How late is too late?

[natmartin]

How late is too late?

Hi hop experts! I have two questions for you:

I have what should be 3rd year Cascade, and I also planted several rhizomes that I got from friends. I put the rhizomes in the ground towards the end of January.

One of the rhizomes has sprouted, actually pretty quickly after planting (Centennial)

Nothing else has appeared, including my 3rd year Cascade.

1) How long should I wait before I just assume all the other rhizomes didn’t make it?
2) How late is too late to get new rhizomes and try again?

I’m in the SF Bay Area.


Thanks!

 

[JohnSand]

I'm not an expert, but I do grow hops. I would think there's an ideal time to plant, but planting later won't hurt the bine. You don't expect a great yield the first year anyway. For comparison, my Cascade on Long Island NY are sprouting now after a mild winter.

 

[nanobrau]

Not an expert, but I have 7 hop plants growing in the Bay Area. My 2nd year Chinook was latest this year, with first emergence around late April but it didn’t take off until mid May. IMO if your hops haven’t broken through the surface by now, I would dig them up and take a look.

And I planted some hops (full plants, not rhizomes) in mid April this year, including one Cascade. They seem to be doing ok.

 

[natmartin]

Thanks for reminding me to update!

Some of the rhizomes ended up sprouting, but not all. The new cascade, and my 3rd year cascade came up. The chinook sprouted very very late. In fact, I had already dug up the rhizome to replace it, when I spotted a few sprouts that were 1/2 inch from breaking through. I relocated it, and it's above ground now, though still very small and not able to be trained yet.

Unfortunately the NEO1 didn't make it.

I ended up buying some new rhizomes from YVH, which all did great. So now I've got:

• 1st year Centennial already over the top of the trellis
• 2x 1st year Cascade
• 2x 3rd year Cascade
• 1x 1st year Comet
• 1x 1st year Mt Hood
• 1x 1st year Chinook

Everything is several feet up the string, other than the chinook. Should be an interesting harvest this year!