About to order a bunch of hop plants, need some guidance

[Saunassa]

There is something to be said for growing your own hops. Congratulations

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

As a bonus: The mystery hops are coming along nicely, there was an old trellis by them that I will guide them to when they get big enough.
Come fall I will see if they develop any cones, if they smell "grassy" they are not intended for brewing right? And if they have that distinct hoppy smell to them I should be good to just harvest, dry and chuck'em in the freezer.
Tbh it would be fun to brew a mystery hop test beer...

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

A little update.
I think I kept them in the milk cartons for a bit too long, and in a window on the top floor, so they got a little sun burnt and under nutrioned.
Some leaves and 2 bines in total (on 2 plants/1 bine each) have seem to died, along with the top part of several bines.
The good news are that the lower part of the bines look green and healthy, and they have started to shoot new branches and leaves, so they probably became invigorated by being planted outside and with access to lots of fresh soil.
I will chalk it up as a rookie misstake as it's My first try at hops.
Luckily as I understand it is pretty hard to manage to kill these little bastards...
The weather right now is kinda shifting between (somewhat) warm and sunny, and rain, wich along with 24h daylight should be perfect for them in this growth stage, lets hope it gets a bit warmer and sunnier later on during summer.
I don't really expect any harvest this year, but to just let them get a good foothold and maybe a decent harvest next autumn. But I look forward to seeing if the mystery hop plant produces anything worthwhile, I have counted 7 about 50cm long bines so far, almost 1cm thick...

 

[McMullan]

Young plants, if kept inside for a while, need to be hardened off (acclimatised) before being moved outside permanently.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Young plants, if kept inside for a while, need to be hardened off (acclimatised) before being moved outside permanently.

I did that for almost a week before planting them, I think they got a little burnt while inside since they were placed in the sunniest window in the house.

 

[McMullan]

We did have lots of sun early this year. Some of my tomato seedlings suffered a bit.

 

[Alan Reginato]

We did have lots of sun early this year. Some of my tomato seedlings suffered a bit.

OMG, you grow tomatoes. I always thought of you as a heartless Iron Maiden fan! That's really made me change my mind.

 

[McMullan]

OMG, you grow tomatoes. I always thought of you as a heartless Iron Maiden fan! That's really made me change my mind.

Don't get me wrong, I have more respect for tomato plants, plants generally, in fact, including weeds, than I do for some people.

 

[McMullan]

Just to confirm how much a of heartful Iron Maiden fan I am (they are the good guys in reality), I'm going to share a glimpse of one of my other serious interests:

I've got a thing about trees. They give me wood.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I am listening to Human, an album by Death ( the band not the Genre) and I love the Forest but can't paint for *****, does that count?

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Just to confirm how much of heartful Iron Maiden fan I am (they are the good guys in reality), I'm going to share a glimpse of one of my other serious interests:

View attachment 770674
I've got a thing about trees. They give me wood.

Beautiful! I love wood/trees too, leaning to Oak. I built my bar from oak harvested not far from here. When I bought my property the first thing I did was start planting trees every year, turning our farm land back to a forest.

A little digression from the hop topic that started. I grew hops one season. Lots of fun but lots of work, easier just to buy them.

 

[superiorsat]

And the hops are in the ground.
I planted them this weekend, after a few days of letting them sit outside in the pots during the days, then a few days of having them outside during nights also to harden them a bit.
the Summer so far has been kinda sh1tty, so I will have to see how big they get this first year. But I saw some new leafs developing when I put them in the ground so I have some hope, hops are tough little bastards.
The 2 varieties that come from the Southern half of the country I might have to limit to 2 bines each summer so they have a chance to grow cones and get ready for winter before the weather gets too cold, but on the other hand we found a hop plant on our property that has likely stood unattended for decades, have counted 5 bines coming from it already so it seems to thrive here in the unforgiving North...

I would consider building a 12" deep box ( wish I had done this with mine at the start ) around those hops to keep them from roaming under ground and popping up in a different variety's area in about 3 years. My 3 year plants are space the same distance as yours but I put 3 grouped together, 3 Comet then further down the fence line another group of 3 Cashmere. The bines run forever under weed fabric to reach the light of day, and will run for feet under ground and pop up in the yard as far as a few feet away from where the crown is located. So many roots and shoots coming from every where. I'm going to try and retro fix my 2nd year hops after this season that are on the fence that borders my neighbors. I don't want these beasts ( Centennial, and Cascade ) invading his yard.

 

[Homebrew Harry]

OMG, you grow tomatoes. I always thought of you as a heartless Iron Maiden fan! That's really made me change my mind.

Whoa. Some of us die hard Iron Maiden fans have hearts, hops, and tomatoes too !

