Growing Hops in Central Florida

[LostDogBeer]

Photo update. I added the twine for the nines to climb. They are spiraling on their own. Here's a cascade bine.



Here's the way I implement,enter the climbing twine. One horizontal line across the four plants with four vertical lines working toward the top of a 12' pole.




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[chaos99]

Looks great. One thing I learned the hard way, the bines get really heavy after a summer rain. Close to 20lbs wet for my bine last season. I had to reinforce the strength of the trellis after it broke a couple of times.

 

[LostDogBeer]

Thanks for the tip, chaos!


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[plusultra]

I doubled up the jute twine for the portion holding the lines up but used a larger diameter twine for them to grow up. I was speaking to a guy about growing hop and he said his friend had great success using sea minerals for fert. I just bought some online and will see if this makes them stronger and disease resistant as he said it would. I'll get some pictures up this weekend.

 

[Breadontap]

Wow, I am glad I came across this thread. Like most everyone here I thought I was alone in the attempt to grow hops in Central Florida.

I just started growing 2 Centennial and 2 Cascade Rhizomes that I got from morebeer.com last week.

I put them in 8 gallon buckets with a mixture of 50/50 potting mix and composte (all from Home Depot).

They are all doing great. I watered them really well right after planting then left them alone for 5 day (with no rain). I'm trying to get them to build the root structure first. So far I have at least 2 bines sticking their little heads up. One of the Centenials are already about 2" tall.

My plan is to keep them in the buckets which are filled to the top, then prune the leaves once they are tall enough to help with air circulation try and prevent fungis and rot.

 

[LostDogBeer]

Here's a little update on the progress of my hops plants. All four look pretty healthy, three of them of have climbed onto the twine. However one of the plants has four shoots growing instead of one. From what I've read I think I'm supposed to trim this back so one can grow more than the others. Any suggestions out there?




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[plusultra]

The threads that I had read say they want 3 and no more out of each plant.

 

[LostDogBeer]

It's interesting because the other three plants only have one shoot sprouted on each. They are obviously growing faster. I will trim the other soon but I'm almost tempted to let it go just to see what happens.


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[Breadontap]

Here is an update on mine. The one from far away is from today. I have them in the garage since it's supposed to rain the rest if the week. They are really liking the artificial 24 hr light.

The close up is from a couple of days ago. The centennial's are doing great and the cascade is catching up.

I have noticed the same thing. The fewer bines the faster the plant is growing. One cascade has 4 heads just barely sticking out if the soil and it is clear that it is the slowest. Most of 2-3 bines coming up.

I have read a few different thoughts on pruning back the bines. One is to only allow 3 to grow up and trim the rest. The other I believe was from a commercial grower, which was to let them all grow the first year and not worry about the plant yield. Just let it focus on developing a good root structure.

For this first year I'm just going with the second and hopefully will have strong plants next year that will really produce. I'm more interested in keeping them alive than getting a bunch of hops at this point.


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[LostDogBeer]

They look great. Keep us updated I'll do the same.


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[plusultra]

I can not say enough good things about Michigan Hop Alliance. The sold me massive hop rhysomes(sp) with crowns in mid February. I got nugget, centennial and cascade. I have new pictures on my facebook page. I live in port saint lucie florida. I will get some pictures on here in a few days. I noticed last night that my largest plant(cascade) 11' tall is producing hops already. I can't believe it.

 

[chaos99]

I let mine go uncut for a while. Two or three vines will eventually end up growing faster and stronger than the others. The plant will shoot up vines the whole season. I was consistently pruning in the second season.

The first season however was pretty slow so I didn't prune much. I think it's best to help the plant to build up a strong root system the first season, so not a lot of pruning.

 

[Breadontap]

So here are my day 10 pics. The centennial is still rocking but the cascades are catching up.




This one is a close up of the centennial. It's about 7".


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[LostDogBeer]

It's been 22 days since planting. So far, so good. I've been watering them almost every day, however, because since these are not in pots the soil dries out very quickly. Everything I've read online says don't overwater, but I'm assuming that that is advice for more northern areas. Our soil drains so quickly that it's dry almost by the end of the day. They look healthy to me.


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[Breadontap]

Wow, they look great. You about 10 days and a foot ahead of me.

I'm happy to see that there are two different approaches being taken.

I'm keeping mine in pots and watering sparingly. At least until they need a trellis. Keep us posted.


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[chuckcomm]

Tomorrow is hop planting day for me. Im a bit behind so will be doing the prep and planting at the same time. Cascade and Centennial in Kissimmee.

 

[plusultra]

Again I got my hops from Michigan hops alliance in late February. The cascade is in the middle and is producing hops already and the one on the left is nugget and it is not far behind. Cenntennial is on the right and is moving slowly. I used potting soil with a little manure and compost mixed in + some more perlite that I had. I water 2 x per week about 1.5 gallons with miracle grow mix. I did just get some sea minerals that I put in the water instead of miracle grow and I also put some in a spray bottle for foliage. Here are some sideways photo's.

 

[chuckcomm]

Finally got my cascade and centennial planted today. I chose an area along my privacy fence so hopefully they will enjoy climbing along it.

I dug the holes about a foot deep and added a mixture of miracle grow potting soil and garden soil to each hole. I did one vertical and one horizontal planting of each hop to see which works best.

 

[Breadontap]

Day 15 of hops in pots.

I've only been watering every 4 days or so. I can't go too much longer with out a trellis.

Something has been eating the leaves on my cascade. Any idea what it is?








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[plusultra]

use a flashlight and check the leaves at night to look for insects that might be eating them. I haven' had a problem with that but some of the leaves have gotten some brown sections in the leaves. I think it is a fungus but I have not sprayed it with anything. I'm just trying to stay consistant with watering and fert.

 

[Breadontap]

I finally put a trellis up in the back yard. Nothing fancy but it should work. They are 2x4x10's that I put 2' down so call it 8'. I did note that even 2' down I really only have sand a no real soil. I'll have to build a raised bed for the next year.






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[plusultra]

I've heard you have to be careful when planting in the ground as there are some insects that will attack from underground. I think they are nematodes.

 

[Breadontap]

We will see. Lostdogbeer has his in the ground. If he has good results this year I'm going to put mine in the ground next year.


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[atsorrento]

Hello all! Great thread. First time hop grower here. I basically purchased 30 gallon pots since I have everything known to man in my yard (nematodes, mole crickets, moles, etc... you name it). I don't trust planting in the ground but have seen others successfully do it. For s&g's I did plant one in the ground by my chain link fence and already have ants trying to make a home!!! Sprinkled some cinnamon on them.....we'll see if that helps

 

[Breadontap]

I'm out if town. I've heard the rain has been really bad. Has anyone's hops been getting the crap beat out of them?

I'm afraid I'm gonna come home to destroyed plants.


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[chuckcomm]

Rain has been pretty hard here the past two days. Mine are just popping through the ground and none of the soil has washed away. Not sure how vines would have held up. Hope yours are ok.

 

[LostDogBeer]

Thankfully, mine are established enough to resist the extra rain. They look like they are still doing well.


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[plusultra]

We just got rain yesterday but mine have been growing since late February so they are fine. I going to have to start picking soon.

 

[atsorrento]

We just got rain yesterday but mine have been growing since late February so they are fine. I going to have to start picking soon.

How many harvests do you get per year? Also, do you cut them down from Oct to Feb?

 

[plusultra]

This is my first year trying this so I will just pick the ones that are ready and keep the vines up until it gets cold(December I guess). I think they will produce more than once but I really have no clue. Chaos would know better.