2016 Hop Growing Thread

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So I have one planter which I filled with a Crown of Cascade I received from someone. Should I consider trimming the first shoots since it was a crown that I transplanted???

The rhizomes I planted aren't coming up nearly as quick as the crown, and I was just going to let those go and not even bother with trimming them up. The crown has a ton of growth already though.
 
Something nibbled the top of a couple of my shoots popping up. Operation hop intruder commencing. Been getting tons of rain here but I have a few shoots on each variety. Still need to build out some sort of trellis for each variety.
 
Update Pics. Pics taken 4/26/16.
Cascade, Centennial, Columbia and Chinook

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Centennial 426.jpg


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Chinook 426.jpg
 
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!
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DurtyChemist said:
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.
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In my limited experience with hop growing over the past few years, I have been identifying "bulls" by gently pinching them to see if there's any give, or if they're firm. If it "feels" hollow, I'll trim it, and just about every time, the interior is very hollow. These are the bull shoots. They come out aggressively after winter as Durty said. They're typically hollow, grow very quickly, and have long spacing between nodes. Be careful, as you'll want to let those grow since they seem to be the strongest bines. They also kink and break easily, where a strong bine won't. I'll usually allow some of the secondary growth to be my training candidates.
 
What about first year trimming? Another thread I read a while back had some debate over whether or not to trim freshly planted first shoots.
 
BrandonMH said:
What about first year trimming? Another thread I read a while back had some debate over whether or not to trim freshly planted first shoots.
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The only reason I would trim is to reduce the number of bines. No need to cut everything to the ground, but you could trim down to 2-3 per string.
 
First year plants, let them all grow so they can build a healthy root system. 2+ years, train 4-6 total bines up lines. I do 3 bines each up tow lines in a V.
 
Have 5-6 vines about 12-15" tall and on the twine already for my second year cascade. As for my second year centennial, still straggling along like it did last year. Maybe 6" tall...maybe
 
Weird, my cascade is half the size of my centennial. Others seem to be the opposite. I planted then within minutes of each other and both were started in pots from rhysomes. Gotta go out and cover them, getting low and I think frost warning. Centennial is a few inches...leaves won't work.
 
sablesurfer said:
Finally all strung up. New location this year. Hoping that there will be just enough sun to keep them happy, but in this location there is a giant old maple that blocks over half the sky for them...oh well.
Four plants this year. Got rid of Willamatte. Seem to have lost track of (???) my Magnum. So have Cascade, Centennial, Columbus and Chinook. So far Chinook is happiest of the bunch in these here square states.

View attachment 350108
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Wow! I have major trellis envy. I could grow beans up that puppy too.how do you get them down. I'm thinking about using this sprinkler I made for the kids that cracked and keeping it low and just going up and down around and or whatever do you think that will work
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
That makes me think: how many bines are you guys trying to send up each string? Hadn't thought about that.
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I do three to four per string because things happen and you can easily lose a top to bugs or birds. If you were a farmer, you have so many plants, but as a home grower there is no back up if I lose the only bine running up a string.

Also, in a farm since there are SOOO many plants they do have to limit bines to keep air moving and avoid mildew/fungus. At home with just a couple of plants I am figuring there is plenty of air movement as long as there isn't a bush of plant at the bottom.
 
BrandonMH said:
Weird, my cascade is half the size of my centennial. Others seem to be the opposite. I planted then within minutes of each other and both were started in pots from rhysomes. Gotta go out and cover them, getting low and I think frost warning. Centennial is a few inches...leaves won't work.
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Mine are same to yours. Cascade has these wimpy little bines. Everything else up over 7ft now but Cascade at maybe a 1ft on one bine with others only just making to twine.

I think my cascade pot stayed colder than the others because it was further behind the protective wall. So the other pots got more early spring sun on them by a couple hours...that is my only guess so far.
 
applescrap said:
Wow! I have major trellis envy. I could grow beans up that puppy too.how do you get them down. I'm thinking about using this sprinkler I made for the kids that cracked and keeping it low and just going up and down around and or whatever do you think that will work
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That is my tallest structure so far. Two years against the house, last year was a structure similar but very small because I was basically ignoring them last year but wanted them to have some fun.

I run my string from pot over bar and back to pot. The string for bines are located to the front, the return to the pot is tied off in back. The 'plan' is to be able to cut the back string and just drop them down. (You know as long as the plants don't go crazy and just clog up everything at the top where strings come close together....LOL!)

