2016 SD Hop Garden

[Voodoo]

Hi all, I've been lurking on this forum for a long time. Figured it was time to start contributing.

This will be my second year growing hops in containers. Last year I grew Cascade, Columbus and Newport hops in 10 gallon containers on my deck. Like you'd expect, I'm now full bore addicted to hop growing. This year I will be adding Horizon, Multihead, Santiam, Southern Brewer, Southern Cross, Willow Creek and Zenith. I am interested in seeing how the New Mexican varieties do in southern California at a lower elevation (500ft).

All of my hops were purchased at Great Lakes Hops. The mailer they add to every order mentioning this forum is how I found out about all the great hop growing info here.

After seeing just how root bound a hop plant gets in a 10 gallon after one season, I decided that this year the hops would be grown in 24 x 24 tree planters. The planters are sealed and sub irrigated to try and keep them from going dry during the hotter months. Heres a couple shots:

The hops will be strung from the four corners of the pots to the fence. From the fence they will be run to the roof which should shade out the sunny side of the house. There are only 6 planters in the shot, I still have to build 4 more for the Multihead / Southern Brewer / Southern Cross / Willow Creek.

More pics and info as they turn into plants.

 

[thaymond]

The planters you have look great and I like the sub irrigation idea. SO. CALS lack of rain problem for your hops solved by some pvc and plastic. Good work!

I did small planters for one year. They rooted clear through the drain on the planter and into the dirt. I decided then that it was an in - the - ground hobby.

Your planters are much bigger than the ones I had, so there should be plenty of root growth room for a season or two. I will be looking forward to the progress!

 

[Voodoo]

Temps in the mid 80s are bringing the garden to life.

Horizon

Cascade

 

[Voodoo]

I decided there are going to be too many pictures between the 10 types of hops I have growing. So for ease of viewing:

The Santiam hops (1st year) are the real winner here - ultra vigorous! It was a cluster of buds last week and is now bigger than my Cascade which is a second year plant. The Santiam also likes my hot soil mix more than the Cascade which is a bit blue. My second year hops are a little slower to emerge, you can really see this in the Newport and Columbus shots.

Soil mix:
Fox Farm Happy Frog Potting Soil
Miracle Grow Potting Soil
Earth Worm Castings
Composted Chicken Manure
Composted Steer Manure
Rice Hulls
Rock Dust
Dolomite Lime

Still waiting on development from Southern Brewer, Southern Cross and the two neomexicana varieties Multihead and Willow Creek.

 

[SoggyWood]

Great pictures. Makes me want to give it a shot myself. I'll definitely be checking back into this thread to see the progress.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Looking good keep us updated!

 

[homebrewbrian]

Even tho we are in considerably diff climates, I will be following this one as long as there are updates along the growing season. As a first time rhizome planter, obviously I am interested in the entire process of "Year 1" growing from a seasoned grower. Keep the updates coming, especially your tips & tricks along the way! Now: Hop to it !

 

[Voodoo]

They've all added an inch or two since last week and the second year hops (middle row) seem to be pressing through their nutrient blues pretty well. Santiam is now a day or two away from forcing me to train it up the twine. Its been adding at least an inch a day, stellar growth for how early in the season it is.

The later plantings in 3 gallon starter pots (bottom row) are just starting to get going. The 2 New Mexican varieties (Multihead / Willow Creek) are finally starting to show signs of life. Southern Brewer and Southern cross are beginning to show shoots as well.

Speaking of neomex hops, I picked up a couple 22's of Sierra Nevada's Wild Hop IPA with Multihead / Medusa hops. Its got a good, somewhat southern California IPA flavor - definitely doesn't taste like typical Sierra Nevada beers which are generally a bit more malty / nutty to me. Anyway, the beer starts very citrus-floral, then slides into a mellow, possibly peachy note. From there you get a bit of a dank flavor before it rolls off to a bit of a dry and somewhat harsh aftertaste, similar to a "green bottle beer" like Peroni or Kotyak. I'd recommend it, everyone who tried it was generally a fan - though nearly everyone noted the citrus-weedy-green bottle bite.

