From PEI Canada - How's She Goin' Now?

[Mygrain]

New Canadian resident here (got my card!) logging on from the farm.
Built and consumed a few kits years ago.

Bought a farm in 2000.
Had soil and water analyzed...
planted hops 3 years ago...
planting barley this year...

I think you know where this is going.
Attempting a brew is inevitable.

Looking forward to visiting.

 

[storunner13]

Good to hear you're thinking ahead! Welcome!

 

[DragonTail]

Welcome

 

[Mygrain]

Great, Thanks Michael.

I'm planting barley today!

 

[howabouttheiris]

Hey Mygrain... another fellow islander here.

I just planted my hops for the 1st time this year, 2x Cascade and 2x Nugget. Hope to get a few cones this year. If you ever run abundant of hops, let me know and I would be interested in some.

You will find the Island is fairly limited in homebrew shops... but a few more are cropping up now that the brew-on-site wine guys are opening lots of shops.

Welcome to the island and welcome to homebrewtalk.

 

[hopdawg]

Hey there Maritimers and fellow hop growers. Welcome to the board. I'll be interested in knowing how well your hops produce, as well as pests and plagues. I have 70 plants, most are second year, some third and a few first year. Most varieties seem happy in my climate zone, no mildew, just root eating rodents and the odd grub are a pain in the butt. My first year harvest was 8LBS dried from 55 plants. I expect many more this second year. Are you available to help pick in September?

 

[Mygrain]

Thanks for the greetings howabouttheiris and hopdawg!

I planted 3 cascades and 3 halertauer 3 years ago. Fed them horse compost and a bit of mineral supplement, then foliar sprayed with fish emulsion in year two. Got a bountiful harvest last summer with nowhere to go! Built a little stove top drier and did well drying some nice cones...just to see if I could do it. I'll try again this year but need to send samples to a lab for testing. I'll be browsing for info on that here.

Also planted some barley today (small scale - hand seeded). Noticed it's hard to find small batch organic grains for planting, malting etc. IF we get a decent crop this summer, I'd be interested in giving away some small batch quantities to an all grain brewer in exchange for feedback and a report on quality. I managed to source good seed (at no small trouble) and we even sang a chorus of, "John Barleycorn Must Die" as we laid in into the earth. So it's been properly sown in some good red PEI soil!

I'm a certified organic grower and I've been studying the standards for malt barley, hoping I can give it a try myself in a simple home brew. I hope one day to have a different perspective to share on grain quality and small scale organic growing that others can try at home. Done right, you can get amazing yields of grain in a backyard.

Thanks again, please stay in touch.

 

[howabouttheiris]

Mygrain, I am not looking for any freebees.... PM me if you end up with some to sell.

Interested in how your hops produced this far north. Any estimate on the (potential) size of the harvest from 6 plants?

 

[Mygrain]

Hello again!

First year plantings went in the bed in early summer and didn't do very much.
Second year, they started fairly early. I kept the weeds away and kept the soil loose.
Then foliar sprayed the leaves as the bines developed. They covered a 9 ft pergola pretty well. Good yield from the plants but - we had that late summer hurricane and wind damage to the cones was significant. Probably netted several pounds.

This year, the plants are just roarin' in. I expect it takes several years for the root crowns to develop (like asparagus) before the plants are really productive perennials.
Good potential yield, though timing the harvest around late summer storms could be the trick again this year.

Stay in touch and I'll have some hops for you to try.

 

[hopdawg]

You can probably count on dried 1LB per mature plant. I don't know what you guys have found but the flavour of fresh whole hops is abundant and amazing!!!
Last year I had first year plants that reached 16ft tall. Already this year my second year plants are at 8 feet (chicken manure and dried grass clippings were my winter mulch).

 

[Mygrain]

That chicken manure is POWERFUL stuff!

Seems to me I read Vernon used to be a big commercial hop producing area.
Any older growers there to talk to?

My plants are looking strong but the air is too cool yet. We may catch up this summer though.

Couldn't agree more about fresh hops. I amazed some beer loving friends last summer by crushing a handful of cones under their noses!

 

[hopdawg]

That chicken manure is POWERFUL stuff!

Seems to me I read Vernon used to be a big commercial hop producing area.
Any older growers there to talk to?

My plants are looking strong but the air is too cool yet. We may catch up this summer though.

Couldn't agree more about fresh hops. I amazed some beer loving friends last summer by crushing a handful of cones under their noses!

I don't know much about a history of hops growing here in town but Kamloops, 1 hr away had a significant crop in fact the old processing plant is still standing. Chilliwack (near Vancouver up until 10 years ago) also had large crops. There is another small grower close to me, Crannog Ales, that growers for their micro-brewery, they actual were my source for Rhizomes. They have closer to 200 plants, mostly fuggles, golding and cascade. Vernon is the same climate zone as Yakima Washington, lots of warmth. Tonight I measured my Mt Hoods and one is 10ft. These things are crazy, I love 'em.