anyone growing hops in Phoenix, AZ?

[SimplyRyan]

Hi all,
so... this spring marks my second failed attempt at growing hops from rhizomes. It's been over a month since I planted, I've kept the soil moist and they get plenty of sunshine but no signs of life. I dug up one of the four I planted and there's no indication of growth at all. it just looks like a dried out stick. Two years in a row, I've bought rhizomes as soon as they went on pre-sale and planted them the moment they arrived in my mail box (cascade if you're wondering). Both attempts, the rhizomes were apparently DOA. I think that it's just too damn hot in Phoenix and the rhizomes are already dead from mishandling by USPS.

So, I was wondering if anyone in Phoenix is successfully growing hops and wouldn't mind hooking a brother up with some rhizomes.

 

[Legume]

Check out great lakes hops.
They propagate in a greenhouse and can ship any time of year, not just in spring (whitch is too late for you).
You probably want to plant in the ground in early January.

 

[bpgreen]

I'm not sure hops will do well in Phoenix. I think they need a period of dormancy in order to be productive.

Your best bet would probably be neomexicanus hops. They're native to the southwest (identified in New Mexico, hence the name). As far as I know, great lakes hops is the only source for neomexicanus.

It's probably late for you (but early for everybody else) so you might want to call them and ask whether this is a good time to plant.

 

[corkybstewart]

I'm not sure hops will do well in Phoenix. I think they need a period of dormancy in order to be productive.

Your best bet would probably be neomexicanus hops. They're native to the southwest (identified in New Mexico, hence the name). As far as I know, great lakes hops is the only source for neomexicanus.

It's probably late for you (but early for everybody else) so you might want to call them and ask whether this is a good time to plant.

Neomexicanus may be from New Mexico, but they are native to very high altitudes and do poorly in the heat. My wife and I tracked a stand of native hops (using GPS coordinates)near Ruidoso NM, but in April there was still more than a foot of snow covering the area since it was well above 8000 feet in elevation. I have 2 neomexicanus plants, and they are weird. They both grew a few feet tall their first season, but didn't come up the second season. But we had a ton of snow that winter so they came up again the next spring. The south plantcame up last year, this year the northern one came up 2 months ago and is now almost a foot tall. Then this week the other neo sprouted, long after I had given up on it. Cascades, Centennial and magnum do well in the heat, most others I've tried have completely failed.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I would love to grow some hops. I live in cave creek and have been listening to the “growing beer” podcast someone on here recommended. He lives in the UK, so growing hops is a no brainer. I was thinking that I could grow some plants against my block wall in the middle of winter. In the event that the temp drops too low overnight, perhaps the heat mass in the wall would keep them from frostbite. Or maybe they can survive a soft frost? It is rare that the temp gets below the low 30s in AZ. I did learn on the podcast that without a dormancy period (that AZ weather can’t provide), I would likely need 2nd year rhizomes to produce a usable yield.

 

[bpgreen]

Neomexicanus may be from New Mexico, but they are native to very high altitudes and do poorly in the heat. My wife and I tracked a stand of native hops (using GPS coordinates)near Ruidoso NM, but in April there was still more than a foot of snow covering the area since it was well above 8000 feet in elevation. I have 2 neomexicanus plants, and they are weird. They both grew a few feet tall their first season, but didn't come up the second season. But we had a ton of snow that winter so they came up again the next spring. The south plantcame up last year, this year the northern one came up 2 months ago and is now almost a foot tall. Then this week the other neo sprouted, long after I had given up on it. Cascades, Centennial and magnum do well in the heat, most others I've tried have completely failed.

Thanks for the correction. I'm still trying to learn my way around neomexicanus hops.

 

[corkybstewart]

I would love to grow some hops. I live in cave creek and have been listening to the “growing beer” podcast someone on here recommended. He lives in the UK, so growing hops is a no brainer. I was thinking that I could grow some plants against my block wall in the middle of winter. In the event that the temp drops too low overnight, perhaps the heat mass in the wall would keep them from frostbite. Or maybe they can survive a soft frost? It is rare that the temp gets below the low 30s in AZ. I did learn on the podcast that without a dormancy period (that AZ weather can’t provide), I would likely need 2nd year rhizomes to produce a usable yield.

I've been growing hops here in southeastern NM for at least 10 years. They require cold weather in the winter, you don't need to protect them from froast. They will die back with the first frost, but the part that matters, the root crown, is alive and well underground. We had a blizzard in 2016 that dumped 15 inches of snow, and with the winds up to 80 mph snow piled up 6 feet deep on my hop garden and stayed for a couple of weeks at least. That was one of my best years ever. (see my post to bpgreen about neomexicanus).
Drip irrigation is the key to hop farming in the desert, don't worry about the cold!

 

[Senormac]

A wealth of knowledge right there, that's what that is !! At least from that part of the globe.
These boards are so awesome !!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I would love to grow some hops. I live in cave creek and have been listening to the “growing beer” podcast someone on here recommended. He lives in the UK, so growing hops is a no brainer. I was thinking that I could grow some plants against my block wall in the middle of winter. In the event that the temp drops too low overnight, perhaps the heat mass in the wall would keep them from frostbite. Or maybe they can survive a soft frost? It is rare that the temp gets below the low 30s in AZ. I did learn on the podcast that without a dormancy period (that AZ weather can’t provide), I would likely need 2nd year rhizomes to produce a usable yield.

