Gonna be growing hops this year!!!

[dlaramie08]

Y'all may want to check out the hops growing section of this forum. It is a wealth of information for beginners and seasoned growers alike.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Simcoe, Warrior, and Amarillo are hard if not impossible to find, I think they are all propietary. However there are a number of good substitutes out there. I personally grow cascade and nugget, since I like pale ales and IPAs. I usually buy bulk bittering hops and then use my own for aroma. Hops need a year to take root and then produce a CRAPLOAD of cones in their second year, a good bit in their third, and then start to decline a bit. Be sure to dry correctly, I had a few "kinda still damp" cones ruin my cascade this year.

Just consider them impossible unless you are planning on finding out where they are grown, going to sneak onto the farm land and steal a rhizome. They are proprietary and if someone starts selling them they are in big trouble as is their source.

With proper fertilizer and taking care of your plants they can grow pretty crazy the first year...then again after work pretty much every day i went out back and inspected them to keep an eye out for bug infestations. I still think those two ladybug bags i released a few months apart really helped, those bastards were covering my plants...which means no aphids can take hold and suck the life out.

With 3 plants i ended up with just over 1 pound dried hops...that said I am in Oregon so your results may vary.

Personally i went for Cascade(Some bittering but mostly Aroma), Columbus(High AA but also decent aroma), and Newport which is just a straight bittering hop similar to Galena.

That said, just like brewing in general, dont think your going to grow hops to save money. To really get decent harvests you need to keep an eye on them, sure you can just let them do their thing and water when you remember but you'll get ****ty yields...and for a plant that only harvests once a year seems like a waste to not pamper them!