2016 Hop Growing Thread

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
DurtyChemist said:
Any advice or input would help. Where to put eyelets for the rope, improvements you want to make etc. I saw you say you'll gro them out around the perimeter first instead of up then around.
Any problems with sunlight not getting to sections?
Click to expand...

I placed eyelets up every foot to grow in a zig zag diagonal. This allowed for maximum growth and room to for the plant to breathe. Once they reach the top, I'll go around the box. I considered doing a pyramid at the top of each box, but haven't pulled the trigger in that quite yet. I think that would look awesome.

I have some reason that see little sun, just because it's near a fence and there isn't much spacing of the boxes. If my boxes were spaced more, I wouldn't have any concerns about light. The vast majority of the plants get full sun, so it all evens out in the end.
 
I just put up my trellis today. Here are pics of my 6 plants starting to peek through the rice hulls and hay.

Plant #1 - AlphAroma:
13015575_10209488667280326_4786416204199961065_n.jpg


Plant #2 - AlphAroma:
13006736_10209488667400329_1439086342675439861_n.jpg


Plant #3 - Canterbury Golding:
13043253_10209488667000319_7024324719958070471_n.jpg


Plant #4 - Canterbury Golding:
13000227_10209488666720312_8731086828901694865_n.jpg


Plant #5 - Cluster:
12994528_10209488666120297_1133775905590153227_n.jpg


Plant #6 - Cluster:
12963650_10209488665880291_2308991800723990479_n.jpg


Before the trellis:
12994326_10209488665720287_2466700766494885403_n.jpg


And here is my newly erected trellis:
12994528_10209488664680261_4532704576281511400_n.jpg


No twine strung yet, but I'll get that in a few days or so. The plants don't need it quite yet anyway.
 
I planted two Cascade rhizomes last saturday and today (sunday, 8 days later) the first shoots are coming up from one of them. I have them in planter pots and had to move them into the greenhouse yesterday due to some random snow we got hit with. I'm hoping the second rhizome starts sprouting soon too.

In the 2014 hop growing thread on here, the OP was able to get quite a few ounces of hops pulled from each plant on their 1st year growth. Is that common or should I not expect anything to harvest this year?
 
@TandemTails - I got enough to for several batches off my two first year plants last season. I will be up front and say I took a ton of advice from the community and made very sure my SOIL was right. I truly feel like that was one of the keys for my great first year.
 
10 plants growing strong in central NJ. Some shoots were over a foot till I trimmed the wild ones back to 7-8 shoots per plant. I'll train the best 5 up the strings when they are long enough.

I made my own trellises with sisal twine, and used nylon string only on the outside supports. This way I can cut the twine at the strings, and recycle all but the nylon string. The ones from last fall have already vanished in the compost bin, so they clearly decompose pretty quickly.

Making twine trellises is a pain, and somewhat time consuming though. I respooled 2250 ft onto 5 spools I had, then rolled it plus the 2 nylon strings over a 3" PVC pipe, tying a spreader every 5 turns. Thanks to careful measurement they went up in about 10 minutes each. Each took nearly and hour to wind & tie, but that beat the pants off sitting on the ground between 2 sawhorses as I've done in the past. Ideally they should have been wound onto separate 3" PVC to make unrolling them easier, but I only had 1 pc on hand, and had to make 10 trellises. I tried using all sisal twine last year, but had a few mid year breaks on the outside strands. The nylon strings should solve that.

2016hops.jpg
 
Finally got around to getting all my lines up for my crowns on my main 17ft trellis. Got some of the lines for my first and second year seedlings up on my two 10ft trellises.

IMG_20160418_160904778.jpg
 
TandemTails said:
I planted two Cascade rhizomes last saturday and today (sunday, 8 days later) the first shoots are coming up from one of them. I have them in planter pots and had to move them into the greenhouse yesterday due to some random snow we got hit with. I'm hoping the second rhizome starts sprouting soon too.

In the 2014 hop growing thread on here, the OP was able to get quite a few ounces of hops pulled from each plant on their 1st year growth. Is that common or should I not expect anything to harvest this year?
Click to expand...