 

[Waagman]

Voodoo, thanks for posting this thread. I live in El Segundo, just south of LAX and a 5 minute walk from the beach. I'm going to start my hop garden this spring and starting to research which varieties will do best. I know that inland SD can be much warmer than the coast so am curious to know where you are in proximity to the coastline? Any advice on what you've experienced so far with the various varieties?

 

[Voodoo]

I'm about 8 miles due east of the Del Mar Fairgrounds / coastline. Southern California's heat gets a bit more intense here than it does on the coast - we're regularly 8-12 degrees hotter than the coast with about 20% less humidity.

The biggest concern you're going to have living that close to the water is powdery mildew / downey mildew from the marine layer moving in each night and covering everything with dew.

I would stick with hops that have a strong resistance to mildews. To determine which hops lines have the best mildew resistance, I would look at Great Lakes Hops description list.

Air movement and dry leaves are the key to minimizing DM & PM. Always water the soil, not the leaves / plant. Its better to water in the morning than at night as the soil has a chance to dry before the temps cool. Run a few lines of twine and train the bines away from each other in a V-shape so that there's lots of air space between them. Trim off the lower runner growth when the plants start to get big, you want 18" of air space between the soil and your first leaves.

Here's some pics of what to expect from first year GLH field grade plugs:

You can see this is before I trimmed out the lowers on the Newport. All of that bushy growth is the perfect place for disease to get going. After trimming, your plants should look more similar to the Cascade, though I trimmed all of the spindly lowers off the Cascade a couple weeks later.

 

[Waagman]

Yeah, I'm very familiar with powdery mildew. I have a 40' x 50' vegetable garden that includes Pinot Noir and Cabernet vines, and they get hammered every year with mildew. The Pinot handles it much better than the Cab's and in fact, my 12 Cab vines are all pretty much toast.

Anyhow, I got into home brewing last year and since I like to garden, thought I'd give hops a go. Thanks much for the advice and will do as you suggest.

 

[Voodoo]

 

[Voodoo]

The hops are now all in their final spots and planters for the season.

Horizon's planter had a pinhole in the inner plastic from over my over zealous initial handling and had to be re-lined which was a much easier job than I was expecting it to be.

Most of the other plants seem well on their way - especially the Cascade and Santiam hops. The 2 year Columbus and Newport hops are still slow to take off, but have been adding size steadily over the last few weeks.

 

[Voodoo]

Been a while since my last update!

To start off with, all of my hops were planted too early and all decided to stop vertical growth around April 1st. While the weather in southern California has been exceptional, I watched all of my bines self terminate. The plants looked very similar to mid-summer when they start to receive the signal to flower, the shoots grew about 2.5 feet tall and then stopped all vertical growth.

I was of the mindset that hops were more temperature dependent for grow / flower / dormant signal, but I am beginning to think they are one in the same as their close cousins - less than 13 hours of daylight will cause the plant to try and flower or throw "bull" shoots in early spring. More than 13 hours of light will lead to vegetative growth.

I now think all "bull" shoots are just shoots that act as day length feelers to determine when the plant can push its energy back into vegetative growth. Feel free to debate that one

Following this theory, I cut all my hops to the ground on 4/17 (13H day / 11H night). It took about 3.5 weeks for the plants to rebound - my second year plants really rebounded while my first year plants have struggled a bit more but seem to be about 1-2 weeks behind the second year plants. Only one plant died - my Willow Creek plant has been removed from the rotation. It has not rebounded (no shoots, no buds) and will be replaced by another Willow Creek hop plant from GLH at the end of the week.

 

[Voodoo]

A lot happens in a month..

My second year Newport and Cascade have been topped at the roof and are beginning to throw burs. In the last week my second year Columbus finally seems to have hit its minimum day length requirements for growth. The cluster of green shoots (which has looked the same since May) finally seems to be turning into bines.

The first year plants are a bit more of a mixed bag. The Willow Creek and Multihead hops are the real winners here. This could be due to the maximum sun (dawn to dusk) planting location or the fact they developed in short day length areas like New Mexico. Either way, they're very happy and have hit the top of the pergola they're strung to.

Southern Brewer has really taken off since mid June. Southern cross followed suit about a week later. Horizon gave up the ghost, so it was replaced with the freebie Alpharoma that Great Lakes Hops sent me. Santiam seems to be about on par with Columbus - just starting to shoot. Zenith is my slowest to rebound, a cluster of sprouts waiting to launch.

