Growing hops in southern california
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brewerelated
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone, I know the hop season hasn't really kicked off yet since we are still in winter, but I have some questions about overwintering hops. I have a second year Centennial hop plant that I started last year in an 8 gallon pot.
Are there any special things that you guys do to help them survive the winter? Do most hops make it through the winter okay? In general what is the survival rate of hops?
Are there any special things that you guys do to help them survive the winter? Do most hops make it through the winter okay? In general what is the survival rate of hops?
Hops are tough to kill--you don't have to do much if anything to them over winter. If there's been a prolonged spell of no rain, which happens here, then I might water them a bit. But let them dry out between. In a potted plant, there's not as big of a chance to drown the thing (as long as water can freely drain out the bottom) but don't over do it. You have to figure that in places where they actually have winters and grow hops, the plant isn't seeing much liquid water during the winter months. Even in Socal, you could likely forget about the plant between November and March and it would be fine.
brewerelated
Well-Known Member
It looks like my 2nd year Centennials made it. Here is a picture taken on 2/25/2014.
That looks exactly identical to my Centennial, right now.
Carlscan26
Well-Known Member
Both my cascade and my centennial have popped up. Last year the cascade yielded about 3 oz dry but the centennial never flowered. This year the centennial was the first out.
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brewerelated
Well-Known Member
Last year was my first year for the Centennials and I got a small yield. I didn't weigh it so I don't know how much I got but it was enough to fit in both of my hands, so about one big handful.
brewerelated
Well-Known Member
Here is an update of some of my hop plants. Many of the smaller plants were started this year from rhizomes that I got from Cram here on HBT.
Hi Gents,
I'm new to the forum; I'm a fellow San Diego Brewer, saw this thread, and figured its not a bad place for my first post conisdering it covers what I'm researching at the moment. I see this post hasn't been active in a year and a half, so I'm half not expecting a response!
I've decided I want to grow hops in my small backyard, and I'm seeing all the online resources that sell rhizomes are on back order (presumably until the spring when hops spring back to life). Do we have a local source here to acquire them?
Thanks in advance. I look forward to participating in the forums!
I'm new to the forum; I'm a fellow San Diego Brewer, saw this thread, and figured its not a bad place for my first post conisdering it covers what I'm researching at the moment. I see this post hasn't been active in a year and a half, so I'm half not expecting a response!
I've decided I want to grow hops in my small backyard, and I'm seeing all the online resources that sell rhizomes are on back order (presumably until the spring when hops spring back to life). Do we have a local source here to acquire them?
Thanks in advance. I look forward to participating in the forums!
mozart4898
Well-Known Member
I'm not local to you at all, but Great Lakes Hops sells crowns basically year round. I didn't check just now but I would imagine they've got 20+ varieties available this moment. They suggest fall for those of us in colder climates as being a great time to plant (which I'm not 100% sold on after my experience this past year, but that's a different story). I'm sure your fall/winter isn't anything like ours here in the Great Lakes/Midwest so if anything, planting a living crown as opposed to a dormant rhizome might be tricky cause it might just want to start growing on you now!
Additionally, if you order from them, you will sometimes get a freebie crown. One of my hops in the ground right now is actually a freebie from a year and a half ago. Plus, you'll probably not find anyone with a bigger selection - and in theory a crown should get you to a harvest quicker than a rhizome as well.
sd_brewbie
Well-Known Member
I have seen rhizomes at Smoking Beaver home brew shop in Escondido, not sure if they have any now. You can try calling some of the other lhbs in the area, I think they would point you in the right direction for local stuff.
Welcome! There's lots of places to get great rhizomes, so it shouldn't be hard to get started, but if you drop me a line in late winter I should be able to get you started with some local ones. They're good fun to grow.
