2014 Hop garden photo thread

[BigRock947]

First year Crystal Hops...pretty excited considering the late start and the crazy weather in Central Iowa this year.

 

[Strecker25]

Here's another couple shots of my first year cascades. Horizontal growing is a pain in the ass during the initial growth but really cool once cones appear. Hopefully next year they go all the way across.




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[beerinasippicup]

A little late, but here is the update from the ale and metal tv hop garden.

 

[Strecker25]

And one of the whole trellis for perspective. The trellis is about 8 ft tall. The other bed has tomatoes, basil and chiles mostly. Habaneros, jalapeños, and a Carolina reaper.



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[Schecter]

My baby cascade...

 

[dtgrdn]

updated pics of my first year hops, it's looking like a good first year crop!

 

[fuzzy2133]

First year cascade from rhizome. Glad I stopped by the mother in-laws house, might have lost all of the hops. Sorry the second pic is blurry. Last pic is the harvest I was not expecting to get.

 

[Jerf]

Here's my 2 best producers this year. Both first year plants. The first photo are my 2 Cascade plants, the 2nd photo are my 2 Columbus plants. I'm pretty sure I'll have enough for a couple smash IPA's

 

[bristela]

Here's my 2 best producers this year. Both first year plants. The first photo are my 2 Cascade plants, the 2nd photo are my 2 Columbus plants. I'm pretty sure I'll have enough for a couple smash IPA's

Lovely looking plants Can I ask if you saw any male flowers on your Columbus?

Cheers

 

[kirbcheck]

Lovely looking plants Can I ask if you saw any male flowers on your Columbus?

Cheers

I know this question isn't aimed at me, but I have a ton on both of my Columbus plants.

 

[thaymond]

My CTZ has recently hermed out on me. Not sure what the cause of stress is, as she is also, visually, my biggest producer. No herming on Nugget, none on cascade (which was surely my most stressed plant, with watering and root rot issues, along with our weird mild summer) and a few boy parts on my Chinook. I can't quite figure out why, but my high alphas this year went hermie on me.

My CTZ has tons of cones. She also has the same manliness as Chuck Norris... Imagine the harvest if I got all female flowers!

 

[yewtah-brewha]

My hops are not anywhere close to the size of these beasts. Chinnok 2nd year took this pic today, Its only August 8th so I am still hopefull, but I' worries birds will get to them before they reach maturity

 

[day_trippr]

Birds? What kind of birds?

We have a friggin' bird menagerie around here but they never show any interest in the hops...

Cheers!

 

[kirbcheck]

My CTZ has recently hermed out on me. Not sure what the cause of stress is, as she is also, visually, my biggest producer. No herming on Nugget, none on cascade (which was surely my most stressed plant, with watering and root rot issues, along with our weird mild summer) and a few boy parts on my Chinook. I can't quite figure out why, but my high alphas this year went hermie on me.

My CTZ has tons of cones. She also has the same manliness as Chuck Norris... Imagine the harvest if I got all female flowers!

CTZ is by far my best producer too. I've gotten just over 2 oz dried from it so far with 95% still on the plants.

As I understand it, it doesn't take much to stress them into playing for both teams. I'm not too worried about it. I can filter any seeds out before they hit my pump.

 

[bristela]

My CTZ has recently hermed out on me. Not sure what the cause of stress is, as she is also, visually, my biggest producer. No herming on Nugget, none on cascade (which was surely my most stressed plant, with watering and root rot issues, along with our weird mild summer) and a few boy parts on my Chinook. I can't quite figure out why, but my high alphas this year went hermie on me.

My CTZ has tons of cones. She also has the same manliness as Chuck Norris... Imagine the harvest if I got all female flowers!

My understanding is that you will not see both male and female flower on a hop plant if it is diploid not matter how stressed it becomes. They just don't have the genetics for it. Columbus, Tomahawk, and Zeus are triploid and thus can produce both. In my experience, the Columbus must be very sensitive to stress if that's the only reason it produces male flowers. Mine has produced male flowers both last year and this. Last year in particular was very free of stress. It was a first year plant from a rhizome so perhaps that was enough. This year we had a bit of dry spell, during which I wasn't that great about watering them.