I've learned a few things from this spring:

• cut the early emerging bines in mid March - not late April
• don't bury the crowns too deep with compost, it seems to slow the plants from emerging
• plant new transplants about May 15th, they'll go right into grow mode when they go into the ground. March transplanting seems to confuse the plants with too short a day length for proper vegetative development

You'll notice I included a shot of the "hop tunnel" which is a bit premature (they'll look better next year when everything is established) but we're starting to develop the green canopy I had hoped for.

 

[Voodoo]

When people say that New Mexican hops are deeply segmented, they aren't kidding.

Multihead hops are moderately segmented, but still retain typical European looking features - big round leaves.

On the other hand, my Willow Creek hops look remarkably like cannabis to the untrained eye. Much thinner leaf fingers, deep segmentation and the serrated leaves.

And a shot of the hop tunnel slowly filling in.

 

[Voodoo]

The New Zealand hops have started to get going and are at almost the same place of development up the lines. Alpharoma is a very branchy, very spread out plant with one major bine and about 30 branches that have been strung to the other strings. Southern Cross has tossed out a few additional bines and looks like its going to be more of an evenly developed plant than its cousin.

Santiam has really started to get going in the last few weeks and all of the bines are now above the fence. Zenith has just started to shoot, its looking like it will be a very late season plant. On that note, I may be replacing this plant with a Chinook next year, just depends on what we see in terms of development over the next few weeks.

The Cascade is all but done. The smells are starting to develop and lupulin is present when the cones are pulled apart. At this point I am just waiting for the cones to start drying out, but the cones are easily twice the size of last years crop which was much smaller.

Burrs are starting to develop on both the Columbus and Southern Brewer. Interestingly, the Southern Brewer was the only plant in the whole garden to see looper damage which I was surprised by (GLH says this plant is all but impervious to them).

The Willow Creek and Multihead are both developing cones, though Willow Creek was slightly faster to throw burrs than Multihead. Both have totally different growth structures as well, Multihead climbs like crazy with very long sidearms toward the top half of the plant while Willow Creek is more of an even developing, bushier plant with lots of bines.

Water consumption on the 2nd year hops (Cascade, Columbus & Newport) is at the point of the containers being bone dry after 3 days - which comes out to roughly 5 gallons of water plus whatever sits in the soil. The 1st year neomexicanus are using near as makes no difference to the 2nd year plants and are roughly the same size. I am very impressed by the Willow Creek and Multihead - just huge plants! The rest of the 1st year plants are using about half the water of the 2nd year plants, call it 3 gallons of water every 3 days.

As the faster plants start to get around to finishing off and developing cones, I have been hitting them with Botaincare Soil Bloom and some molasses in their water. A couple of the plants (Santiam, Cascade, Newport and Columbus) developed minor magnesium deficiencies which I have been treating with sprays of water with a dash of epsom salt. So far, so good.

Questions and comments are always welcome!

 

[Photopilot]

This thread is useless without addresses.


Nice gardens I'm jealous

Just flipped through looking at all the photos did not realize all the hops were yours Voodoo. Very impressive. Keep it up we could Portland a run for their money if we could add hop growing to our repertoire.

 

[Voodoo]

Multihead: is really putting on the cones! I think this plant will end up putting out as much or more as any of my second year plants. A really pleasant, tropical citrus-fruit odor has started to develop.

Willow Creek: is in its last few weeks of development. Cones are plentiful, huge and pretty airy / fluffy. When rubbed, they have a very bright, lemony smell.

The potential for neomex hops in SoCal style IPAs is off the charts if these smells continue. I am very excited for both the Willow Creek and Multihead hops. Everyone that has smelled them thinks they smell better than Cascades. Not only are they extremely vigorously growing plants, the cone output is on par with plants twice their age.

AlphAroma: the single shooted AlphAroma continues to throw 5-6 foot sidearms which I have trained up the remaining 3 lines. The primary shoot is starting to burr up while the trained sidearms seem hellbent on reaching the roof.

Santiam: seems to have its nutrients dialed in and has started cone production on its tallest shoot. Its too early to judge the smell of the cones (grassy) as they're just starting to grow.

