2016 Hop Growing Thread

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I can post some more tomorrow, but my cascades are already throwing cones and are about 11 feet tall.. I guess you can grow them in Florida, lets see how they handle the summer. They came from GreatLakes and were put in the ground on 2-18.
 
I know, I know. The plants are too close to each other. I accidentally ordered more rhizomes than I intended to. :tank:

But, hey, they are first year plants. Between all 10 I'll probably have enough to make a single kitchen sink batch at the end of the summer, and next year I can move a couple to planters up on the porch.

Good news is that they have plenty of room to grow upwards! :mug:

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Put the rhizomes in a month ago, from left to right:
CTZ
CTZ
Crystal
Crystal
Willamette
Goldings
Centennial
Centennial
Cascade
Cascade
 
BrewSRQ said:
13164362_971606009620488_6243449610390978819_n.jpg

I can post some more tomorrow, but my cascades are already throwing cones and are about 11 feet tall.. I guess you can grow them in Florida, lets see how they handle the summer. They came from GreatLakes and were put in the ground on 2-18.
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I have bracs starting on mine at the upper limbs. Both cascade and chinook are showing the start of flowers, both are about 15 feet high.

The willamette and centennial are about 8 to 10 feet, and are showing nothing yet; they don't have any side shoots yet either.
 
philipCT said:
But hey now - tell us about that drip system. Looks pretty cool!
Click to expand...

When I built the raised garden, one of my lawn sprinklers was in the way. Instead of just capping it off, I set it up so the drip system is fed from it. This way, watering the garden is automatic.

As for the system itself, it's a drip irrigation kit for gardens from Lowe's... About $50. The tan 1/4" lines have 1 gph emitters every six inches, and the kit came with 50 ft of it. Also came with 100 ft of 1/4" regular line, 25 ft of 1/2" supply line, the regulator, and various 1/4" fittings.

Each garden bed (4'x8') has three drip lines, and the hop bed (2'x16') has the one you see in the photo. The sides are 2x12 pressure treated boards, and the corners are reinforced with 4x4's sunk two feet deep. Filled it in with 4 yards of 50/50 topsoil compost mix and fertlized with slow release 10_10_10 fertilizer. The top of the hop lines are spaced 2.5' apart, and all sizes were based on available space more than anything. The wall faces W by SW, and was the best location based on sun expose, getting maybe 1/2 to 1/3 of each day in full sunlight.

Here in costal VA the concern really is over watering and drainage, so I think it should work out. I can always splice in more emitter line if needed
 
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Since its been nearly a month (the first picture is my Cascade, planted 4.16, the second is Chinook, planted 4.22, and the third is another Chinook, planted 4.25), I figured I'd post some new pictures:

Doesn't look like there's been much growth in the first month. Though the Cascade is starting to certainly look bigger, and getting more sprouts.

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20160517_091753[1].jpg
 
Well these grew about 5 feet and then I had to plant them somewhere else. Pacific Gem. Built a 15 foot pvc pipe trellis. We will see how it goes, sadly accidentally snapped off a couple of the top shoots but the side ones are Taking over already. We will see how this goes for already traumatized hops :(

View attachment 1463550707168.jpg
 
Does anyone else have cones forming yet? I noticed some cascade flowers are starting to turn into cones. I thought it was a bit early in the year for that. But this is my first going season in Austin, and mother nature has been much kinder here about watering:sun ratio than in California.
 
First signs of life from the Golding...a late start, but TX winter is mild enough I may get a decent late harvest.

20160518_165349_zpskemlxqbs.jpg
 
Holy smokes - looking good HopVol.

It would be helpful to have the posters location or at least grow zone along with these awesome progress shots. I'm starting to feel bad about my 1st years over here in Massachusetts.
 
Robx, I know the feeling being in NJ. It has been raining almost every day, so the plants have gotten sun 5/7 days of the week. I can't wait for this weather to break!
 
Robx said:
Holy smokes - looking good HopVol.

