Hops are up in Boston

[brewmonk]

Well, they sprouted last week in my basement, after I brought in the 5 gallon pots from outside the week before.

6" in a week, under a sodium light isn't bad ...

 

[TheBeerNerd]

Whew.... I was thinking you already had them outside... with the coming storm and all...

 

[JMass]

Hi,

I'm in Marion a bit South of Boston. My favorite sign of spring is to see the hops sprouting. The cascades I have by my shed seem to sprout first. This Tuesday I checked and could see little purple hop sprouts nosing their way up through the soil.

 

[brewmonk]

Sweeeet! I went to school in Marion (I guess that's a give-away, eh?).
Did you mulch them for this weekend?

I can't wait to put mine outside.... I have pairs of rhizomes in 2 buckets - cascade and centennial.
There are about 9 shoots total, tallest is now 8" - I have to raise the light soon!

 

[JMass]

Hi Brewmonk,

I grew up in Rochester and went to public schools, but I know a lot of people that went to School where you did. I've been growing Cascades for years. I also have Hallertau, Sterling, East Kent Golding and Willamette.

I didn't bother mulching my hops. I have daffodils and other Spring plants that are a lot taller and I'm sure they are fine also. I guess snow is a mulch in a way. The Cascades are hard to kill. I gave some to my neighbor in a pot. He was too lazy to plant them and threw them out by his house. Now I get hops from him every year from the plants that grew from that pot that he threw out!

 

[brewmonk]

HAHAHA HEH! thats GREAT, from discarded plants. rdwhahb!

the only thing that sucks is that *NOW* I'm into lapstrake wooden rowing boats.
dang, what I'd do differently ....................

 

[brewmonk]

arrite, so they arenet fabulous, but they have been outside, with good rain, and are 4 feet now.

 

[JMass]

Sounds good. I bought about 1/2 mile of Twine at Loews last weekend and put up 9 lines for my Cascades and 2 each for Willamette, Hallertau, EKG and Sterling. I think my Willamette is growing out of control. I tend to get a lot out of hops from that plant.

 

[brewmonk]

HEH, HAA! sounds great.