Florida Hops experiment

[aiptasia]

Still waiting on the cold snaps to calm down a little bit. The plants look like overgrown octopi, reaching for anything their bines can climb. I'm keeping them potted for now sitting in my driveway. Still getting frosts and freezes predicted for the weekend so i'm lax to put them in the ground yet. I can't keep waiting though as i'm sure the plants are on the verge of being root bound in the pots. I'm going to give them one more week, then they're going into the ground the weekend of the 16th of March. Freeze or no freeze.

 

[Crito]

I am thinking daylight time is a key factor in growth. My second year cascades are only 6 inches tall, no major growth. Bines are duper thick compared to last year

 

[Ddubduder]

From what I can tell when the plant sprouted had a lot to do with mine. The three plants sprouted at three different times. The centennial got off to an early start and at about two feet has stopped moving for the last month or so. The Willamette was the second to shoot out and and doing pretty decent, thin bines but four strong ones and is growing decently. My galena was the last one to move but when it did holy cow. It grows about 1-3in a day and each bine is the same thickness as four of the Willamette, it's a power house. The three plants were all in the same place getting the same sun and they all get the same fertilizer. I probably should have waited till end of January to let them break ground. I've read with an early movement plant that stalls, it may be best to cut it down and start over if its early enough in the season, but I'll just leave it be. Patience when gardening is key.

 

[Brewmech]

Mine are about 3ft high now. I think the cold snaps slowed them down a bit. Also I seem to be getting some brown spots on the leaves. I think they were too dry. I now water them with 2 gallons every morning and once a week throw in some fish emulsification. Mine are in pots, about 15 gallons ea. I need to drill some holes in the bottoms, right now I have holes about 2 inches from the bottom. There is a lattice and some twine for the bines to grow on.

I'll probably split a bag of black gold and fill the rest of the pots. I don't intend on planting these in the ground.

 

[Ddubduder]

I think the cold snaps slowed them down a bit.

I'm in the same boat, I'm hoping the cold snaps call it quits. Even my Galena which has been a beast growing like crazy seems to have stalled now. All three plants look healthy and green but I'm just not seeing the growth I had.

 

[aiptasia]

Mine are about 3ft high now. I think the cold snaps slowed them down a bit. Also I seem to be getting some brown spots on the leaves. I think they were too dry. I now water them with 2 gallons every morning and once a week throw in some fish emulsification. Mine are in pots, about 15 gallons ea. I need to drill some holes in the bottoms, right now I have holes about 2 inches from the bottom. There is a lattice and some twine for the bines to grow on.

I'll probably split a bag of black gold and fill the rest of the pots. I don't intend on planting these in the ground.

You'll be better off drilling out holes at the bottom of the pots. Hops don't like wet roots, so i'd avoid those self watering pots or any pots with dishes under them for this reason. They like a good watering followed by a few days of drying out.

I gave mine their first dose of jobe's all purpose organic fertilizer. Each pot got about a full rounded tablespoon sprinkled on the surface per container garden instruction. I've noticed some slight leaf yellowing on my plants on the older leaves, which usually means a lack of nitrogen. The rest of the plants look healthy and vigorous, and the growth has slowed down a lot.

I'm assuming the growth slowing down has everything to do with being root bound. I'm quite sure the plants have completely rooted all of the soil in the pot and the roots are probably coiling around in there. I'll have to cut the sides of the root mass when I transplant them to the soil this weekend. This will encourage them to begin rooting again.

 

[Ddubduder]

Well I gave them a whole month to come back and no activity. I sliced the bines off all three of the plants on Saturday and already see new bines on all of them this morning. I'm going to up the fertilizer regime to once every three weeks vs the four I was doing before. I've also added a new drop line to them to keep the watering more consistent. Fingers crossed.

 

[Chris7687]

Hey guys, just ordered 4 hop rhizomes (2 Cascade and 2 Cenntenial). I am located the nice hot city of Tampa, Florida and looking to join in on the hop growing party we have going on here! I am a little behind on getting started, but better late than never. I was going to do a trial run, do 2 in my aquaponic garden and 2 in a container garden.

