I'd like to grow some hops this year.

[slayer021175666]

Could any of you guys help me out with a plant or rhizomes or where to buy them cheap? I prefer Cascade and anything that goes in Northeast IPAs or a good bittering hop. My LHBS used to give them for free but, I never got any and now, it's out of business. I'd just like to try growing them.

 

[Kickass]

More beer and Yakima valley hops sell them at a reasonable price. Don’t expect to get proprietary varieties, good ole USDA C hops and a few others are about all that are available to the public. Fancy new tropical fruit NEIPA hops aren’t on the market.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

There is a hop growing forum here as well. Browsing some of the threads there might give you some info.

My homegrown Chinook leans much more toward pineapple than the typical pine character.

P.S Count on several years before you get enough harvest for a NE IPA style beer. In my first year I got enough for a lightly hopped blonde. Last year (2nd year) I got 8 oz of dried cones, that made 5 gallons of something more like a Pale Ale. I have two plants that have not yielded anything and another that I probably could have gotten a few oz of dried cones, but I did not harvest them in time.

 

[hotbeer]

I use to think I wanted to do that, but then I got to realizing that soil and climate conditions matter for the things in hops that make them useful. The commercial producers are constantly checking this in the hops they sell.

There is a Hop sub forum here further down the list of sub-forums. And there is a lot of useful and interesting stuff in there about growing hops.

 

[kevin58]

Welp, I was going to link you to my LHBS which was taking orders online for Rhizomes recently but it appears that order period has ended. I grew hops for several years and here are a few things you should be aware of. If you stick your rhizomes in the ground this spring you won't get many hops this season. It takes two to three years for them to reach their peak production. Secondly, they are a weed and as such will spread like wildfire. I had mine bordered by landscape blocks buried a foot under the ground and they still got out into my lawn. They spread aggressively and are very difficult to eradicate if you ever decide you don't want them anymore.

 

[bobeer]

As others have said, check out the hop growing threads, often times you can buy a cutting from someone there and you'll be all set.
I started my plants in pots for the first couple of years then transplanted into a bigger pot or the ground. The roots will grow through the pot and into the ground if you leave them too long potted. They are now in year 6 I believe.
They will need nitrogen in the growing months and phosphorus in the flowering months. They are photoperiod plants so once the days get shorter they will start to produce hop cones. You know it's time to pick them when they are kind of papery and bounce back when you give them a light squeeze.
You can help the plant by trimming the roots each season, once they really start producing hops, to keep them in line and to help them from spreading too much. Lots of info on YouTube and other brewing blogs. Chop and Brew have a few good videos on growing.
Good luck and have fun.

 

[Spartan1979]

I've been growing hops for years but I've only brewed with them once. I grow them more for atmosphere around my deck.

The beer I brewed was okay, but I didn't think the quality of the hops was that great. I decided if I'm going to spend the day brewing, I rather spend a few more bucks and get quality hops.