Japan Hops Trading -

[OppamaBrendan]

I got some root hormone yesterday, everything is still dormant but my ume tree is starting to grow flower buds. Has anyone done cuttings in Japan before? I would like to know when is the best time to do so, I can follow American guidelines but I don't really know what growing zone we would correspond to in Kanagawa.
Cheers,
B

 

[WhoZiT]

What is root hormone called here? I've always wondered. My wife's farming family didn't seem to understand what I was looking for.

If they're anything like hops, I think as soon as there is not threat of frost, you'd be ok. But you should definitely not take my word for that.

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Woops, I meant to write that I was curious as to when is the best time for cutting the hops rhizome here. So I guess late February should be fine I think the worst of winter is over already.

Most farms wouldn't need a root hormone unless they have an orchard or vineyard or other plants that require cloning. Greenhouse operations are more likely to carry it. Here is some of the text from the ルートン package I bought on Amazon:
さし木の発根促進剤　さしきのはっこんそくしんざい　ルートン
ナフチルアセトミド　０．４％
鉱物質　こうぶつしつ　９９．６％

A bit of a neat trick for plant growth hormones is to steal them from another plant - there are several good "donor" plants for this. The actively growing branch tips from a willow tree (salix sp) steeped in warm water for a day or more makes willow water. If you are near the ocean you can get some brown seaweed (the stuff with a ton of branches) and rinse the salt off, then blend or make a slurry with it.

I used the willow water this summer and managed to get half of a leaf from a hop plant to grow roots, but there are only a couple of sickly looking willows in my area so I bought powder which I can use anytime without the prep.

 

[WhoZiT]

Woops, I meant to write that I was curious as to when is the best time for cutting the hops rhizome here. So I guess late February should be fine I think the worst of winter is over already.

I thought you were looking to get rhizomes. Are you already growing hops?

Most farms wouldn't need a root hormone unless they have an orchard or vineyard or other plants that require cloning. Greenhouse operations are more likely to carry it. Here is some of the text from the ルートン package I bought on Amazon:
さし木の発根促進剤　さしきのはっこんそくしんざい　ルートン
ナフチルアセトミド　０．４％
鉱物質　こうぶつしつ　９９．６％

I kinda got the idea that my wife's grandma understood what I was looking for, but insisted that what I needed to do was different. Now I know what to look for! Thanx.

A bit of a neat trick for plant growth hormones is to steal them from another plant - there are several good "donor" plants for this. The actively growing branch tips from a willow tree (salix sp) steeped in warm water for a day or more makes willow water. If you are near the ocean you can get some brown seaweed (the stuff with a ton of branches) and rinse the salt off, then blend or make a slurry with it.

I used the willow water this summer and managed to get half of a leaf from a hop plant to grow roots, but there are only a couple of sickly looking willows in my area so I bought powder which I can use anytime without the prep.

That's being resourceful. Good to know.

Maybe you can get some plants going from wet hops. It would cost a small fortune, but having a bunch of these newer hops that aren't sold as a rhizome would be awesome.

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Yes I already have 2 rootstocks that were given to me in October by a generous homebrewer leaving the country. I intend to share them when winter dormancy is ending. I have magnum and centennial as far as I know.

I have a 3rd plant that is unknown and in seriously unstable health after being moved too often/flooded/overheated in the summer/chewed by cats. I won't be able to share the 3rd plant this season without risking killing it. The root hormone is a safety net for cuttings. During the growing season I can cut short runners or even just leaves, and root them with the hormone, and build up several extra plants in pots without risking the main stock.

Plant hormones are pretty interesting, there is all sorts of stuff going on in our brewing ingredients!

 

[WhoZiT]

So someone gave you the whole crown? That's nice.

 

[OppamaBrendan]

So someone gave you the whole crown? That's nice.

Yeah, I had previously arranged with him for a cutting at the end of the season and then things changed for him and he moved to America so he had to get rid of them anyway. I promised to pass on my good fortune and help other homebrewers out with some rhizomes.

BTW I am doing some seed shopping for my garden and these hops suddenly this shows up (http://sakata-netshop.com/shop/item_detail?category_id=1503&item_id=106032). I need a better translation I think it says 6 strains of hops? Even if it is just ornamental it would be good to know what is out there....

 

[WhoZiT]

I think this is 6 seedlings of one type. It's probably the proper female plant, but not knowing the type....

I've seen magnum and fuggle on a different site. I'll link to it in a few minutes.