Zenith: the disappointingly late developing Zenith has just started to hit the strings. It will be interesting to see if it pushes really late into the season and develops the same height and size of the other first year plants.

Cascade: is getting picked clean on Friday afternoon. The golden cones look excellent in the sunshine, the camera really doesn't do them justice. Strong typical cascade smells, grapefruity-citrus wonderfullness. I've picked quite a few of these and tossed them into beers / sun tea / hot tea / melted butter (for steak seasoning) - theres no limit to the uses for Cascades.

Columbus: dense and plentiful, the Columbus is in full swing. Cones are developing everywhere and putting on weight in a hurry. Its hard to describe CTZ hops - herbal, resinous, pungent - very IPA friendly.

Newport: the pungent, dank, earthy, somewhat spicy garlic smell of the Newports I remember from last year has returned. The cones are large and their tips point somewhat outward like Chinook.

Southern Brewer: the hoppy / tangy / earthy smell of the cones on the Southern Brewer hit the mark with me for IPAs, though the cones have got a long way to go, they're still pretty grassy.

Southern Cross: the primary bine has hit the top of the trellis - and then some. Its starting to burr up and the secondary bines are just about to top the trellis as well.

 

[SoCalGrowGirl]

What an awesome thread! I love how you've documented the changes you've seen and the growth between different types of hops. We're in Rancho Cucamonga and we've had a rough time this year. We have a similar setup, with 15 hops strung up palm trees, 5 in an alley (like your hop tunnel but your setup is better) 5 on conduit we put up off our pergola, and 10 in a backplot that we've put in ground for the first time this year. Our hops are 1st to 3rd year. We've been fine with DM/PM but had a hell of a time with pests of all types, mainly grasshoppers and caterpillars. You're definitely familiar with the crazy heat we've had here the past three weeks, and we got scorched. Despite frequent watering, 90% of our hops dropped most of their leaves and bines burnt out. Definitely challenging this year. I'll post a picture of our setups, but its awesome to see other people here in SoCal making a go at it when everyone says hops can't grow here!

 

[Voodoo]

Thank you very much!

The summer heat was a major concern last year in 10 gallon pots. I was watering in the morning and again in the evening to keep up with dry out and water consumption on 100+F degree days.

This year the heat hasn't been an issue, if anything they seem to push harder when its hotter. I am a big fan of the sub irrigated planters, way less watering, way happier plants. My second year hops require water every other day when its 100+, but haven't shown any heat stress.

As for pest control - I spray plants that have pest issues with bifenthrin anytime up until the point that burrs form. Bifenthrin works great for general pests (it wont kill spider mites) and is cheaply available at just about any hardware store for general home use.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of your hops, hopefully the heat hasn't taken them out entirely.

Cascades drying on a screen:

 

[cram]

At another place around San Diego, a few Cascade plants under pine trees are not quite ready for harvest but getting close.

Some Centennial came off the bines the other night. This year, at least, the Centennial have started grenading brown hops, when others aren't close to ripe yet. I picked some and left others hanging that seemed like they needed more time--both hands smelled awesome afterwards and it dried out to almost a pound.

 

[GreatBeerTour]

Out in the east county of San Diego it gets hot, like really hot. I didn't realize I was supposed to have little success- don't tell my hops, shhhhh. Planted cascades, chinook, nuggets, and Zeus. I selected based on what most commercial farms in the area grow. This is year one, and I too used Great Lakes - I wanted a plant, not a stick, and for a couple of bucks more seemed a good idea. Due to poor picture management I can only load one at a time- stand by... And the picture is oriented correctly, I live on the side of a cliff and trained the plant horizontally

 

[GreatBeerTour]

Previous post had cascade below and chinook above,
This pic- nuggets below and Zeus above- all are 15-17'

 

[GreatBeerTour]

Cascade cone

 

[GreatBeerTour]

And chinook close up- sorry about the multipost and thread ambush. Would love to see how the neomexican hops finish and flavor a beer. Would be nice to have 'native' hops.

 

[Voodoo]

Harvested my Willow Creek (NeoMex) hops..

My second year plants are filling 2-2.5 freezer bags and my first year plants fill 1-1.5 freezer bags. The Willow Creek filled 7. Unreal output for a first year plant!

 

[thaymond]

Harvested my Willow Creek (NeoMex) hops..