From what I have read on here, you guys said no to over water. So I would assume I should not use my self watering system and just manually water.

When you guys use organic fertilizer, what do you guys use? All my plants are organic, but I don't really fertilize anything. The only thing I use is Liquid seaweed w/ chelated iron, other than that the plants receive all the nutrients they need from the fish poop.

 

[Ddubduder]

Hey Chris, welcome to the fun. Where about a in Tampa are you located? I'm in south pasco. I can't say I'm an expert by any means as I'm still in the middle of learning myself but I can tell you what I've learned so far. I'm not so worried about watering my plants too much. I tried to keep them in the shade as much as possible but they are still receiving several hours of direct sun which to me means they new all the water they can get just to keep hydrated at all. I do have mine on the drip system, getting about a gallon of water a day per plant. I've had some trouble with them stalling out but I believe that had more to do with planting them early and the cold snap we had here throughout march. I've since trimmed them back down to the ground and they are already shooting up new bines. these things are resilient! Have fun, experiment and let us know what works/doesn't.

 

[Chris7687]

ddubduder - I am in Town N Country area. Gallon of water a day!! Yikes I need to step it up. They received a ton of water the other day with those rains we had, but haven't given them anything since then.

The plants all sprouted and seem to be doing great! I am going to string them up today on a temp trellis (ladder). They are in containers now, but would eventually like to plant them into the ground. How does the general concensus grow them? Ground or Container?

 

[Chris7687]

Picture update:

Hey guys, have my hops in containers until I decide how I want to full grow them. Ground or larger container. They have been in soil for about 10 days now. Gave them a short trellis to grow on for hte time being, until I decide what I'm doing. They grow pretty quick, can't wait to string them up for good and watch them grow.

For those into non-conventional gardening, I have a rhizome in an Aquaponics GB and it seems to be growing fairly well. Curious to see how it works out. I will post pictures of that one later.

 

[Chris7687]

Just an update on my grow... Lost two hop plants to silk worms. I had my containers next to a large tree and silk worms have been falling right into them. They chewed the vines right at the base and I lost my two largest vines.... I hate bugs! Still have two vines going off the one rhizome and another rhizome in my aquaponic system that is growing really slow (new system).

 

[Phordee]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one crazy enough to grow hops in Florida

I live in the Tampa Bay area and just started growing these about 5 weeks ago:
(Cascade, Chinook, Golden, Nugget)
http://imgur.com/a/e3CR4

My main obstacle so far is dealing with pests. My plants are constantly under attack from beetles, mites, aphids, grasshoppers etc... I've been using a combination of neem oil and rosemary to keep them at bay but nothing seems to work. I'll be trying tobacco juice next.

Good luck and happy growing!

 

[Ddubduder]

I've been having pretty good luck using orangicide. A few others on the forum sweat by it. I need to get some new pictures posted. My plats have started to come back, except my Willamette. I can see tiny buds starting but they just don't seem to want to get off the ground, they are all 1/2in or smaller. The other two, my galena and centennial are well on their way to recovery. Each plant only came back with one strong bine but atleast they are growing.

 

[Ddubduder]

The centennial seems to be the most full of the three but the galena is growing tall quickly but hardly has any leaves. The Willamette has come back and sprouted but really no good growth to be had. I did notice about an inch long bine today which is longer than Friday so that's a good sign.

Here is my centennial




Galena



Willamette

 

[Ddubduder]

So in the three days since I last posted the pictures, my galena has grown about 2 feet. prompting me to build a temporary trellis for it to climb. I built the trellis last night while the Galena was 2 inches above the tomato cage and it's now already a foot up the twine. The centennial is almost all the way to the top of the twine structure I made And even the Willamette started to produce a couple bines.





I know the trellis isn't the prettiest thing but for a temporary solution it will do the job.

 

[Chris7687]

Wow... I need to try and find some new rhizomes, the two I have still haven't grown an inch! I am not sure if maybe they're not receiving enough sunlight, water, or what. They are just sitting there.

 

[Ddubduder]

I wouldn't give up on them just yet. All three of mine stalled out and I had to cut them back to the ground. My two big growers, Galena and Centennial took about a month to go again but I had no activity on my Willamette. This weekend I noticed something popping out of the side of my pot.