It would be helpful to have the posters location or at least grow zone along with these awesome progress shots. I'm starting to feel bad about my 1st years over here in Massachusetts.
Click to expand...

Thanks and just hang in there. The first year is slow but they will mature. I'm in middle TN, just South of Nashville. The first year I didn't get alot off them, about 1/2 a lb I think. Maybe a little less. Last year I got a little over 1 lb. This thing is going nuts this year. Looking forward to see what it produces in year three. I recently brewed a SMaSH using Marris Otter and all Cascades from this plant. It turned out really nice.

SMaSH.jpg
 
I let mine be for about a week and when I finally got to check them out they had gotten a little carried away. So I did some trimming and had to re route a few shoots which crossed from the Cascade strings to the Glacier strings.

20 mins worth of work and all is well again.
 
Do any of you use liquid seven on your hop plants to kill off pests? Something has been chewing the leaves a bit. I looked under the leaves and didn't see anything. I did find green worms and green aphids on rose bushes today though.
 
Try insecticidal soap?

I've got no idea what liquid sevin is, might be the same thing.


Although if you've got rose bushes and aphids, you might try buying lady bugs, which will eat the aphids all summer long.
 
BrandonMH said:
Do any of you use liquid seven on your hop plants to kill off pests? Something has been chewing the leaves a bit. I looked under the leaves and didn't see anything. I did find green worms and green aphids on rose bushes today though.
Click to expand...


Personally I would never use sevin; it kills off beneficial insects as well as the bad ones. And it can drift. It wrecks havoc on honey bee populations I've always used an organic pesticide dust on my hops and never have had any reals issues. Bugs wil still get some leaves but u will still get a really good harvest
 
I planted 4 this year my cascade is 8 foot and climbing. My centennial, magnum, and willimette are little sprouts still. I'm trying not to worry because they are first year. Hopefully they are growing underground. Fingers crossed.
 
BrandonMH said:
Do any of you use liquid seven on your hop plants to kill off pests? Something has been chewing the leaves a bit. I looked under the leaves and didn't see anything. I did find green worms and green aphids on rose bushes today though.
Click to expand...

I use it, works great. I try not to use it after the flowers have formed.
 
I really need to finish this up. We had a LATE snow that came in and probably hurt my hops but they were getting to a point where they wouldn't stand up on their own anymore and needed something to wrap around. Well that's just one plant and two others are just poking through and my Pacific Gem hasn't broken ground yet.

I flooded them with water yesterday since it was a nice day and I'll see how they do without string for a few days. Maybe I'll do this Thursday morning when I can take all morning. It sucks not having my truck available and just wanting to brew more.

thaymond said:
Completed some repairs on broken lines and trained bines this afternoon. Things are beginning to fill in nicely.
View attachment 355497
Click to expand...
 
Normally I'm harvesting my first Cascade cones by now, but everything is slow and behind schedule this year. My tallest Cascade is less than 2' tall, Centennials are less than 1' tall and the Magnum and Columbus have barely broken ground.
 
Just had my first hop plant make it to the twine!

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I have 5 more plants and 2 of them are within a couple inches of the twine. I'm sure I'll be able to train them up by the next time I check on them.

So excite! Much grow! :rockin:
 
corkybstewart said:
Normally I'm harvesting my first Cascade cones by now, but everything is slow and behind schedule this year. My tallest Cascade is less than 2' tall, Centennials are less than 1' tall and the Magnum and Columbus have barely broken ground.
Click to expand...

Wow, interesting for NM. Was Spring strange or something?
 
We had a severe blizzard around Christmas, my hops were actually under snow for 2 weeks, and it's been a cool spring, we're almost through May and not a single day over 100F yet. My cacti were even at least a month late blooming this year, everything has been late.
As of yesterday I do have 2 Cascade in the 5' height range, they seem to be taking off finally.
And on the bright side the 2 neomexicanus I planted in 2014 that promptly "died", and never even showed up last year, are back and doing great this year.
 
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