide, My First year Centennials didin't do anything. I havested my centennials about a month ago and didn't get much from them this year either. I am located about a 100 miles west of you. My Cascades however were amazing this year. I got 42 OZ from a one string and the bottom third of the second. that consisted of 3 bines each string. Last night I pulled another 22 Oz from the second and have about 2 feet of the top to harvest.

Are the pictures recent, they are really flowering late. You may want to fertilize them as they requre a lot of nitrogen during growing, and flowering.

 

[NorthSide]

zrule - the photos are current. i used miracle grow once and it seemed to work as one of the plants that was turning yellow got a lot healthier. i guess i should use some more and hope for the best.
your cascades sound amazing. thanks for the help.

 

[alfista]

Here are our third year centennial plants. They were first in a barrel outside NYC and were moved to eastern MA last summer. Doing great this year.

 

[jfrank85]

Ok first year harvest. 1oz centennial, .25oz chinook (smallest rhizome), and no measurable amount of cascade The cascade had the most vegital at about 4 bines per line thats why i think it didnt produce as much as the other two, but im sure its roots are massive. Centennial was the tallest at 15' with one bine per line. All in all i am quite pleased with the results this year and am quite excited for next years harvest, im sure it will be larger (weather permitting).

 

[zrule]

Hey NorthSide, My First year Centennials didin't do anything. I havested my centennials about a month ago and didn't get much from them this year either. I am located about a 100 miles west of you. My Cascades however were amazing this year. I got 42 OZ from a one string and the bottom third of the second. that consisted of 3 bines each string. Last night I pulled another 22 Oz from the second and have about 2 feet of the top to harvest.

Are the pictures recent, they are really flowering late. You may want to fertilize them as they requre a lot of nitrogen during growing, and flowering.

Took another 5 gallon bucket last night from my cascades. Up to over 100 oz. from 4 strings 3 bines each. Have a few left probably about 10 oz. I have yet to harvest the Chinook. Estimate these at only around 10 oz total from two strings 3 bines each.

 

[day_trippr]

Anticipating Irene, today I went ahead and harvested most of my first year Centennial, Chinook and Cascades. I picked all of the most ripe cones and left the rest, hopefully for a post-apocalypse harvest.

Took some "Before" pics, fwiw...
Centennial on the right, Chinook on the left, with a Trumpet Vine in between.

The Cascades, hiding behind a Butterfly Bush and hemmed in by a Trumpet Vine.

Cascades close up.

Chinooks and Centennials looked similar (hit the 10 pic/post limit so I had to cut those)....

Anyway, I needed to come up with a way to dry the cones, so I built three stackable frames out of 1x3 pine, with routed slots to hold some borrowed window screens.

With the screens ready to go I went out and picked like there was no tomorrow (because there might just not be one for the hops!) I harvested about 3/4 of the Cascades, 2/3 of the Chinooks, and nearly all of the Centennials.

Not too bad for first years!

Once I had weighed the hops, I set a pair of box fans on milk crates on the shop floor, positioned a couple of saw horses over them, then started assembling the drying screens. Bottom layer was the Centennials...

...followed by the Chinooks...

...and topped with the Cascades.

I thumb-tacked some screening over the top of the stack to keep the Cascades from floating away.

Finally, I surrounded the stack with some plywood panels to help contain the wind a bit. Got a good enough flow through the stack to float some loose Cascade petals so I think this is going to work just fine!

As it turned out, it was probably a good thing that Irene got me moving, because there were a heck of a lot of ripe cones to pick that I might have let go too long otherwise.

The whole house smells amazing right now...

Cheers!

 

[DrJerryrigger]

yeah, I'm planing some picking early tomorrow. I'm not sure if everything is ready, but it's better to pick it too soon that for it to end up two counties over.

 

[kbuzz]

That is a phenomenal harvest for first years...just one plant for each - Cascade, Centennial and Chinooks??

Puts my first year Centennial harvest to shame...congrats!! And good luck with the storm...

 

[mthompson]

Mine are starting come around.

I found them last year growing along an old fence role while dove hunting. They were way to dry then, but when I cracked them open there was lots of lupulin glands and they smell really good.

I followed a few strong bines to their origin, then marked them for the spring. I built a simple trellis; 8' green ground post, 18' bamboo pole, stainless hose clamps to attach to post, and some twine. The point where the bines merge in the picture is about 9 ft.

I am going to send some in the get tested, so we know kinda what they are.

***disclaimer***
Before you guys jump on me for "wild " hops....I am in an area that grew a lot of commercial hops 100 years ago, on an old fence row that has been here longer than the oldest farmer (96) around here can remember.....not out in some remote forest.

They are definitely brewing hops.





*edit.....not sure why the pictures are sideways. This was sent from DROIDX using the HBT app.

 

[mthompson]

Hmmmm....they are still sideways after I rotated them in my gallery....

 

[mthompson]

Here....should work through the main site using photobucket.

 

[day_trippr]

That is a phenomenal harvest for first years...just one plant for each - Cascade, Centennial and Chinooks??

Puts my first year Centennial harvest to shame...congrats!! And good luck with the storm...

Nah - that would have been even more phenomenal I actually planted four tiny rhizomes of each variety back in April. And when I say "tiny", I mean no bigger around than a #2 pencil and about the same length, totally white, with barely any nodes.

I actually was a bit disappointed with how they arrived (from Midwest, fwiw) and frankly didn't have a lot of hope for them, but they all sprouted one good bine each.

When I did the picking I noticed the distribution of cones was far from uniform. One of the Cascade bines only had like four cones, another had only a few dozen; one of the Centennials had zero and another had a couple of dozen; and one of the Chinooks had just a handful, while another had a couple of dozen.

So, basically, nearly all of the cones for each hop type came from just two bines. Thus I can totally understand how some folks go through their first season with little to nothing to show for the effort.

Hoping next year the laggards get their sh!t together

Checked the dryer this afternoon and gave the cones a stir. They're already much lighter than when I loaded the screens, so tomorrow I'll weight them out and if I've hit the 20% point I'll be vac-bagging and putting them in the freezer 'til I get a chance to use 'em...

Cheers!

 

[gbx]

Here are some new pics of my first year balcony grown container hops. I have a ton (not literally)of cones now. The first pic is of the Willamette. I think they are ready or really close...they smell awesome now. The second pic is of the tangled mass of all 5 plants. I didn't concern myself with keeping them separate as I didn't think I'd get anything first year. They will have to be sorted by ripeness and smell when i pick them. The last pic is of the multitude of cascade cones. They are still tiny and already are starting to smell nice

 

[day_trippr]

Two days of drying got the weight of the cones down between 20-25% of wet, so I went ahead and bagged 'em up. Ended up with 6 ounces of Cascade, 5 ounces of Chinook, and 4 ounces of Centennial.

Don't have a Foodsaver, but just for grins I rigged up a thin nozzle to my shop vac and sucked nearly all the air out of the freezer bags. Scrunched the bags up pretty well.

Stuffed 'em all in one of my brewery fridge freezer compartments for future use. I figure I can get a couple of 5 gallon batches out of these. If there are any cones left on the bines after Irene gets done thrashing us I'll add them later...

Cheers!

 

[sloanme]

First year fuggles and cascade grown in a container in Calgary. Hope the cold holds off long enough for the harvest!



Fuggles cones