FSR402's Hop Garden thread

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FSR402

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Jenison, MI
My hops came in a week ago and we still had snow so I put them in the fridge for a week.
Friday night I planted them in pots to get them started inside until there is no more frost problems, which should be a few more weeks.

CFBNV-MVC-723F.JPG


We have
1- Perle
2- Cascade
2- Centennial
1- Fuggle
1- Hallertauer
1- MT Hood
1- Saaz
1- Willamette

Saturday morning I got up at 4:30am and headed to the gym to meet my running group. I then ran 20 miles. Well, ok, I only ran 19 and walked the last mile. :( My legs were cramping up to bad and I did not want to run thru it and pull something. I just got off a 2 week rest because of doing just that.
Then we went for lunch and came home to work on the hop carden.

By hand and with a shovel I removed the sod from part of my yard along side the driveway going to my back barn. I dug up a spot about 2'x34'.
Then I dug three holes about 15"x24" and filled them with concrete. Then stuffed a piece of 4" c-40 PVC at 5' long into the concrete and leveled them out.

JLFKW-MVC-724F.JPG


I will next add another piece of the PVC to the tops of these. The next pieces will be 4"x10'. I will run some cable from pole to pole and then run some down to the bottom of the fence post to help keep them from moving to much. And then will run stringers from the cable down to the ground when I plant the plants.


I will update as I go. :mug:
 
Looking good so far. Will your neighbors give you crap about your PVC poles sticking 6 ft. above your fence?
 
EdWort said:
Looking good so far. Will your neighbors give you crap about your PVC poles sticking 6 ft. above your fence?
No not at all. The people in the house right there are some real rednecks.
My wife is really happy about this. The neighbors deck is off the 2nd floor and it looks right into ours. Once these thing are grown it will block their view and ours. :D
 
Looks like a great plan. Keep us updated. You are pre-disastering an idea I had about my hop garden.

Are the top poles going to be permanent? I was thinking of using a smaller diameter pipe and dropping it into the permanent section. Will a coupling be up to the demands? There has to be a lot of force when all of the leaves are battling the wind.

Barry
 
Castawayales said:
Looks like a great plan. Keep us updated. You are pre-disastering an idea I had about my hop garden.

Are the top poles going to be permanent? I was thinking of using a smaller diameter pipe and dropping it into the permanent section. Will a coupling be up to the demands? There has to be a lot of force when all of the leaves are battling the wind.

Barry
My plan is to leave them just pressed into the couplings or maybe glue one side of it. If I need to I can add something like more cables to beef it up. But this c-40 pipe at 4" dia is really strong. It can also flex a lot without breaking.
I did have a little thought of maybe adding in a 45* coupling at the joints and run another pipe down on the 45* angle and concrete that in too.
But I think it will be fine the way it is. Most of the wind around here comes from the west and these are facing south.
 
I've never done it before but what about drilling holes in each the base and pole part that line up and sticking a bolt or pin through them to lock them in place. I guess you could even put multiple holes in to lock them in at different levels.
 
Bokonon said:
I've never done it before but what about drilling holes in each the base and pole part that line up and sticking a bolt or pin through them to lock them in place. I guess you could even put multiple holes in to lock them in at different levels.
Yeah that would work but I don't see any need. It's not like these 10 foot poles are going to just lift up 3 inches and pull out of a pressed on coupler.
The only thing that could happen is the coupler snaps.

The poles that go one top is the same dia as the lower base poles.
 
RoseburgBrewer said:
How far apart are the poles and how many rhizomes will be placed between poles.
The poles are about 16 feet a part and I have 10 plants going in there total. So they will be about 3 feet a part.
 
I got some time this past weekend to work on it agian.
I set out the poles and ran the cables

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Once the cables were all run I stood them up.

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Then I pulled them tight and planted the babies...

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Next I need to strap the upper poles to the fence to beef it up and then run the stringers down to the plants.
 
That's it. I can't take it anymore. I'm going to have to get some rhizomes and plant next year.

Looks great!
 
Well done on the variety choices. There is no reason to grow bittering-only hops and some people don't realize that. You should be all set...
 
It's been a long time since I have posted in this. Have been so busy this summer with triathlons and now training to do another marathon in 7 weeks. This summer has gone by so fast it seems like last month I planted these.

Well with me being so busy I just kind of let them do their own thing. All of them grew but not all that well. I used a soaker hose and the problem I found was one end of the hose put out a lot more then the other thus the plants on one end gets to much water or the other end got to little.
My saaz that I thought may not make it did pull thru but I never ran any stringers for it, just let it grow on the ground. The two cascades produced as did the centenials and the perle.
I got 2.1oz from the cascade (about half the crop died in a mater of two days last weekend, figure not enough water) got 1.2oz from the centenials and the perles are drying (guessing .5-.75 oz) The others never flowered.
Next year I'll try to be better with them. Will be setting up a drip water system on a timer along with putting down the wood chips I never did this year.

Here are the pics I took when I picked the hops.

CTRMD-MVC-767F.JPG


The cascades

SWJMG-MVC-769F.JPG


The centenials

NRIOA-MVC-768F.JPG


Those are all dried, wieghed, and baged. I picke the perle tonight and they are on the screen drying out.

Not a lot but I have enough to make a nice 10 gal batch of a cascade/centenial pale ale :rockin:

Next year will be better.
 
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