Hops in a Hay Bale in Texas

[Zuljin]

Growing in a hay bale is the in thing. I did it last year with birdhouse gourds from seed. It worked well. There are birdhouse gourd birdhouses and bird feeders all over my yard. One of them even has birds in it. House wrens.

I've grown hops here in Tarrant county, Texas (Zone 8a) before, too. There was the Low Stress Training grow, which flopped, and the regular grow, which did fairly okay. Then, we had the great flood, and my rhizomes drowned. Those were Casscade from some dude in Illinois. It was probably poison ivy.

These are Zeus from www.homebrewsupply.com. Hmmm.

So right off we see there's a trick to this hay bale thing. Yeah. The rhizomes don't just get shoved into a hay bale. First, cut a hole in the box. Bale. I used a chainsaw last year. This is last year's bale. Hay bales hold together pretty well.

Second, fill the hole with dirt. I like Black Kow composted cow manure.

Third, place hops on dirt and cover with more dirt. About 1 inch. Cover with some hay so the dirt doesn't get washed away.

Water.

Wait.

 

[Zuljin]

It is kind of shady right here at 4:30pm in the afternoon. It's sunny earlier. This is a few feet from were I grew last time. The hops will like some shade when it's one hundred four million degrees in the summer.

 

[day_trippr]

 

[Zuljin]

11 days. Nothing yet.

 

[Zuljin]

Still nothing. I've kept them even moist.

Here's some tomatillo plants to look at. I grew these from seed. They are putting on like crazy.

 

[Zuljin]

So I was searching for the Texas hop threads and found this failure. Yeah. Obviously it didn't work or I'd've been crowing about it by now.

When I dug them out of the bale, they were rotting with white mold on them. I think it was a combination of too wet and too heavy on the manure. Mostly too wet.

 

[501irishred]

Hope the tomatillo's faired better! A good salsa can help comfort you after a loss like that.

 

[Wesmando]

Rhizomes tend to rot easily during wet spring season. I lost many due to this when i first started growing hops. I did finally get a mt hood to take. After 10 yrs the crown run every where. When i cut rhizomes i usually lose a large percentage. Buy a started plant from Great Lakes Hops. They have healthy plants, run a professional business and are polite to talk with.