 

[WhoZiT]

http://www.qherb.jp/onlineshop/gardening/plants/onlineshop-plantsha.html

There are several types on this page. Challenger and Fuggle are pretty clear. There is a "dwarf hop", a "golden hop", and just plain "hops". The last one is probably an ornamental type.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hop_varieties

According to the above link, there is one type considered a dwarf hop, and it is a mix of Goldings and Challenger. It is also listed as WYE, which is a breeder that produces the challenger listed above (I think), so it's a good bet that this shop orders from there and that the dwarf hop is indeed the one listed on that hops type wiki page.

Golden hop is also listed in the wiki link above as an ornamental hop.

FYI, I spoke with them last year regarding male/female, thinking that they might actually be produced by seeds. They told me there was nothing to be worried about, they were produced by rhizomes or cuttings.

 

[WhoZiT]

I think it would be fun to find a rhizome of sorachi ace.

 

[OppamaBrendan]

So Challenger and Fuggle are easy to buy here! Great find! I have heard a friend of friend have grown sorachi ace on contract for sapporo, somewhere up north. It would be nice to have the one Japanese hop variety in my garden, it has a high yield apparently.

*Edit - friend of friend not growing SA for Sapporo. Its something regular for Kirin and much less interesting.

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Japan gets hit with typhoons every summer, what do you do to support a giant plant like hops when it is hit with such strong winds?


I am going to build this pergola soon, I have finished the design in LibreCAD now. Lucky for me, a friend is buddies with a carpenter nearby who is retiring so I should be able to cover more than half the cost with free wood. My design has 2 planter boxes and benches that are not necessary, so if you want to reduce the cost quite a bit you can eliminate those from the build. The benches add stability so if you opt not to use them I would suggest beefing up the braces/brackets. Another suggestion would be to have proper poured concrete footings for the post supports; I am going to be using pre-cast ones since I am renting this house. This will need weather protection, and hardware (carriage bolts, screws) which will probably cost 10000 yen on top of the lumber. My estimated cost was 17000 yen for new wood, but since I used the most common sized lumber you should be able to source some or all of that as recycled/free if you are patient.

If anyone wants the CAD file (dxf format) please PM me with the email address to send it to. I am not promising it is flawless, and the program I made it with is a bit glitchy, but the parts are mostly all separated by layers so you can turn on/off visibility for things like the benches & planters. Units are in cm and I went with the dimensions listed for lumber at my hardware store; 366 cm long 2X6, 2X4, and 200 cm X 9 cm square posts. The file does not account for width of board cuts! Please note that, I have a razor saw which will not really make a big difference, but some of the boards are will require 4 cuts and a regular width saw will start to mess with your measurements. There should still be ample space on every board to account for this if you are careful and the lumber is not full of defects. This is the first time I have drafted with CAD and I liked being able to lay out the board cuts! I rearranged the cuts until I had reduced the lumber cost by two full boards and saved 2000 yen!

This pergola will mostly be used by my wife for bottle gourds, but I will be running ropes from it across the yard for hop bines as well. Should last many years if I keep it weather protected with varnish/lacquer. Best thing about it will be hanging a hammock inside and having a beer/siesta!

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Hey everyone, I am very happy to announce that the Magnum hops are starting to shoot up now. I am still waiting on the centennial but I think it is better to take action sooner than later.

If you want to grow these, Please send me a PM with your shipping address (Japan only), name, and preference of either or both of the hops.

I will try to send cuttings to everyone who contacts me. If I run out of cuttings (I won't cut so much that I risk the health of the crown) before I fulfill all the requests, I may have to send only 1 type to people who request both (in order to send the remainder to someone who has none). It would help in that situation if you please list which of the 2 types you prefer more, so I can still try to make everyone happy.

I need to do this in the next couple weeks maximum so please dont delay. Have no fear if you miss out; I can layer and create more cuttings during the growing season but it will be less likely for you to get any cones this year unless you get the roots early.

PHOTOS!
You can see the 2 photos of Magnum the shoots are 4-5 cm bigger in 5 days of growth, I am sure they will go nuts when those leaves unfold! There are a few other photos of the pergola construction and first garden lizard of the year.

 

[ShizuokaBrad]

Morning Brendan,

Thanks for the offer and I'll be sending a PM shortly.

I missed your message earlier about what to do during a typhoon to protect your plants. I've been gardening in Japan for a number of years now and live down near the coast (about 1km from Suruga Bay). Every year we get hit or have near-misses in this area. While there is almost nothing that can be done to fully protect plants in that kind of wind environment it is possible to minimize the damage. While I haven't grown hops specifically I've done other vine-like plants. The best thing I've found is to build a structure that can be taken down during high winds. It's rather labor intensive but it is the only thing that really works. Two years ago I build a very solid structure that withstood two direct typhoons in a row but the plants were stripped completely bare which caused half of them to die. Now I take the plants down, collapse the structure they are growing on, stuff them into a net and secure it to the ground.

