Hops have shipped

[Crafty_Brewer]

Hello Everyone,

Great Lakes Hops sent me an email informing me that my Field Grade Cascade and Willamette plants have shipped.

I am in North-Central Michigan, growing zone 5a. Our last frost date is usually late May to early June.

Do I need to keep them inside until after the last frost, or do I just stick them in the ground right away? I can try to put a bucket over them to keep them from freezing on cold nights, but once they hit the trellis that won’t really be feasible. If they freeze and it kills the bines, maybe just cut them back and hope for second growth?

What does/would everyone else do?

 

[Leezer]

I am in western MA (zone 6a I believe), and I received mine from GLS about this time a few years back. Since I wasn't ready to plant yet, I put them in a couple large planters for the time being. They were fine in there until I was ready to plant about a month or so later.

 

[cswis86]

As long as your soil is workable and you have a spot ready for them, stick them in the ground.

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

Hops have arrived!

I am probably going to put them in pots today, and work on getting my bottomless raised bed/trellis constructed. They arrived a little faster than I had expected, and I really should be placing an order for supplies instead of picking things up with the govenor’s oders and covid-19 about. Luckily I have some pots and bags of dirt and peat/composted manure left over from last garden season.

Edit (was figuring out how to embed here)

 

[Sir Becket's Brew Haus]

I have an order in to them as well, two plants only for an attempt at some half-barrel container planters (Jack Daniels half-barrels). Mine haven't arrived yet (Oshkosh, WI) but I suspect it won't be long if you received yours already. Curious what they're using for "packing peanuts"... are those wood shavings?

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

I have an order in to them as well, two plants only for an attempt at some half-barrel container planters (Jack Daniels half-barrels). Mine haven't arrived yet (Oshkosh, WI) but I suspect it won't be long if you received yours already. Curious what they're using for "packing peanuts"... are those wood shavings?

They used rice hulls in my box. The plants appear to have arrived in very good condition, hopefully that will give me a bit of a head start vs rhizomes.

 

[bkboiler]

I have mine in the fridge in their Ziploc bags...plan to mist them today and go tomorrow to pickup my online order for some 15 gallon pots and soil from home Depot. Got my drip line irrigation parts all together and just need to hook em up to the nearby hose bib.
Gonna wait a week or so then hookup the burlap twine to the roof eves 10' above. It's not ideal, but it's the best I can do.
Got 6 rhizomes:
-mt hood
-centennial
-chinook
-comet
-sterling
-golding

Not my ideal choices, but gotta start somewhere. Hoping other proprietary hops become available to home growers in the near future!

 

[Beerisgud]

Anxiously awaiting chinooks and cascades here in CT from adventures in home brewing in Ann Arbor MI has anyone ordered from them? I got a head start with shoots coming up from all my amazon ordered rhizomes. I was concerned about the health of plants from amazon so I placed a preorder from them. Looking forward to seeing the difference in rate they come up when planted in warmer temps.

 

[verboten]

I got some of the leftover rhizomes from AIH a few years back, and even after the abuse of being out of the soil for a long time 3/4 of them grew just fine.

my cashmere plant from Great Lakes didn’t fare so well over the winter, but I found out cashmere doesn’t seem to do well around here which makes me sad.

 

[Beerisgud]

Are these starters or field grade starts grown in greenhouses and shipped earlier than field-harvested rhizomes?

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

Got the trellises up and hops in the ground. The posts are 9’ tall, 4’ apart; used 1/4” sisal rope with a 1’ rise each zig/zag. 29’ total of rope to grow up. I hope my Cascade makes it, it did not enjoy its time in the pot.

 

[CodeSection]

Got the trellises up and hops in the ground. The posts are 9’ tall, 4’ apart; used 1/4” sisal rope with a 1’ rise each zig/zag. 29’ total of rope to grow up. I hope my Cascade makes it, it did not enjoy its time in the pot.
View attachment 681769View attachment 681770View attachment 681771

Looks good. Please update when they climb the rope as I'm curious how that will look and how that would later affect the sidearms.

Are you going to install any anchor lines to the upper 2x4s on the sides to prevent the trellises from tipping, especially what could occur in a storm?

 

[Kaz15]

I got some of the leftover rhizomes from AIH a few years back, and even after the abuse of being out of the soil for a long time 3/4 of them grew just fine.

my cashmere plant from Great Lakes didn’t fare so well over the winter, but I found out cashmere doesn’t seem to do well around here which makes me sad.

Sorry to hear that. Where do you live? I’ve been curious about Cashmere.

