Growing Hops in Central Florida

[chaos99]

I've been using CitrusGain with good results. I've been fertilizing the plants about every 30-45 days using about 2-3 Tbsp each time. I'm already harvesting the hops on two of my plants.

 

[chaos99]

Forgot to mention, my plants are in the ground. Not in pots.

 

[atsorrento]

My 1st year potted plants are sucking wind most likely due to me using 3-4-6 fertilizer. I recently fertilized w/24-8-16 miracle grow for s&g's so we'll see what happens. On the positive side, I found lady bugs on one of the plants doing their job


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[LizardRuss]

Thanks for the feedback!

Sounds like 1-3 Tbsp per plant. I'll start with 1 per pot and see how that goes. They've got about 5-6 feet of bines, but they've pretty much stopped growing. The leaves haven't dropped, so hopefully they're just underfed.

 

[chaos99]

Here are some pictures of my crop. I'm very please this year despite the tons of rain. So far, I've picked about 5oz of hops. There's at least 10oz left on the bines! I have two bines inside a screen patio and one outside. That's an 8' ladder for perspective.

 

[COEBRA]

I followed this thread all last year and started mine this year. All 4 Centennials have broke ground. Still waiting on the Cascades. I'm in North Central Fl near Gainesville so our winters will be a bit better for mine. I'm potting them for the first one or two years and then plan to transplant them into a two or three row 18' tall hop yard.

 

[Breadontap]

Congrats COEBRA! It's a fun addition to the brewing hobby. I put out 4 last year and didn't keep up with them as well as I should have. The top I used also gave way but 3 plants survived and this year I'm using 1/2" burlap rope. Should be a good year. They didn't yield but maybe an ounce last year. I post a pic soon.

 

[Breadontap]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1428665967.764008.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1428665993.490139.jpg

 

[COEBRA]

Thanks Breadontap! I decided to go with 3/8 sisal rope since all the bulk coir twine was nowhere to be found. I have apples, pears, and grapes too so I'm hoping these will be a great addition to the garden!

 

[atsorrento]

Here are some pictures of my crop. I'm very please this year despite the tons of rain. So far, I've picked about 5oz of hops. There's at least 10oz left on the bines! I have two bines inside a screen patio and one outside. That's an 8' ladder for perspective.

Chaos, it looks like you are letting all the bines go up instead of limiting to 2-3 per rope as many people suggest. After seeing your plants I'm not sure I believe in the 'limit' thing. Your plants look awesome!!! It also looks like you are growing on the inside of the screen too no? Also, are you solely using CitrusGain or are you switching to something else (i.e., bio-bloom) for the flowering stage?

 

[chaos99]

Chaos, it looks like you are letting all the bines go up instead of limiting to 2-3 per rope as many people suggest. After seeing your plants I'm not sure I believe in the 'limit' thing. Your plants look awesome!!! It also looks like you are growing on the inside of the screen too no? Also, are you solely using CitrusGain or are you switching to something else (i.e., bio-bloom) for the flowering stage?

Right. I didn't trim much (just thinned it a bit at mid-season). I'm not sure if limiting and cutting is the way to go either. Maybe if you want the bine to focus growth on a few cones to perhaps "enhance" them (similar to what vineyards do to grape vines to focus growth for the grape). Other than that, I'm don't think it's necessary as long as you keep up with the fertilizer. Hops take in a lot of nutrients. If the bine starts to show browning withered leaves at the base, it means the bine doesn't have enough nutrients so it's literally sucking what it needs from it's self.

Sticking with Citrus Gain because of the low phosphate. I read hops don't like too much phosphate.

 

[atsorrento]

I do have one plant that is very slow out of the gate. Maybe I'll try citrusgain on that one. Thanks for the info man! How are your plants looking this year?

 

[plusultra]

chaos seems to have the best system for growing hops around this area in florida. I was able to get about 100+ hops from my nugget and cascade hops last year until aphids and heat all but stopped progress. I used liquid miracle grow in the water and had them in pots. My centennial hops did very little and it appears to be dead this year. I'm moving to a house with one acre and am planning on putting them in the ground. I'm going to try citrus gain. good luck to all.

 

[atsorrento]

I would love to put them in the ground but my soil is extremely sandy. Not sure how they will do. As for the aphids, I've been lucky. Every time I see aphids I also see lady bugs. I too had a centennial that appeared to sh!t the bed but has recently taken off. And yes....good luck to all. Never give up.

 

[atsorrento]

The positive side of early hop flowering/cone development=happy wife on Mother's Day
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1431269277.837454.jpg

 

[Brewer_Chad]

Hay guys just planted some hops in Tampa Bay. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1433280397.203309.jpg
Here is the Cascade Robozim I bought off Amazon.

 

[Brewer_Chad]

Here it is planted 4/25/15 View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1433280604.489491.jpg

 

[Brewer_Chad]

Here it is 4/28/15
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[Brewer_Chad]

Here it is 5/5/15 View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1433280942.612678.jpg

 

[Brewer_Chad]

Here it is 6/2/15
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1433281034.757201.jpg

 

[Brewer_Chad]

I used Root and Grow.
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[Brewer_Chad]

I also used 2.5 64 quart sized medical-grow potting soil.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1433284351.731177.jpg

 

[Brewer_Chad]

I bought the half whisky cask at lows for $50, the potting soil was $30, and the root and grow was $12. I drilled a 2 inch hole in the center of the bottom of the cask and covered it with some weed blocker material I had laying around and stapled it into place. Burred the hop root about one inch used the root and grow on first watering after planting. Then watered when potting soil felt dry to the touch about every 2 days.

 

[Brewer_Chad]

So I have a question. Thinking of using some plant food or whatnot. What are y'all using?

 

[atsorrento]

I've been using miracle grow once per week (one big scoop in 2 gallons of water applied to each 30 gallon hop container) then switching to biobloom once I see Spurs (20 ml in 2 gallons of water added to each plant). Here are my second year plants. Just harvested from one last night:
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1433788220.963233.jpg
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[chaos99]

There's a lot of posts about what fertilizers to use. I found this article which describes soil and fertilizer requirements for hops in depth. Basically, you want a high nitrogen, low phosphate, high potassium fertilizer with zinc (and some boron but I'm not going to bother with it). This article matches some other articles I've read stating hops prefer low phosphorous. I've mentioned before, I use CitrusGain mainly because it's readily available, has low phosphorous, and some zinc. Seems to be working well for me so far. I'm doubling the fertilizer (and applying it more consistently) to see if I can get larger bines and cones this year. These are pics of my 3rd year bines with about 1 1/2 months of growth this year.

 

[COEBRA]

It's this a sign of fertilizer burn? Mine stopped growing vertical with the tallest one at 3 feet. I let them do their thing for 3 weeks until I saw them turning yellow. I fertilized them with 10-10-10 and now after 5 days the leaves are turning brown and falling off

 

[Brewer_Chad]

Did you fertilize once in that five day span or everyday? If it was one time I would think not. If daily yes it probably is. Also my vertical growth stopped and I had leaves brown and dry up. The crazy rain every day caused mind to get too much water the rain held off for a few days and my plants started growing again. I also stopped pruning cause I wasn't sure if that had an effect on the plant its growing like crazy now.

 

[Brewer_Chad]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1435494588.521015.jpg
Got a bunch of these puppies. I'll get a photo of the entire plant up today too.

 

[Brewer_Chad]

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Here is the merical grow I started using one big scoop to 2 gallons once per week every Tuesday at 6:00pm. I also held off on watering past couple weeks due to massive amounts of rain.