I am a bit worried that I won't be able to do multiple harvests if they do tangle up across the strings. Now, now that you make me think this through, I wonder how I will test the hops for picking if they are all produced higher up....hmmm.

Now you ruined my plans! Curses! :D
 
All of mine are still underground from me covering them when I built the boxes. I'm confident they'll pop through shortly. I'm just jealous of everyone's hops showing already.
 
sablesurfer said:
That is my tallest structure so far. Two years against the house, last year was a structure similar but very small because I was basically ignoring them last year but wanted them to have some fun.

I run my string from pot over bar and back to pot. The string for bines are located to the front, the return to the pot is tied off in back. The 'plan' is to be able to cut the back string and just drop them down. (You know as long as the plants don't go crazy and just clog up everything at the top where strings come close together....LOL!)

I am a bit worried that I won't be able to do multiple harvests if they do tangle up across the strings. Now, now that you make me think this through, I wonder how I will test the hops for picking if they are all produced higher up....hmmm.

Now you ruined my plans! Curses! :D
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Man sorry :) Seems like a good enough idea though. A huge ladder?

I think I had a talk with Bobby once and he said pulleys to drop them down?

What about a small structure that wound them up down up down up down all around do you think that would work. This is my plan
 
Sablesurfer, how high is your trellis? That seems much easier than a 4x4 and could basically drive that pipe into the ground without digging...until I would hit rocks/roots which are where I was going to dig the hole for the T post trellis. I'll have to get some pics of my zomes growing up here. We are getting some rain so they will probably grow pretty good. I purposely didn't water then for a bit since I knew it was going to be a fairly wet few days and cooler too.
 
If anyone wants to take a look I just put up my hop update video.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zATkYrSaSak[/ame]
 
With the colder weather my cascades started a bit late so today I just trimmed all the bull shoots down. So hopefully some new green growth will appear in the next week or two and I can start to train them.
 
BlackIce said:
If anyone wants to take a look I just put up my hop update video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zATkYrSaSak
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Hey, I'm a first year hop grower as well and I got my plants from Great Lakes Hops, too. I'm planning on just letting them grow, rather than cutting them back.

Also, I'm curious about what you mentioned about your fertilizing plans. My trellis is only about 13 feet tall, so my plants will run out of height to climb before they are ready. What I'm thinking, for my set-up, is to not fertilize at all until later in the season. I figure I'll just let them grow however they can, then later when they get close to producing cones, that's when I'll hit them with some fertilizer of some sort. Rather than boosting the height/length of bines, I'm going to boost the production phase of growing.

Of course, I have no reading/research to back that up, and I'm an amateur gardener at best. It's just what makes sense in my head when I'm thinking about my set-up. If there are different phases of growth, then I want to encourage the phase that best fits my shorter trellis.

Does anybody have any knowledge/experience to say my plan won't work out?
 
My hop trellis this year.
Two 2nd year Centennial and 10 more starts from cuttings made last year. (They're hiding behind the Misses flowers)
Don't expect much from the cuttings so they can just share the sisal cords.

'da Kid

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A 2" piece of electrical EMT slipped snugly inside the 2-1/2" corner fence post. Straight, strong and reinforced by the four fence runs. The bolts keep the EMT from sliding down further. It can be easily lifted up and off.

251.jpg
 
These are 1-5/8" 'Kennel Fence Clamps" This pole is 1-1/4" EMT. Might go with 1-1'2" next year as it does flex a bit. I have a cable from the top back to the fence at a 45° angle to help. All cabling is 3/16" vinyl coated.

'da Kid

248.jpg
 
signpost said:
Hey, I'm a first year hop grower as well and I got my plants from Great Lakes Hops, too. I'm planning on just letting them grow, rather than cutting them back.

Also, I'm curious about what you mentioned about your fertilizing plans. My trellis is only about 13 feet tall, so my plants will run out of height to climb before they are ready. What I'm thinking, for my set-up, is to not fertilize at all until later in the season. I figure I'll just let them grow however they can, then later when they get close to producing cones, that's when I'll hit them with some fertilizer of some sort. Rather than boosting the height/length of bines, I'm going to boost the production phase of growing.

Of course, I have no reading/research to back that up, and I'm an amateur gardener at best. It's just what makes sense in my head when I'm thinking about my set-up. If there are different phases of growth, then I want to encourage the phase that best fits my shorter trellis.