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I would consider building a 12" deep box ( wish I had done this with mine at the start ) around those hops to keep them from roaming under ground and popping up in a different variety's area in about 3 years. My 3 year plants are space the same distance as yours but I put 3 grouped together, 3 Comet then further down the fence line another group of 3 Cashmere. The bines run forever under weed fabric to reach the light of day, and will run for feet under ground and pop up in the yard as far as a few feet away from where the crown is located. So many roots and shoots coming from every where. I'm going to try and retro fix my 2nd year hops after this season that are on the fence that borders my neighbors. I don't want these beasts ( Centennial, and Cascade ) invading his yard.

I think I have some sheet metal lying around, that and a good old sledge should do the trick.

 

[superiorsat]

This is the main crown and some roots from a 3 or 4 year old cutting. Taking cuttings works extremely well for hops!
View attachment 770673

Check out the crown on this 3 years old cutting that @Hanglow posted on a different thread. Compare that to the size of his foot. That is what is lurking underground on my back alley hops 3rd year, and my 2 year hops on neighbor property line are what I think I need to address. I may also try to drive some sheet steel down instead of digging up everything if the roots allow.

 

[Homebrew Harry]

Check out the crown on this 3 years old cutting that @Hanglow posted on a different thread. Compare that to the size of his foot. That is what is lurking underground on my back alley hops 3rd year, and my 2 year hops on neighbor property line are what I think I need to address. I may also try to drive some sheet steel down instead of digging up everything if the roots allow.

I have the same chair !

 

[Saunassa]

Check out the crown on this 3 years old cutting that @Hanglow posted on a different thread. Compare that to the size of his foot. That is what is lurking underground on my back alley hops 3rd year, and my 2 year hops on neighbor property line are what I think I need to address. I may also try to drive some sheet steel down instead of digging up everything if the roots allow.

I used the plastic sectional pound in edging, think it is 6" tall, to help keep my bines from spreading. It could be due to having clay loam soil is helping keep them in check too.

 

[Sylvain]

Go to news ?

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

They have grown rather big just during the summer, except one that is smaller than the rest because it gets more shade from a tree. I will likely move them next spring and place them more in the open part of the yard so they get more sun.
Both the new hops and the old mystery hop plant look like they are about to start flowering soon, even though I don't expect any quantities of hops it will be fun to see if the old hop plant is of the brewers breed.

 

[Saunassa]

How tall is that and can they grow taller if they want? Since yours are old heritage, and more then one type, you may be surprised how well they work late boil for flavor and aroma too and not just for hop stand.
I myself am interested and excited for you to see how these work out.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

The largest one is about 2m if I were to stretch it out, although it will probably give me more cones next year. Part of the moving plan is that I can build a taller and more sturdy trellis if they are more out in the open part of our yard. They can probably grow as tall as I let them, but they seem to prefer a more bushy style of growth, and the bines start wandering downwards again after a certain height.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

The hop cones are coming along on the plant that has grown the most during the summer, Böle.
Not much hops but some atleast, although I don't know if they are ready to pick just yet, they are starting to spring back into original shape if squeezed and are drier, but that don't smell anything much yet...

 

[T Murph]

They look very ready. Break one open to see and smell the Lublin inside. It should smell like hops. If not the aren't going to develop further. And that's common with first year growth.

 

[McMullan]

With a bigger root system established, you'll get a lot more in the following seasons. Some reports of them turning into triffids after a few years.

 

[hbarsquared]

Yeah first year plants generally won't have a huge harvest. I was shocked at how much my bines produced in year 2.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I guess I will have to wait to next years harvest, gonna dig them up and move them to a better/more sunny spot next spring as soon as the ground thaws.
The mystery hop has lots of cones but they are really small and don't smell of anything besides a little grassy, so likely they are just some decorative variety...

 

[Saunassa]

Did you tear one open and check out the lupulin? My Diamond Springs have no real smell until I open them up. Nuggets on the other hand just picking a few I can smell without tearing.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

One of the hop plants have started to shoot 2 bines, the other ones are still slumbering.
I digged around them a little with my hands to see what the roots looked like, and they all seemed to be doing good so I should get more growth in the coming week or two.
Mind that proper spring has only been here for about a week, most of the snow has melted except a little left in some ditches and really shady spots.

I did not harvest last autumn as none of the hops seemed to have produced any lupulin to speak, and not that many cones.
Hopefully this years harvest will be better, have some holes digged out in the open that I will place them in so they get more sun, in addition to the 24hr daylight we have by now.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

So I think I have managed to kill all but one hop plant.
The one that survived was the one that had most soil around the "crown" of the root, the others the soil had settled a bit around and left them a little exposed.
Just ordered 2 new rhizomes of the type Böle and Korsta, in addition to Gamla Källmon that survived.
Gonna be extra vigilant to mound some soil around and cover with leaves this fall...

 

[DuncB]

So I think I have managed to kill all but one hop plant.
The one that survived was the one that had most soil around the "crown" of the root, the others the soil had settled a bit around and left them a little exposed.
Just ordered 2 new rhizomes of the type Böle and Korsta, in addition to Gamla Källmon that survived.
Gonna be extra vigilant to mound some soil around and cover with leaves this fall...

That's a shame, I assume no signs of sprouting is your indicator of their demise?