I got a good yield from my first year plants. Not rhizomes. GLH sells their field grade plants, and with soil amendments and proper watering, I was able to get good results. Your results will vary depending on weather, fertilizer needs, plants themselves, pests, etc. If you don't expect anything, you may be surprised with something.
 
thaymond said:
I got a good yield from my first year plants. Not rhizomes. GLH sells their field grade plants, and with soil amendments and proper watering, I was able to get good results. Your results will vary depending on weather, fertilizer needs, plants themselves, pests, etc. If you don't expect anything, you may be surprised with something.
Click to expand...


I just planted my crowns and field grade plants. Just have them in plastic pots right now but I'm going to put them in garden boxes pretty soon.

Any tips you can give me to get them going?
 
signpost said:
I just put up my trellis today. Here are pics of my 6 plants starting to peek through the rice hulls and hay.

...

And here is my newly erected trellis:
12994528_10209488664680261_4532704576281511400_n.jpg


No twine strung yet, but I'll get that in a few days or so. The plants don't need it quite yet anyway.
Click to expand...

Awesome looking trellis. Could you tell me (1) what kind of wood that is (2) where did you get the wood (3) what are the dimensions of that wood stock (looks like 3"x3" and (4) how tall that rig is?

I've got one set of rhizomes planted but I'm making another bed and I'm going to need to erect something like that.
 
Day one growth!

I planted four rhizomes exactly one week ago Monday. I went out and looked (only) three times yesterday and saw nothing. Today it was really warm - in the 70's - and sure enough, the little buggers have popped their heads out.

Sorry I've got nothing to show scale, but this was super-close-up - what you're looking at is less than 1/2". First two are Centennial. Last is the Cascade.

File_000.jpg


File_001.jpg


File_002.jpg
 
lzrdkng14 said:
I just planted my crowns and field grade plants. Just have them in plastic pots right now but I'm going to put them in garden boxes pretty soon.

Any tips you can give me to get them going?
Click to expand...

Good soil, lots of sun, adequate water and lots of tlc. They're hard to kill once they get established, so paying attention to those things will help their overall health.

I'd also read up on the forum, listen to podcasts, and read any publications on hop care and maintenance. HBT is full of people with great ideas and advice. The more informed you are, the more in tune you will be with your plants.
 
philipCT said:
Awesome looking trellis. Could you tell me (1) what kind of wood that is (2) where did you get the wood (3) what are the dimensions of that wood stock (looks like 3"x3" and (4) how tall that rig is?

I've got one set of rhizomes planted but I'm making another bed and I'm going to need to erect something like that.
Click to expand...

1) It is plain old treated lumber
2) I searched everywhere and was about to give up on finding the length I needed. People told me Home Depot would have it. They didn't. I checked numerous actual lumber yards around me. None of them had it. Finally found it at Menard's.
3) It is all 4"x4" (3.5"x3.5" actual)
4) The main post is a 16' post with the T-post set on top. It was sunk 3' into the ground, so the above ground portion is just over 13' when you count the width of the T-post.

I was amazed how hard it was to find a 16' post. I could find 16' posts in a 4"x6", but I'm glad I didn't go with it. The 4"x4" was plenty heavy enough as we were lifting it into place. Of course, once I found the 16' at Menard's, they also had longer posts as well. If I had a taller A-frame ladder, I might have gone for a 20' post instead of the 16'.

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I did make a thread about my trellis design: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=571384

Feel free to hit me up there if you have any more questions on what I did or why I did it.
 
I checked lowes online this am and they supposedly have 16' pressure treated 4x4's. Since no local lumber yards here going to have to go that route. Gonna have to run it into the cab and out the back of the bed of my truck since the bed is only 6.5', still will hang out flying down the highway.
 
BrandonMH said:
I checked lowes online this am and they supposedly have 16' pressure treated 4x4's. Since no local lumber yards here going to have to go that route. Gonna have to run it into the cab and out the back of the bed of my truck since the bed is only 6.5', still will hang out flying down the highway.
Click to expand...


