Cones or More Sidearms??

[Battery_BreweryNJ]

Theses showed up about 3 days ago at the top of my Nugget plant which is about 16ft now. Are they the start of cones or just more side arms? They are coming off of side arms.

Thanks.

 

[nealf]

Look like cones to me

 

[homebrewer_99]

Those spiked balls are baby cones.

 

[ben the brewman]

thats exactly what they are little baby hops.

 

[enderwig]

By your title, I thought you came into some cash and were asking if conical fermenters or new guns is the better purchase! Silly me

 

[Battery_BreweryNJ]

Sweetness!!:rockin:
Another question? How much do you think my yield will be, its a 1st year plant?

 

[RichBrewer]

By your title, I thought you came into some cash and were asking if conical fermenters or new guns is the better purchase! Silly me

Now that's funny because I was thinking the same thing!

 

[GearBeer]

Well with the conical fermenter your fermentation volume could go up, but there's more work involved in making more beer. I'd suggest the sidearms, with those you can steal plenty of beer.

 

[cuinrearview]

Sweetness!!:rockin:
Another question? How much do you think my yield will be, its a 1st year plant?

It's difficult to tell your yeild from just those pictures. If you net a few ounces of dried cones count yourself lucky and make absolutely sure that you brew with them. The plant will have already paid for itself.

 

[david_42]

My first year's harvest off of three plants was 1.5 oz dried (Cascade, Fuggles, NB). The other two, nada. I made a Whole Harvest Ale.

 

[Battery_BreweryNJ]

Does anyone have a good recipe i could use for when i harvest my nugget plant?

 

[7Enigma]

Nugget is high AA% so use it for your bittering. You would need some flavoring/aroma hops (cascade/etc.), but you could make virtually anything that requires bittering hops. Might I suggest a pale ale (or IPA if you have enough).

That is my plan this year. I have a great 1st year cascade farm (3 small plants that should produce I'm hoping at least 3oz, shooting for a pound. )

I also have 2 nuggets that I purchased from Freshops that are much smaller and only slowly starting to produce hop flowers. I don't expect much but since they are bittering if I can get 1-2oz minimum I can at least make a nice pale ale.

 

[cheezydemon]

That is a healthy looking first year plant! What do you attribute the success to?

Of my 5 planted, 1 is 16 ft tall, one is 3 ft tall and 1 is 6 inches tall....

No show on the other 2. I did not really prepare the soil. That will be my lesson learned from this.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Neither.

Those are burrs, which are the start of cones. Right now those tentacles are fast at trying to collect pollen from any potential males but, very soon they will start to begin putting on the bracts that form the petal of the hop flowers you are after.

It tends to go rather quicky from this point on to harvest so be sure to check those plants often.

 

[7Enigma]

Soil preparation is #1. In a first year plant probably more important than the amount of light. Proper moisture is obviously also very important, but the soil is #1. When the rhizomes are just planted, there is so little root area that in order to get the fast growth needed to have a good harvest the first year, it's the first month or so that sets the stage for the huge plants by harvest time. Easiest way to have great soil is to compost your own and then till the soil with the compost. I save all of my kitchen scraps and paper and chuck it all on the dirt in my backyard. I keep it moist (cover during storms) and add to it continuously). It never gets to the finished compost look of store bought stuff but I prefer it that way. The partially composted material is like a time release formula so I know there is always nutrients at the root level.

After a month or 3 I then put a healthy 2-3" layer of compost around the perimeter of the bines. This keeps the soil dry right around the bines, but allows for nutrients to leech into the soil when I water/rains.

Following that procedure has resulted in a VERY nice 1st year cascade crop. I had limited my teepee support to only ~8' since I thought it wouldn't grow much and I regret that decision as I could have easily met the 12-15' height and then some. I'm sure it hurt my harvest a bit, but I should still get a couple batches worth.