2014 Hop garden photo thread

[day_trippr]

The Cascade are in, thus ending three weekends of hop pickin'. Woof.
Mercifully just a little over 9 pounds wet as I'm almost out of room in my hop freezer as it is (#FirstWorldHomeHopGrowerProblems )

Cheers!

 

[Cainmos]

It's hard to tell the scale from the pictures but the planters are decent sized: The blue rectangular ones are 120L rubbermaid containers, the beige one is 190L and the circular brown one is a 25" planter from home depot. The trellises are all 8' tall with exception of the hallertau (the 25" circular planter) as its mounted on my neighbour's balcony making it 12' tall (he's from Czech Republic and down with the cause). I used potting soil in all the planters, I watered pretty much every day (soaking them with a garden hose until water was running out the base) and I used a powdered 20-20-20 fertilizer I got at homedepot every couple weeks.

...and Willamette. That variety is a beast and doesn't seem to care how small the container or trellis is. It had cones starting at waist height all the way to the top. The only downside is its willamette!

A guy I know from the homebrew club has a hydroponic setup and has spectacular results. He got more than twice as much off of first year plants than you should be able to get off of mature bines grown in the ground. I'll get him to post some pictures.

I'm very interested to see how they were set up in hydroponics. I have limited space growing mine and do have experience with hydro for my veggies. It can definitely grow stuff at a rapid pace.

 

[Kahless]

These are my first year Prima Donna (First Gold):
The cones are coming in; hopefully they will make it by the end of the season:

The cones are very pink at the top:

As a first year growth I let it grow almost wild to get a good root system so I'll be overjoyed to see any fully developed cones! I gave some of the lower side-bines some rope to wind around to keep things spaced out and reduce any chance of mildew etc.

edit: that's Chives underneath just in case anyone thinks I've been *that* lazy on weeding

 

[gbx]

As a first year growth I let it grow almost wild to get a good root system so I'll be overjoyed to see any fully developed cones! I gave some of the lower side-bines some rope to wind around to keep things spaced out and reduce any chance of mildew etc.

tiny little malformed cones as all my first year hallertau put out last year and my first year saaz put out this. This year the hallertau is a monster. ...but as every homebrewer knows, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GROW HOPS IN SCOTLAND. Your little cones are in violation of the BJCP 2008 style guide!

 

[thaymond]

edit: that's Chives underneath just in case anyone thinks I've been *that* lazy on weeding

Chives at the base seemed to keep away pests for me. Plus it's helped when I wanted some fresh Chives for some dishes!

Is prima Donna supposed to have pink cones? I've never seen anything like it. I Wonder what's causing that.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I have 3 second year plants, they seem to have shifted this year. Honestly i think i missed a few days watering when i thought my automatic sprinklers were on but werent when it was warm. My cascade had a crapload of flowers, but they were all pretty small, compared to last year there were a good amount of 1.5" cones, this year the Columbus took the big cone record.

Last year dried was 12oz Cascade, 4oz Newport, 4 oz Columbus.

This year dried was 8.5oz Cascade, 5.5oz Newport, 19.4oz Columbus!

]

Columbus flower as long as my longest finger.

 

[Kahless]

Wow, that is long!
Excellent drying screens. As it's a first year harvest I'm going to use my BIAB bag hung up as a drying screen.

tiny little malformed cones as all my first year hallertau put out last year and my first year saaz put out this. This year the hallertau is a monster. ...but as every homebrewer knows, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GROW HOPS IN SCOTLAND. Your little cones are in violation of the BJCP 2008 style guide!

hehe, yeah I know, right? I'll just have to get rid of them somehow... Maybe throw them in some boiling wort? Those cones are still growing; you can see it day by day. There are some tiny ones lower down that don't seem to be up to much though. I'm thinking of getting some Bramling Cross for next year (planting at the far end of the plot) as they are said to need a good winter period, which they will certainly get.

Chives at the base seemed to keep away pests for me. Plus it's helped when I wanted some fresh Chives for some dishes!

Is prima Donna supposed to have pink cones? I've never seen anything like it. I Wonder what's causing that.

Yup, Cheese and Chive sandwhich for lunch today
I've seen some others have the tiniest bit of brown/pink at the top but not as much as this. I've no idea what's causing it.

 

[nextgenxx]

So about 3 weeks ago I clipped the top of my hop bine at harvest and threw it into a small vase of water to see if it would root. Sure enough it started to grow some roots. Now my question is can I transplant this into soil and should it grow?

 

[COEBRA]

So about 3 weeks ago I clipped the top of my hop bine at harvest and threw it into a small vase of water to see if it would root. Sure enough it started to grow some roots. Now my question is can I transplant this into soil and should it grow?

View attachment 224993

Worth a shot! Let us know if it grows and if it gets cones!

