Hops funeral in SC

[razyrsharpe]

last year i planted five different varieties of rizomes. only four came up, the cascade never did grow. so i had 80% production last season...not bad. this spring, i have two that are growing well, and two that died over the winter. dagnabbit! i am down to two out of five survival rate. i am drinking away the pain as i type. (pokes bottom lip out)

on the bright side, i will have willamette and galena this season!

 

[BierMuncher]

Funny how a loss hurts so much...

For Homebrewers, the degree of mourning is probably:

1 - Loss of an Immediate Family Member (mother-in-laws not withstanding )
2 - Pets
3 - Loss of Hops plants
4 - Loss of a batch
5 - Broken bottle of beer
6 - Broken carboy or rusted corny
7 - Friends and casual acquaintances
8 - Distant relatives
9 - Neighbors whose names we don't know
10 - Coworkers whose names we don't know.

 

[morrighu]

Any ideas on what caused their demise? I'm asking because I'm sitting here with wet socks from planting 14 varieties. We don't know what will do well here in Texas so we thought we'd plant a lot of them and see what thrives and what doesn't.

If it goes well, there's some property behind us that's for sale

Mor.

 

[BierMuncher]

I gotta believe that if the hops capital of the world is in the northwest, that a consistently hot climate is not well suited for hops growing.

 

[anderj]

Southern Idaho is hot pretty consistently during the summer, we often have 10 or 15 100+ (some up to 110) days in a row, and we still manage to come in third behind Washington and Oregon.
-ander

 

[Bokonon]

I gotta believe that if the hops capital of the world is in the northwest, that a consistently hot climate is not well suited for hops growing.

While the yakima valley might not be consistently hot like Texas, it is very dry. I think the average is less than an inch of precipitation a month.

 

[zoebisch01]

While the yakima valley might not be consistently hot like Texas, it is very dry. I think the average is less than an inch of precipitation a month.

I think I understand now. They probably irrigate the crap out of it, but the dry climate reduces the incidence of Powdery Mildew, hence the great results.

 

[clemson55]

Our biggest problem in SC has to be with the high humidity and the associated diseases. Although I dont know why you would get good growth and then the plant wouldnt come up in the spring. Does anyone know if hops needs a certain dormancy period or temp like most types of flower bulbs do? That might be an issue since we dont get consistently cold here in the winter.

 

[AnonyBrew]

Perhaps something to do with vernalization.

 

[pjj2ba]

I think the cold period helps, but is not essential. My bet would be too wet. The four most common reasons people kill plants are: too much water, too little water, too much light, not enough light. This will cover 95% of why plants die at the hands of gardeners. Yes, hops like to drink a lot of water, but they don't like having their feet wet. One is better off watering periodically (like once a week), not once a day. The bigger the plant gets to more water it needs. Don't give the just sprouting hop plant a lot of water, it doesn't need it yet, that's just an invitation for fungal rot.

 

[JeffPhD2005]

It is interesting that your hops died and I wonder what made them not thrive. I planted hops in my garden in West Columbia, south facing portion of the house, got sun all day long and they did more than just thrive. I planted Cascade and Liberty but the Liberty didn't do so well and the Cascades took over. After 5 years they were producing all summer long. I had them on a system where I could let the trellis down and harvest the cones and this allowed me to get at least three major picks a season. Maybe being in Lugoff you are in the clay while over in West Columbia it was all sand with lots of drainage.
Sold the house in 2006 and moved to Austin Texas, hope my hops grow half as well here as they did in SC. Come to think of it, the person that bought my house had no interest in hops or brewing and I'll just bet she let those plants (four mounds with two crowns in each) go feral and it must be a jungle! Bet you could go there and "harvest" the hops or at least in the spring dig up some rhizomes.
I tried at the time to get my buddies at the Palmetto Brewers club to come get the rhizomes but I had few takers. Bet they are kicking themselves now.

Try planting them again in sandy loam, bet they grow.

 

[david_42]

I'm a bit worried about mine this year. Frost again this morning, snow, rain, hail & sunshine so far today. Last year, they were 2-3 feet tall by now. If they weren't on a hill side, I expect they would have rotted by now.