Amount of sunlight needed

[Steveruch]

Because of some big trees on the empty lot next to my house I don't get a long period of sun to grow hops. Are there any hops that grow okay with lesser amounts of sunlight?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Don't worry about it - you're a good way south of the traditional hop growing areas so the intensity of the sun is greater, which cancels out the shade effect to some extent. Also remember that on hop farms the bines are grown sufficiently close together that they effectively shade each other, whereas typically at home you don't have rows of hops next to each other.

RDWHAHB

 

[day_trippr]

Having grown hops for 7 years, production will be a function of sunlight.
The more sunlight the greater the production. There's no escaping that.
And note that hop farms orient their rows to maximize solar exposure, it's not random...

Cheers!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Having grown hops for 7 years, production will be a function of sunlight.
The more sunlight the greater the production. There's no escaping that.

Living some 10 degrees further north than you, in a climate that tends to the murky - all I would say is that you really have to cut down sunlight to have a major effect on yield. The big problem is flavour more than yield, flavour is far more reliant on sunlight.

And note that I didn't say that it there would be no effect, just that it's not really worth worrying about (given Steve is not in a position to cut down the trees).

And note that hop farms orient their rows to maximize solar exposure, it's not random...

It may not be random but the amount of time that commercial hops are getting full sun amounts to less than an hour a day, most of the time they're being shaded by their neighbours. Cones don't just grow at the tip of the bine...