I have been picking the male flowers off as soon as I see them as I don't want them pollinating my other varieties and having them go to seed. I suspect that is not good for hop cone yield. Don't know for sure though. On the other hand, great if you actually want to breed your own hop varieties.

If you're interested, I've written a post on complicated plant sex.

 

[weirdbeerguy]

8ozs today off of my Cascade. Pulled 4ozs earlier and have at least that much left with new burrs still forming.

 

[1fast636]

Can't waitin get home and see what my centennial is doing they were starting to smell amazing before we left and getting fat as hell. Pic coming tomorrow

 

[kirbcheck]

I have been picking the male flowers off as soon as I see them as I don't want them pollinating my other varieties and having them go to seed. I suspect that is not good for hop cone yield. Don't know for sure though. On the other hand, great if you actually want to breed your own hop varieties.

If you're interested, I've written a post on complicated plant sex.

I was under the impression that male flowers from a hermaphroditic hop plant were sterile. Therefore, it's unnecessary to pick the males to prevent cross pollination.

I could easily be wrong, just thought I read that somewhere.

 

[sablesurfer]

Chinook came down today. (Columbus just seems to not want to dry for picking, so maybe next week.)

 

[sablesurfer]

8ozs today off of my Cascade.
View attachment 216687

Those look very green still. They don't even look to be at the papery stage.

When does everyone pick their stuff? I have been very selective about picking ones that only feel a bit crunchy less springy dense.

 

[kirbcheck]

Those look very green still. They don't even look to be at the papery stage.

When does everyone pick their stuff? I have been very selective about picking ones that only feel a bit crunchy less springy dense.

I usually wait until I see quite a few that are Brown and have the paper feeling. I seem to always get excited and pull down some that would benefit from a few more days too... but at my pace I've already harvested cones from the same plant 4 times... after today's harvest dries I'll have pulled about 4oz of dried CTZ.

 

[bristela]

I was under the impression that male flowers from a hermaphroditic hop plant were sterile. Therefore, it's unnecessary to pick the males to prevent cross pollination.

I could easily be wrong, just thought I read that somewhere.

Do you remember where you read this? I'm not expending a lot of energy doing this but would nice to know if I'm wasting my time I didn't do anything with them last year as I didn't know what they were. Didn't get any cross pollination that I noticed. Seems like a strange reaction to stress if they're not useful for anything but then plants can be super weird. You've given me some new googling and reading to do

 

[WoolyBooger]

My second Columbus harvest this summer. 6 oz dried weight. Hoping to get a third harvest in, we'll see...


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[1fast636]

Came home to these babies smelling amazing still soft and spongy






Then the wife surprised me with this awesome 12 pack

 

[mhurst111]

My 2nd year cascade - still feel wet and spring back a little when squished. Maybe another week or so.

 

[tripplehazzard]

picking tomorrow!!

 

[BPO]

Second year Cascade. 2 oz dried. Lost about half to spider mites

 

[yewtah-brewha]

Birds? What kind of birds?

We have a friggin' bird menagerie around here but they never show any interest in the hops...

Cheers!

Not sure on the bird type we have robins and black birds to name a few. last year I had the plant in a different location. when I came home from work early in the morning I would scare them away from the top of it where they were flowering the best. the hops were real small last year less than a dime size.

They don't seem to be bothering it much this year except on the top I noticed it had been clipped by a bird and has stopped climbing, but its 15' and new bines are coming up. I have 2 shoots climbing the trellis and will soon be one more. I will cut the rest back.

This is its second year, I'm hopeing it will be harvest time in a few weeks. not sure if the new bines will produce anything this year, but I'll let them grow.

 

[BigGoat]

I wonder if the birds were eating insects of of the bines. They might have been helping.

 

[kirbcheck]

Only two animals have ever disturbed my hops. 1. My dog, who dug up a few plants and ate them. 2. A squirrel that consistently pulls the cuttings I try to propagate out the jars they're in. (I think it's more out of curiosity than anything else.) The dog learned to leave the hops alone. The squirrel not so much... I might have to get out my old pellet gun...