I've got tons of hop cones FIRST year here in North San Diego, CA. There's 3 of the 4 C's.... Centennial, Columbus and Cascade. We are 15 miles down the road from Stone Brewing which used to have hop plants in their garden but no longer! They may have given up but not me 
I'd have to say the most important thing is to keep them well watered. You really should not worry about overwatering. Water every other day.
Last year I lost my entire crop when we had the 110 deg heat wave and wild fires. Also in my opinion FULL SUN is not good. Common sense tells me that Oregon crops probably don't like the roasting sun of SoCal.
Finally, our seasonless weather allows you to repair. I planted a pair of centennial rhizomes in March which succumbed to the bunny salad bar and were lost. I got some $2 discount rhizomes in May replanted and boom! Might not be a ton of hop cones on the replants but a massive root system ready for next year.
I'd have to say the most important thing is to keep them well watered. You really should not worry about overwatering. Water every other day.
Last year I lost my entire crop when we had the 110 deg heat wave and wild fires. Also in my opinion FULL SUN is not good. Common sense tells me that Oregon crops probably don't like the roasting sun of SoCal.
Finally, our seasonless weather allows you to repair. I planted a pair of centennial rhizomes in March which succumbed to the bunny salad bar and were lost. I got some $2 discount rhizomes in May replanted and boom! Might not be a ton of hop cones on the replants but a massive root system ready for next year.
Welcome! There's lots of places to get great rhizomes, so it shouldn't be hard to get started, but if you drop me a line in late winter I should be able to get you started with some local ones. They're good fun to grow.
Thanks, Cram. I may take you up on that!
I notice that the last posts were basically 3 years ago, so I am interested in how some of those 1st year Hops are doing now.
I have 6 varieties I just put in the ground this year (Torrance, CA). Cascade, Centennial (both from rhizomes in March/April, climbing nicely) and Eroica, Old Mission, Shaddock, Zeus (1 year old plants from Great Lakes Hops, in ground July). The Zeus went into shock initially, but has three new shoots coming out to replace the dead leaves and stems, so I am hopeful.
Any advice for growing in the hot SoCal weather?
The first pic is the Centennial, morning shade afternoon sun.
The second pic is the Cascade, full sun all day.
Many Thanks!
I have 6 varieties I just put in the ground this year (Torrance, CA). Cascade, Centennial (both from rhizomes in March/April, climbing nicely) and Eroica, Old Mission, Shaddock, Zeus (1 year old plants from Great Lakes Hops, in ground July). The Zeus went into shock initially, but has three new shoots coming out to replace the dead leaves and stems, so I am hopeful.
Any advice for growing in the hot SoCal weather?
The first pic is the Centennial, morning shade afternoon sun.
The second pic is the Cascade, full sun all day.
Many Thanks!
Resurrecting this thread to share this years hop harvest.
I live on the boarder of LA and Kern county’s in a town called Tehachapi. The elevation at my house is 4400 feet. I harvested three, three year old CTZ plants today and was probably a week late. There was a fair amount of browning happening. I finished with one overflowing 5 gallon bucket that totaled 3 pounds, 4 ounces.
I’m curious who else has harvested and who’s getting close.
I live on the boarder of LA and Kern county’s in a town called Tehachapi. The elevation at my house is 4400 feet. I harvested three, three year old CTZ plants today and was probably a week late. There was a fair amount of browning happening. I finished with one overflowing 5 gallon bucket that totaled 3 pounds, 4 ounces.
I’m curious who else has harvested and who’s getting close.
So jealous. I ordered 4 Cascade and 4 Cashmere rhizomes this past winter and they arrived mid-May,,,,from Maine. I received what amounted to 8 bare sticks. They were planted immediately in a dedicated 8ft x 5ft planter box, and fertilized and watered per the instructions that came with them. And then we waited...and waited....and waited. Nothing. Finally around mid July I carefully moved the dirt away with my hands until I reached a rhizome. Then I carefully checked another one. Both looked exactly as they looked when they were put into the ground a couple months prior. Duds, all eight.