Frost is the least of your worries - they need proper winter weather to sync them properly. Not sure that it actually has to be freezing, but certainly close to it for them to be properly happy. I imagine it gets colder in Bohemia but certainly in Kent a normal winter goes down to the low 20s F with the occasional one going down to low 10sF. On the other hand, summer temps might get to 90F occasionally but not really much more than that - the UK all-time record was 101F in Faversham, heart of the Kent hop area.

Aside from the heat (some commercial growers in Australia have water misting systems that kick in at ?90F??) and water (they're pretty thirsty), you're also on the limit of the day length needed for proper fruiting. It's usually cited as within 35 degrees of the equator, but anecdotally there seems to be a bit of flex on that so you can probably get away with it. But it's worth emphasising that these are temperate zone plants, they rely on seasonality in temperature and day length to work properly.

Personally I've had better luck with rhizomes than with potted plants, but YMMV.

 

[AntDoctor]

I'm attempting to grow some wild-collected neo-Mexicanus hops on Phoenix this year, and I'm not super optimistic about what will happen in the heat.

However, I want to publicly note that hops DO NOT need cold temperatures or dormancy periods. Seasonality is literally just based on the photoperiod, and people have had success (even in field systems) using LEDs at night to extend and manipulate the plants' sense of the day length. With a powerful enough grow light, you can grow hops indoors all year long (4 harvests per year instead of 1).

 

[B-Hoppy]

Can it be done long term without a negative impact on the crowns' vitality ? Also, would this growing method be sustainable or just a novelty considering all the additional costs of production compared to what it takes to grow them in a conventional manner?

 

[ehall]

I spent 5yrs attempting to grow them here in PHX, no luck. the most I ever got was about 3/4oz dried one year. I gave up. its too freakin hot here. I have a buddy up in Flagstaff who grows them for me and even that is difficult due to late frost and/or hailstorms that roll thru with monsoon. If you're going to keep attempting to grow here. you have to be on south side or east side with full afternoon shade but once temps hit 105F, they just stop growing.

 

[AntDoctor]

Can it be done long term without a negative impact on the crowns' vitality ? Also, would this growing method be sustainable or just a novelty considering all the additional costs of production compared to what it takes to grow them in a conventional manner?

According to the research, there's no negative impact on yield or growth or anything else. I also don't think it's just a novelty: there are outdoor hop farms in Brazil that are using giant floodlights at night to keep hops growing even though they normally wouldn't be able to, based on the photoperiod over there.

Ugh. I'm going to try and build a ghetto grow chamber in a bathroom shower I'm not using. Since I'm planning on maybe moving away from Phoenix soon, I just want the rhizomes to survive and grow a bit. I'm not really looking to harvest this year. Hope I can do even that though!

 

[B-Hoppy]

Yeah, that publication came out a few years ago but haven't heard anything from them since (not saying that it doesn't work, just no new chatter). The guy Bauerle was working with out there had an off campus greenhouse tricked out with lots of expensive infrastructure and ended up scrapping the idea then moving the plants into the ground at another location. I messaged him about his transition out of the greenhouse and into the ground but he never gave a direct answer , rather, hinted toward the fact that the greenhouse didn't work. Haven't heard anything further from him about his operation.

One of the first people I knew that were growing hops in Brazil was a dude named Max from SE Pennsylvania who spent his winters at his 'other' home in Brazil. This was back when I was on social media 5 or ten years ago and involved in a hop growing group. He found a few folks at a university there that he recruited to try getting a breeding program set up in order to develop some day-neutral hops that wouldn't need supplemental lighting to defray the cost. Don't know what he and his crew is up to now. I do know that he was interested in what the folks in Florida were doing as they were way south of the traditional growing environment. The Fla. researchers got a bunch of grant money saying that hops could become a new crop to help farmers transition from the citrus industry (which is in big trouble there due to citrus greening disease) but their research ended up showing something a little different: 7 Myths, Realities, Successes, and Challenges for Florida Hops.

 

[ehall]

you can also grow hops hydroponically

 

[MaxStout]

This month's issue of BYO magazine has a feature on hops growing in different parts of the US. One grower in Florida has had good results, and said the hot humid weather wasn't much of a problem. But they stated that the summer days aren't as long at that latitude, and they had to use some artificial lighting to "extend" the daylight. Phoenix isn't quite as far south, but that still may be an issue.

 

[AntDoctor]

The Fla. researchers got a bunch of grant money saying that hops could become a new crop to help farmers transition from the citrus industry (which is in big trouble there due to citrus greening disease) but their research ended up showing something a little different: 7 Myths, Realities, Successes, and Challenges for Florida Hops.

Fascinating! Science can generate extra interest by overturning common misconceptions. However, it's rarer to then see a response to those novel claims that says, "Hey, actually it's still not really viable, even though we should it's possible." That link has some very interesting information!