 

[kirbcheck]

So about 3 weeks ago I clipped the top of my hop bine at harvest and threw it into a small vase of water to see if it would root. Sure enough it started to grow some roots. Now my question is can I transplant this into soil and should it grow?

Yes. I've been doing it with all my cuttings this summer. It's called propagation I believe. You can buy hormones from garden stores to help it root. I'm having trouble with centennial but Chinook have taken off...

 

[kirbcheck]

So about 3 weeks ago I clipped the top of my hop bine at harvest and threw it into a small vase of water to see if it would root. Sure enough it started to grow some roots. Now my question is can I transplant this into soil and should it grow?

Yes. I've been doing it with all my cuttings this summer. It's called propagation I believe. You can buy hormones from garden stores to help it root. I'm having trouble with centennial but Chinook have taken off...

 

[newtonjason]

Hey Everyone, great posts here. looks like a lot of nice hop growing out there.

I figured i'd post what I have to inspire anyone with limited or no soil to plant in. I plant mine in some sub-irrigated planters (planters with water space at bottom) on my balcony / roof top

I planted 12 plants and they all did really well. this year I harvested about 16 pounds dried weight between the 12 of them (8 x 2nd year plants and 4 x 1st years)

Anyway here are a few pics and a link to my writeup

http://brewbot.ca/growing-hops-on-a-balcony.html

 

[1fast636]

Now that is working with what you got, great grow my friend that is awesome, have you searched your house on Google maps to see what it looks like from above

 

[theck]

I picked my hops off the vine and have a question, do I snip the vine at the ground then what do I do with the rest sticking out of the ground?

 

[kenglish427]

Second harvest on first year Florida plants. back are centennial, front are cascade. not bad for the location in my opinion.

 

[mattmmille]

So, a friend had a bunch of Cascade hops. First harvest, I picked some beauties and vacuum sealed them in canning jars, fresh, and put them in the freezer. I have heard this is not good. Opinions? I was invited back again, but the hops were mostly dried on the vine and brown, They still smell great, some I brought a bunch home. There was some morning dew, so I'm making sure they are completely dry before I do anything with them. Then what? Vacuum seal in bags and leave at room temp?

 

[gbx]

I picked my hops off the vine and have a question, do I snip the vine at the ground then what do I do with the rest sticking out of the ground?

If there are still leaves let it go until it dies. Once everything has turned brown, cut it back to a few inches above the soil.

 

[Ianflean]

First year Cascade plants in North Germany. Got about 5/600g dry!




Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Ianflean]

600g. But don't expect much in the first year, eh?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[sablesurfer]

So about 3 weeks ago I clipped the top of my hop bine at harvest and threw it into a small vase of water to see if it would root. Sure enough it started to grow some roots. Now my question is can I transplant this into soil and should it grow?

View attachment 224993

Only magnum didn't reroot for some reason. I put root stimulator in all my bottles and they went to town. Had to give away all the extras I made 'just in case'.

 

[sablesurfer]

I picked my hops off the vine and have a question, do I snip the vine at the ground then what do I do with the rest sticking out of the ground?

You don't have too. I assume you are in an area with longer growing season that we have in middle of country. So you could leave them so they put some nutrients away in roots for winter. I cut my down to about 5-6ft with leaves and draped those around. (Had to take down my growing set up as we left town for a while and I wouldn't have been able to water to keep 18ft bines happy.)

 

[bristela]

So, a friend had a bunch of Cascade hops. First harvest, I picked some beauties and vacuum sealed them in canning jars, fresh, and put them in the freezer. I have heard this is not good. Opinions? I was invited back again, but the hops were mostly dried on the vine and brown, They still smell great, some I brought a bunch home. There was some morning dew, so I'm making sure they are completely dry before I do anything with them. Then what? Vacuum seal in bags and leave at room temp?

I have successfully stored my hops in the freezer without drying. As long as they go directly into the boiling wort (don't thaw before hand) I don't see that you should have any problems. I recorded my efforts for posterity here: http://hopstarter.blogspot.com/2013/09/brewing-pt2.html. This was easily the best beer I'd made up to that point, even if I do say so myself (actually lots of other people told me too).

Have frozen this year's harvest too. Haven't gotten around to using it yet. Just got a delivery of ingredients today so hopefully soon.

 

[mattmmille]

I have successfully stored my hops in the freezer without drying. As long as they go directly into the boiling wort (don't thaw before hand) I don't see that you should have any problems. I recorded my efforts for posterity here: http://hopstarter.blogspot.com/2013/09/brewing-pt2.html. This was easily the best beer I'd made up to that point, even if I do say so myself (actually lots of other people told me too).

Have frozen this year's harvest too. Haven't gotten around to using it yet. Just got a delivery of ingredients today so hopefully soon.

Hey! That's good to know! I'm going to go read your blog entry in just a minute. So, now I have the vac sealed frozen ones and I have some that are dried. Do you think the frozen ones would do better as early/bittering additions and the dried ones for the late additions and dry hopping?