Apparently the Willamette didn't feel like growing up so it grew down and out and just now is it going up again. I think what happened was once I cut it back there was too much of the crown showing and it crystallized. Just keep watering and fertilizing. They could just be focusing on roots again before making the jump back above the ground.

 

[dunz]

Here is a pic of my Wesley Chapel 1st year hops from Great Lakes Hops

From left to right:
Columbus 9' staring to produce cones
Hallertau 15'
Magnum 10' staring to produce cones
Chinook 7' staring to produce cones
Zeus 7'
Cascade 5'
Centennial 4'

Missed the Centennial in the photo above so here it is

 

[Ddubduder]

Very nice Dunz, what poles did you use to string up your twine? I didn't even think about putting something attached to my fence. Very simple and effective, well done.

 

[beaksnbeer]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one crazy enough to grow hops in Florida

I live in the Tampa Bay area and just started growing these about 5 weeks ago:
(Cascade, Chinook, Golden, Nugget)
http://imgur.com/a/e3CR4

My main obstacle so far is dealing with pests. My plants are constantly under attack from beetles, mites, aphids, grasshoppers etc... I've been using a combination of neem oil and rosemary to keep them at bay but nothing seems to work. I'll be trying tobacco juice next.

Good luck and happy growing!

1/4 cup dish soap (dawn)
2-3 Tbsp lemon juice
12oz beer
1 gallon water

mix let the bubble die down put into a spray bottle spray the vine, aphids, scale, etc. will disappear with the heavy rains you may need to spray more often.

P.S. watch you containers lost mine last year when Debbie dumped rain on us for over a week roots don't like to be that wet.

 

[dunz]

Very nice Dunz, what poles did you use to string up your twine? I didn't even think about putting something attached to my fence. Very simple and effective, well done.

Thank you. I used 3/4" EMT, from the electrical aisle, with 1/2" EMT inside so that I can telescope them up and down as needed. Then painted everything green so they didn't stick out too bad.

 

[Ddubduder]

1/4 cup dish soap (dawn)
2-3 Tbsp lemon juice
12oz beer
1 gallon water

mix let the bubble die down put into a spray bottle spray the vine, aphids, scale, etc. will disappear with the heavy rains you may need to spray more often.

P.S. watch you containers lost mine last year when Debbie dumped rain on us for over a week roots don't like to be that wet.

Thanks beaksnbeer, I'll have to give this a try.

 

[benzy4010]

Du z what is your trellis system made of? Looks like a design I'm trying to go with

 

[Ddubduder]

Du z what is your trellis system made of? Looks like a design I'm trying to go with

He said it one post earlier.

Thank you. I used 3/4" EMT, from the electrical aisle, with 1/2" EMT inside so that I can telescope them up and down as needed. Then painted everything green so they didn't stick out too bad.

 

[dunz]

Tampa area gardeners, Ddubduder and others, are you getting any cones yet? Here are a couple pics from my garden.

 

[PerfectD3]

Are any of you worried about lightning strikes on the tall poles being used?

 

[Ddubduder]

Are any of you worried about lightning strikes on the tall poles being used?

It's always a possibility, but I view it as a risk of growing hops in general. You can't really get away from tall poles with these things. I just won't be going outside to check on them in the rain.

Tampa area gardeners, Ddubduder and others, are you getting any cones yet? Here are a couple pics from my garden.

That's too funny, I actually took pictures this morning of mine planning on posting them later today. My centennial though the smallest of the three is the only one with full cones. The galena is throwing mad spurs and the Willamette is finally taking off again.

 

[dunz]

How are the Tampa area hop growers plants doing with all this rain? I got a harvest in this weekend, after dodging the rain and hope to get another one later this year from the same plants that still had a lot of new burs.

I posted some pics in another thread:https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/south-florida-hop-growing-261214/index7.html#post5353604

 

[Ddubduder]

My Galina is ready to harvest this weekend and I might get my Willamette too but it may need another week or two. My centennial probably won't have more than a hand full of cones.