 

[Kaz15]

Got the trellises up and hops in the ground. The posts are 9’ tall, 4’ apart; used 1/4” sisal rope with a 1’ rise each zig/zag. 29’ total of rope to grow up. I hope my Cascade makes it, it did not enjoy its time in the pot.
View attachment 681769View attachment 681770View attachment 681771

That cascade does look sad, but I’d honestly be surprised if it doesn’t survive. Cascade plants are absolute beasts. You may just need to trim the dead parts and look to train new growth once the roots establish.

Also, please pictures on how the zig zag goes. I think it will work, it just looks like a lot of work.

 

[bkboiler]

So far 5/6 of my hops have sprouted and look happy...I got some nitrogen to apply...may also get some compost or a basic 3-5-4 (N-P-K) fertilizer to supplement the "nitrogen" blood meal....all organic...will see how they look in a few days

 

[verboten]

Sorry to hear that. Where do you live? I’ve been curious about Cashmere.

I’m in southeast MI, I did notice it has a tiny bine coming out, so it’s not dead yet!

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

Looks good. Please update when they climb the rope as I'm curious how that will look and how that would later affect the sidearms.

Are you going to install any anchor lines to the upper 2x4s on the sides to prevent the trellises from tipping, especially what could occur in a storm?

I have plans to install some anchor lines to the sides, probably some small gauge steel wire and ground anchors, just haven’t made it back to the hardware store yet. I used 12’ 2x4s so they are 3’ underground. They survived a hefty windstorm the night I put them up, but I imagine once the hops climb up it would offer more surface area to catch wind.

 

[LokiM4]

Anxiously awaiting chinooks and cascades here in CT from adventures in home brewing in Ann Arbor MI has anyone ordered from them? I got a head start with shoots coming up from all my amazon ordered rhizomes. I was concerned about the health of plants from amazon so I placed a preorder from them. Looking forward to seeing the difference in rate they come up when planted in warmer temps.

I placed an order from AIH for rhizomes and am in mid West Michigan-but have not seen or heard from them on shipping...
Perhaps I should give them a jingle to see what’s up...

 

[dwightr8]

Sorry to hear that. Where do you live? I’ve been curious about Cashmere.

I have plans to install some anchor lines to the sides, probably some small gauge steel wire and ground anchors, just haven’t made it back to the hardware store yet. I used 12’ 2x4s so they are 3’ underground. They survived a hefty windstorm the night I put them up, but I imagine once the hops climb up it would offer more surface area to catch wind.

At the least you should put some gussets in the corners.

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

At the least you should put some gussets in the corners.

Good idea, I might have to do that. I’ll probably do both gussets and support wires.

 

[LokiM4]

Well, AIH reports (responding even over the holiday weekend) sadly that their supplies from the various vendors have mostly not come in even as of yet... it wasn’t likely that I would get the varieties I ordered any time soon so I requested that they cancel the order-which they quickly did and provided store credit which I will gladly use.

Now to find some field grade hop plants locally-Great Lakes Hops is only a few miles away and they looks like they have good stuff-I’m going to visit them and have a look sometime this week.

 

[Beerisgud]

@LokiM4 im sorry to hear you had to cancel your order. Honestly I just got mine a week ago and they were in poor condition with all shoots slimy and rotted. The upside is these rhizomes are pretty hardy. The chinooks popped two shoots outta the ground yesterday. Nothing from the cascades yet. They have great customer service and prices at AIH. I do believe Great Lakes hops is the way to go for plant stock from what I’ve seen from other users photos here. The plants are a nice jumpstart that I wish I had ordered for this late spring planting.

 

[LokiM4]

@LokiM4 im sorry to hear you had to cancel your order. Honestly I just got mine a week ago and they were in poor condition with all shoots slimy and rotted. The upside is these rhizomes are pretty hardy. The chinooks popped two shoots outta the ground yesterday. Nothing from the cascades yet. They have great customer service and prices at AIH. I do believe Great Lakes hops is the way to go for plant stock from what I’ve seen from other users photos here. The plants are a nice jumpstart that I wish I had ordered for this late spring planting.

Here are the 8 I picked up from GLH today-great looking plants-just need to get their area prepared so I can get them in the ground.

 

[Kaz15]

Here are the 8 I picked up from GLH today-great looking plants-just need to get their area prepared so I can get them in the ground.View attachment 682440

Which varieties did you go with?

 

[LokiM4]

Which varieties did you go with?

2 each of
Magnum
Willamette
Hallertau
Spalt(er) Select

Should furnish most of my hop needs for normal ales and lagers I do aside from random one off batches where I try something different-assuming they produce enough... I actually think I’ll be giving away some-I hope!

If they do well I may add another couple varieties-the spot I’m thinking of is 70+ feet long.

 

[CodeSection]

Here are the 8 I picked up from GLH today-great looking plants-just need to get their area prepared so I can get them in the ground.View attachment 682440

Very nice! GLH has great customer service as well!