I bought mine from Yakima valley. I had a pretty solid take rate.So jealous. I ordered 4 Cascade and 4 Cashmere rhizomes this past winter and they arrived mid-May,,,,from Maine. I received what amounted to 8 bare sticks. They were planted immediately in a dedicated 8ft x 5ft planter box, and fertilized and watered per the instructions that came with them. And then we waited...and waited....and waited. Nothing. Finally around mid July I carefully moved the dirt away with my hands until I reached a rhizome. Then I carefully checked another one. Both looked exactly as they looked when they were put into the ground a couple months prior. Duds, all eight.
That's my plan for next year.
mashpaddled
Well-Known Member
I harvested the last weekend of July. Early, and probably a week or two early but we had a vicious hail come through the following weekend so I'm glad I went in early. On the flip side, I'm enjoying my fresh hop beer already. We had weird weather all season that caused problems with hops but I still pulled thirty ounces wet that went into the beer and just over half a pound dried of the remainder. I still have some of last year's harvest so not a big deal.
Based on my fairly limited experience, I would say those hops look about right. Good luck!!
I have had a hard time timing my harvest the last two years around when the hops are ready, and when I have time to harvest them. I find that here in Virginia, just about the time hops start to enter that stage, we get rain about every day.
The last two years here in SoCal, the Eroica and Centennial take off early, send up lots of runners for a month or two and die off, no arms, no cones nothing. I tore out the Centennial this year, might do the same to the Eroica as well. The Cascade (2nd plant, 1st one withered after two years) has no arms, just a few hops and just hit harvest point yesterday, but it's going to have to wait for an afternoon after work, when I can also harvest the Old Mission and Chinook-both, no arms, but at least some hops. The Multihead Medusa, which I thought would do great in the heat here died after two weeks in the ground. I have a Comet 1st year, so hoping for something next year from it. This year they got a little fertilizer in addition to compost mulch (which is every year, 2x a year). IDK what I'm doing wrong, but it has to be something. I have tried Nugget, Cluster, Shaddock, they basically grow 6-10' and then die off annually.
@CascadesBrewer i was a little more selective than I wanted to be. There were more brown cones tossed which didn’t make the bucket and photo.
@JAReeves if you’re fairly close and your Medusa hasn’t fully died off I’d love to buy some rhizome off you.
@JAReeves if you’re fairly close and your Medusa hasn’t fully died off I’d love to buy some rhizome off you.
I wish, it literally dried up and died in two weeks.
9pm PST, 8/22/22, Great Lakes Hops has NeoMex in stock.
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Very delayed here. Shipping was a little more than I was willing to spend so I passed.
As spring arrives, I have ground break. I’ll post a couple of pictures this week, after I clear the weeds.
This year I bought 9 rhizomes from YVH and they arrived a week or so ago. I ordered 3 Centennial, 3 Cascade, and 3 CTZ. These look so much better than the 8 I received last year, purchased through AIH (now owned by Northern Brewer). So this year's went in the ground this past Thursday and already have a few sprouts breaking the surface.
I've also been in touch with AIH (NB) and they've agreed to replace the 8 rhizomes from last year than were DOA. Last year's were shipped from Maine. No idea if that will be the same now that they're owned by NB.
I've also been in touch with AIH (NB) and they've agreed to replace the 8 rhizomes from last year than were DOA. Last year's were shipped from Maine. No idea if that will be the same now that they're owned by NB.
Just starting to break ground at 4400 feet here. Days are still cool and nights below freezing.
It’s been cool here still. Highs in the 50’s and low 60’s and nights in the high 30’s and 40’s but I think we’re finally turning that spring corner.
They look great. Looks like you planted around the same time as we planted ours. I'm pretty much due east of you, near the coast. Our Cascade plants are over 6ft tall and the Centennial and CTZ are around 3ft so far. Still waiting for AiH to replace last year's failures. I have order numbers but they're still "in process."