My second year plants are filling 2-2.5 freezer bags and my first year plants fill 1-1.5 freezer bags. The Willow Creek filled 7. Unreal output for a first year plant!

Well done on a first year!

 

[Voodoo]

AlphAroma - cones are starting to paper up, should be harvested in the next week or two.

Santiam - harvested, got about 3/4 of a freezer bags worth of cones. The "fruit stripe gum" I am not picking up as much as I expected (per GLH's description) but it does have a nice citric floral smell with a peppery back end.

Zenith - the late blooming Zenith plant is almost to the roof. It shows all kinds of signs of being over fertilized with nitrogen / calcium / magnesium etc. Seems to be working through it fine, might even get a couple cones.

Cascade - small outbreak of spider mites, but now that its cone free, I can paint it in miticides / magnesium sprays and let it run the rest of the season. Seems to be interested in re-flowering, well see if I get a second harvest.

Columbus - just harvested last night, 3 3/4 freezer bags full of dank, earthy cones.

Newport - is running out the season. It has also treated to miticides and magnesium at the same time as the Cascade.

Southern Brewer - harvested about a week ago, 3/4 of a freezer bags worth of VERY heavy lemony smelling cones (similar to lemon cleaners like pledge). The cones were quite large, but the overall output was "low" for a first year plant despite pretty strong vigor in overall growth.

Southern Cross - is just about ready to pick, waiting another week or two for the cones to dry out more. This one smells like lemon pine-sol.

Multihead - harvesting in a few minutes, should be like its cousin, Willow Creek. At a glance, we're looking at a minimum of 4 freezer bags for this first year plant. Again, the NeoMex hops just run circles around the traditional plants.

Willow Creek - treated to a few fertilizers to help it ride out the season.

I've taken a fist full of each type of cone and am infusing them into gin. So far results are promising. Tonight, several friends are coming over for a group taste testing to see which lines work best as gin and tonic flavoring agents.

 

[GreatBeerTour]

Okay, three things-

Oh my cow that is a boat load of mexihops- like freakishly abundant
Two- note to self- become friends with Voodoo and 'share' ryzomes
And ... Gin flavorings?!? Care to give details?

 

[Voodoo]

Grab a bottle of gin, (I used Sapphire) toss the hops in and wait a week or two. The gin will dissolve and absorb the lupulin, flavoring the gin to match the hops used. You'll know you're getting close when the gin takes on a yellow color from the lupulin.

I used Columbus, Multihead, Southern Brewer and Willow Creek separately. The Willow Creek and Multihead had the best overall flavor of the first round of infused gin. Southern brewer isn't bad, but it imparts a lemon pepper flavor which almost tastes like olives/sweet vermouth / dirty martini. Columbus is definitely the least liked of the four tested, the hop profile is just too strong and somewhat overwhelms the gin with its earthy, dank flavor.

Multihead is known for its "unusual genetic aberration which is expressed as a combined cone with multiple tips." My Multiheads have not thrown a single multiple tipped cone. They form cones similar to any other plant I have run - just 2-3 times as many cones as I'm used to for their age.

The smell of Multiheads is similar to Cascades - citric but fruity. Where Cascades are grapefruity, Multiheads are closer to a warmer tropical fruit (passionfruit maybe?), but somewhat melon/peach-ish - the melon-peach flavor really comes out in the gin. Total first year Multihead yield was 5 freezer bags beating my best 2nd year plant by one full bag (Columbus harvested 4 bags).

 

[thaymond]

Very cool thread. I'm interested in the Gin experiments. That side arm of multi-head is rather impressive. Imagine your yields in year 2 and 3 when those root balls are established and all energy goes into bine growth and cone production on those first year plants, especially since they're beating out your 2nd year plants. Well done on the hops! I'd be interested in the results you get with multuhead in beer. I may need to expand the garden to find room for it, if it turns out fruity and tropical, like Cascade.

 

[Voodoo]

Thanks Thaymond. Yeah hops work for lots of food based uses - sun tea, steak seasoning, alcohol infusions, "live hopped" beers, etc. The more I treat hops like pepper, oregano, or any other spice the better they seem to work.