Does anybody have any knowledge/experience to say my plan won't work out?
Click to expand...

Basic Brewing Radio had a good interview(March 3, 2016 - Springtime Hop Care) and thats what Im going to following almost to a T. Our home brew club also had a grower in and he said about the same. Here is some of the stuff:
Start adding fertilizer once a week after 12” tall
Start training 2nd or 3rd week of May
No more fertilizer when you see flowers
End of June flowers should start

Im in MI so im not sure if this will workout but this is what I will go by.

hope this helps
 
kev211 said:
Thats a beautiful trellis!!! How tall is it? Do you trim the bines when they reach the top? Or let them grow along the top of the trellis system?
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Thanks! the trellis is only 10' tall. Last year I trained them horizontal across the top, it worked okay but this year I ran the string over to the house.

IMG_1791.jpg
 
I went out this am to see how wet things were after the rain we got, and notice one of the centennials was laying over. Went to set it up and noticed it was almost broken off. I was pissed. Not sure if a bird flew in there, or a squirrel climbed in the fenced in area and broke it. I tied some old pie tins on the fence, along with the old fake owl that I had there for days. Maybe a squirrel, I did see a dig spot a few days ago, not close to the hop plant, but close enough.
 
I have 4 plants growing - 2 Newport and 2 Cascade. 2nd year for all of them in this location. I transplanted them from another house, I had 1 year on the Cascade there and 3 or 4 on the Newport.
I have a ton of shoots on the Cascade - or should I say had. I trimmed a bunch off this weekend, leaving 3 shoots on one string, 4 on the other.
The Newport have fewer shoots, but one of them has a shoot ~4 feet high at this point, another shoot ~3 feet and a third a few inches behind. The other Newport is a couple feet up the string now.
I use an A-frame trellis (think the old-style metal swingset from when we were kids) that's about 12 feet high. The bines usually will go up and over the top. I'm OK with that, it's still better than the second year I had the hops (total) when they went down the support lines and got tangles up with grape vines that were growing up those lines...
 
More pics as my hops continue to grow after several good days of drizzly, steady rain.

AlphAroma #1 - Smallest plant so far, but it has the most separate buds started. And it is a late maturing variety, so I'm not surprised it's lagging a little bit.
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AlphAroma #2 - Bigger than the other AlphAroma, but only by a narrow gap.
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Canterbury Goldings #1:
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Canterbury goldings #2:
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Cluster #1:
13139106_10209602132036874_8284519245151798780_n.jpg


Cluster #2 - In this one, you can see a big glob of bird poop just on the lower left part of the pic. I saw that and thought, "Cool, natural fertilizer." Also, this one is actually the biggest of the bunch, but I had to back the camera out a bit to fit it in the pic, so it looks a little smaller.:
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Hi all! First time grower here... I picked up a cascade and a centennial PLANT (not rhizome) at the nursery a month ago. My cascade is about 3 feet tall and going strong with two bines but my centennial looks like the growth tip got broken or nibbled off about two inches above the ground. It hasn't grown one bit since I planted it. No additional shoots coming up either.

Should I cut the existing shoot off at the ground? Not sure what to do, the root mass looked pretty well established when I put it in the ground. It's already well into the 80s in the daytime here in California's San Joaquin valley.
 
 

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I planted 2 chinook and 2 cascade rhizomes. My cat decided that the best sunning spot in the world was on the first chinook. It's completely dead now, but I still have 1 chinook and 2 cascades trying to grow in the desert heat.
 
Planted 2 Chinook (from Troegs via Sunny Brae Hops farm) and 1 Cascade (from a friend). Chinooks were planted 4.22 and 4.25, the Cascade was planted 4.16

I also have 1 Centennial and 1 Chinook (from the friend) that are rooting in water, soon to be planted.

I built an arbor for the hops to grow on. (Pictures in next post). My friend has also told me has has more Chinook, Cascade, and Centennial rhizomes whenever I want to get them.


Growing in Central PA.

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Here are the pics of the arbor (including one that weekend of the fluke snow we had in April). My daughter (Lily) and dog (Leela) posing with it after it was done and situated and set-up (just had the top boards to do, which are done now).

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I really like what you did with the arbor by making it a bit of an architectural element of your home. I wanted to do that over our back porch which gets too much sun to be comfortable to hang out on in midsummer. Once the bines get all up and over that it's going to be really magical. And then you make beer with it. Brilliant.
 

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