Staple some red plastic or a red rag to the end of it if you have far to go. No need to get a ticket
 
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1461097021.879017.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1461097047.631533.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1461097066.276801.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1461097097.814109.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1461097123.182709.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1461097149.003961.jpg

From GLH

My first time growing

The centennial and cascade were bare root crowns with very minimal green on them when I planted them 6 days ago. The others were much smaller as well. It seems they are all growing pretty well, except for the nugget. But, it has only been SIX DAYS!

I need to get my garden boxes set up and by twine strung up in the next couple of weeks...
 
The Sterling and Golding I planted last Thursday have broken ground. The Cascade is lagging a little behind, but we're only barely out of frost here, although 60-70F during the days.
 
How often do you all water your starting rhizomes? I have been watering every other day with almost a full watering can split between the two. The water soaks in fast so no pooling and I know the roots are very shallow yet since they just started poking thru a week ago or sooner. I know they need water, but not too much, and when they are older they require deeper longer waterings. I have soaker hose for later on as well so to just water the roots and not get mildews.
 
Cascade and Chinook second year for them, they did pretty well last year so hopefully better this year. Will plant 2 Horizon and 1 Magnum soon.
both around 7 ft tall or so.

imageedit_1_9028476808.jpg
 
My turn to brag! 100% of my plants grew back from last year, all are now 2nd year plants.

Willamette


Centennial


Cascade


Columbus


Willamette, #2


Centennial, #2


Sterling


Cascade, #2


Magnum


Nugget


Magnum, #2
 
First time grower here, and already excited by the progress I've seen to date.

How long do you let your bines get before starting to train them? Maybe a couple feet?
 
First time grower here. Got my two ctz rhizomes in the ground 2 weeks ago. Started to see first shoots this week which makes me super stoked. Question... Bunnys... Will they eat hop shoots? Should I chicken wire my trellis off? Cuz theres definitely bunnys in my yard

Oh and yes that's an old jacuzzi, apparently they make for a good hop growing space :D

View attachment 1461171321501.jpg
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
First time grower here, and already excited by the progress I've seen to date.

How long do you let your bines get before starting to train them? Maybe a couple feet?
Click to expand...

When they are long enough to get around the twine once. They have some really sticky hairs on them that help to hold them in place.

Be careful when training them, if they are too dry, say in middle of day, they can bend and snap when you are moving them. Just kinda lay them up against the string when they reach....they figure out the rest.

Mine are up to about 4-5ft now in last week and half.
 
I just planted some centennial and magnum... and I used blood meal when I planted.. but what kind of nutrients should I be feeding these as I water them?
 
I just planted some centennial. How long until I should expect these babies to poke through?
 
Are 'Bull Shoots' something the plant puts off every year? I have checked my plan this past day, and I don't seem to have any that I can tell!
 
Bull shoots are the first shoots to appear. They are using up the rhizomes stores from the previous year. The big farmers cut then to get the plants all growing at the same time. I think the consensus here is for first year, don't cut them, let it grow so it can establish roots. That is the goal for a first year rhizome, get a good root system.
 
WilliamSlayer said:
Are 'Bull Shoots' something the plant puts off every year? I have checked my plan this past day, and I don't seem to have any that I can tell!
Click to expand...

Yes. Typically they're the first to come out of the ground and depending on where you live you can trim them back early. I wait until at least April personally because we typically have a late frost, like last night, so I try and cut back as much growth as possible.
 

Similar threads

BugAC
Hops are growing very early
Replies
9
Views
314
scrap iron
scrap iron
Z
1st time grower
Replies
2
Views
655
zrmcwilliams
Z
jhonatas Santos Vaz
Hop cultivation
Replies
9
Views
714
jhonatas Santos Vaz
jhonatas Santos Vaz
N
Growing Mosaic hops
Replies
14
Views
1K
faithie999
F
shrews824
My First Attempt At Growing Hops.
2
Replies
41
Views
4K
JAReeves
JAReeves

Latest posts

Back
Top