Harvested the Southern Cross (.5 freezer bag) and AlphAromas (1.5 freezer bags) last night. Southern Cross is lemon-pine as expected. Alpharoma is similar, but tangy and very bitter smelling. Couple pics of the plants..

Southern Cross

AlphaAroma

The rest of the garden is trucking along, starting to show fall colors.

Multihead's top only growth was plucked and now the lower nodes are shooting and producing baby burs. I should see another freezer bags worth of cones from the bottom half of the plant.

Zenith has finally decided to start forming burs and cones. It seems really happy to be alive, but its just so late in the season!

 

[Texconsinite]

Voodoo, how was the flavor of the Willow Creek compared to Multihead, or Cascade? I have both as well and am curious what to expect.

 

[ba-brewer]

Soil mix:
Fox Farm Happy Frog Potting Soil
Miracle Grow Potting Soil
Earth Worm Castings
Composted Chicken Manure
Composted Steer Manure
Rice Hulls
Rock Dust
Dolomite Lime

Very impressive setup and yields.

Curious if you plan to repotting your plants before next spring and will you reuse your same soil mix?

Would also like to know the rough percentages of your soil mix.

 

[jerbrew]

Impressive. I had miserable luck with my first hop growing attempt. Hopefully next year I can get something going. Those random thunder storms we had in May killed them I don't think I had good enough drainage in my soil.

 

[Voodoo]

Voodoo, how was the flavor of the Willow Creek compared to Multihead, or Cascade? I have both as well and am curious what to expect.

Multihead is tropically fruity, maybe peach-passion fruit? Its MUCH closer in its floral notes to Cascade. The Willow Creek is an ultra citric, bright lemon flavor / aroma, nothing like a Cascade.

Curious if you plan to repotting your plants before next spring and will you reuse your same soil mix?

Would also like to know the rough percentages of your soil mix.

I'll probably add a bit of soil mix when I do some minor top level tilling, but otherwise, I plan to leave them as they are till next year. The soil should be plenty loaded for a couple seasons with minor nutrient additions.

The soil mix is a pile of the following with roughly these amounts:

1 bag Fox Farm Happy Frog Potting Soil
1 bag Miracle Grow Potting Soil
1 bag Earth Worm Castings
1 bag Composted Chicken Manure
2 bags Composted Steer Manure
As much as you get from GLH - Rice Hulls
1/2 box Rock Dust
1/2 box Dolomite Lime

 

[Voodoo]

All of the "traditional" hops were cut back to stumps right around the beginning of October. Since then, most of the hops have started to bud / shoot. The Cascade and Newport hops are climbing back up the lines. Newport is already at the top of the fence, shooting toward the roof (roughly 5 feet of growth on 2 lines). I was under the impression the lack of daylight hours would signal the plants to stop pushing, but apparently that is not the case. For those wondering, we're currently at 10:30 hours of daylight in San Diego.

The NeoMex hops were left to grow for much longer as they weren't browning out. I would assume this is because they're used to a latitude / growing season more similar to southern California's. The Willow Creek ended up developing a minor white fly infestation and was cut to the dirt in the middle of October. The Multihead hops threw a whole second harvest which were added to a bottle of gin. After the second harvest, I cut the Multihead hops back to the dirt at the end of October.

 

[Voodoo]

It took till about mid-December for the daylight hours to get short enough, but all of the hops eventually died back to their crowns. The gin and beers produced with the hops from the yard have been a great way to pass the fall/winter months.

Toward the end of February, I cut off all of the rogue outer rhizomes that reached the edges of the Cascade / Newport / Santiam containers. The Cascades were planted in a wine barrel while the Newport and Santiam went to friends who wanted to give things a go. I expected to cut back the Newport and Cascade (second year plants) but the Santiam (first year) was remarkably vigorous and required cutting as well.

As of today, all of the hop plants have green bull shoots and seem to be more than happy to explode out of the ground. Pics soon!

 

[Voodoo]

The early developing shoots look very healthy and show no signs of disease or nutrient stress, but its definitely time to start cutting the plants back! Problem is, on my 3rd year plants (and 2nd year willow creek) I can't seem to tell the difference between a bull shoot and a regular shoot. They all just look like big happy bines to me, same node spacing and very similar development.

What's the verdict? I'm thinking cut everything back (except the new Cascade cuttings) and see what resprouts.