Come on spring!! Here we go again. Anyone have soil/shoots showing?

[kilohertz]

Well it's been warm here, 10-12C during the days but still 0 at night. We still have a foot of snow on the ground. Got desperate today and tried the snowblower...way to heavy...and mushy...guess we'll just have to wait. Last year I put down old shingles over the row to absorb the solar energy but this year I have 100 plants, in 5 rows to defrost....come on sunshine!!

Anyone have soil, or better yet shoots showing?

Cheers

 

[ong]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1456092498.280356.jpg First shoots just popping out now.

 

[krackin]

Dern sight better here right now than the last few years. I've only been about -25 F once all season where I usually hit -35 F several times and call it normal. Seen -45F. I'm liking this a lot. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of frozen ground, snow and ice. It just isn't too bad, tolerable.

 

[nagmay]

Here in Oregon, spring has arrived.

Normally, I hack back the shoots until April. Not sure what the best course of action is for this year.

 

[tjmac5071]

I put my first year plants in the basement for the winter and will tske them out of the container and plant in the ground this year. I noticed some growth last week and last night decided to put up some strings for them to climb.

Should I let them grow or cut back?

View attachment 1456180139938.jpg

 

[kilohertz]

Holy crap you guys are makin' me crazy...

I went to town today and bought a roll of roofing paper and split it into 3 and rolled it out over the rows...If we continue with sunshine for a week, I should be down to soil shortly.

My goal is to be able to harvest in late August or early Sept. which is why the push to get them going. Trying to dry when it is cold and wet outside is a PITA.

We have a shorter grow season here so any advantage I can get....

Cheers

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

The plants that were already planted at my new house have sprouts everywhere, the plants are ridiculous...some of the roots going throughout the entire planter box are like 1" thick and theres dozens of them.

My only regret is not knowing what is there, i'll likely gut the planter box and plant my own this year. Normally i'd rather have them in the ground but the space for this planter box is pretty big, probably 16' long, 2' wide and 4' deep.

I was going to just remove the plants, but after inspecting them closer i realized how old they must be there is no way im getting them out short of destroying the entire above ground box, but its rotting away anyways so its time i suppose.

 

[gometz]

Winter never came in Houston!

Second year hops from rhizomes, other than the Pacific Gem and Fuggle. Please note the white you are seeing is diatomaceous earth I sprinkled in order to keep bugs away.

Sorachi Ace has started coming up about 2 weeks ago. I cut off any shoots beyond 3 in order to allow it to put its energy into the 3 primary bines:

Centennial is coming up starting a few days ago, it looks the most robust so far, so I have high hopes of it giving me some good hops this year:

My Tettnang rhizome died over the winter (never did that great in the heat), so I replaced it with a Pacific Gem, and got a free Fuggle as well (had to build a new box to accommodate it). I bought plants instead of rhizomes, and both are showing signs of life less than a week after planting:

My Chinook hasn't started growing, but it has ton of little nodes that look ready to come up any time. It actually did the best last year.

Edited to show pictures.

 

[govner1]

Our daffodils just started blooming!

 

[BeardedBrews]

Early sprouts here in Tacoma.

 

[kilohertz]

So after about 5 days the snow is about half the original depth....a few more days of sun and the dirt should be showing. Worked pretty well.

Cheers

 

[phug]

I won't be able to check on mine until April or so since I planted up at the cottage. But it's also up at the 45th parallel, so we'll have to wait and see.