Another big problem from typhoons is that they transport salty, ocean water to your plants. You have to spray them with water from the hose before and after the typhoon hits.

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Hi everyone, I will start cutting the rhizomes today and will let everyone know soon if I had enough to send to everyone. I may ship tomorrow if I can't fit it in today. This is the last chance to send me an address to ship to, otherwise you will have to wait for another time when the mother plants have recovered.

Brad, thanks for the advice on the wind damage mitigation! I ended up building a sturdy base with cross-braces that sit under ground (With some concrete scrap and packed soil on the cross braces). The upright beam is 2.5 meters tall, and with the removal of 2 (out of 3) large wood screws, the beam can swivel down on the last screw. It looks just like a train crossing gate! I will still grow the bines up on it using ropes so that I have some slack when it needs to rotate down; it would be terrible to swivel that and break the stems!

Last bit of good news! My family heirloom hops has poked a solitary bud above ground, it survived the winter! :rockin: I will be layering this plant and NOT cutting it at all this year, it needs a lot of recovery. Hopefully it flowers and I can get an idea of the type of hops it is. (it could have very little brewing characteristics for all I know).

Photos have been added to the album I previously posted. The "train crossing gate" and the heirloom hop bud are in there now, as well as the progress on the pergola (finished!).

 

[ShizuokaBrad]

Hey Brendan,
I just got back from a snowboarding trip to find my hops sending up shoots already! Really looking forward to seeing things take off! Thanks again. I'll be sure to include photos when the start filling out a bit.
Cheers,
B

 

[ShizuokaBrad]

The rhizomes you sent me are doing well. Thanks again for that. I was also recently given some Shinshu Wase rhizomes from one of the dudes at Baird. If all goes according to plan I'll have some rhizomes to share next year.

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Awesome! I am pretty happy that within our group there are 2 varieties of Japanese hops being grown! Next year I think is going to be quite interesting with so many more varieties showing up! I will do my best to grow a crown of every type I can get my hands on, so that I can re-distribute.

I talked to the caretakers of the house next to mine yesterday, they confirmed that the owner lives overseas and that the house won't be used for any foreseeable time since the upper floor is deemed unsafe. They are more than happy to let me keep growing hops in that yard as well (I bribed them with beer before I asked)!

We should get a picture discussion open in the Japan group for our gardens!

Cheers,
B

 

[WhoZiT]

You found shinshu wase?! Good for you!!!

 

[ShizuokaBrad]

Actually, the shinshu wase found me. I wasn't expecting to get any more rhizomes this year so was very happy to receive an email from my friend. They've only been in the ground for the last 9 days and already all of them have sent up shoots. That means I now have 6 hops plants and three different varieties. Fingers crossed for good growing conditions this year!

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Well, here is an update with pictures! I had to pull the cuttings from the yard next door - the owner only wants weeds growing it turns out. Motainai! Centennial is starting to flower finally! everything is quite healthy and I am no longer in fear of losing my homestead hops (for now). That Sterling is doing nicely now as well! The Magnum has a buddy, a pickling cucumber is climbing up with the bines Maybe I can make a cucumber beer sometime?
Anyone else having flowering yet?

I would upload into an album on HBT but one file at a time is a PITA so here is a link to the Gplus album.

EDIT - first photos in the album are from a few years back, showing the homestead hops in their glory at my great grandfathers homestead. Someday I hope they will become strong like that here in Japan!

https://plus.google.com/photos/112320306391464994253/albums/5799471946573789793?authkey=CP7htP6ZpfqoNw

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Hops and -!SPIDER MITE UPDATE!-

Guys a heads up that I found some spider mites on my Magnum here. Please check any plants you have gotten from me to be safe. I took the cuttings long before any sign of mites and they were stored away from the main plant so it should be fine. I am going to spray a mild dish soap solution on the plant and monitor it - now that it has started to flower I don't want to be using the hardcore insecticides on it.

-Centennial is healthy and continues to flower. I had been marking the white rope every day where the growing tips were and it was doing about 8 cm of growth daily (up to the point where I could no longer reach the growing tip to mark it).

-Sterling is now 5 feet tall with one bine only but still has small leaves. It is in a smallish planter, I will give it much more room next season.

-"Homestead" has hit its stride and is running two bines about 6 feet high and a few little side branches off the base of the bines. It seems to be completely free of mites for the last 3 weeks. I am starting to get hope of maybe getting some cones this year! - It seems that the increased vigor started when some tomatoes grew tall enough to shade this plants base - I think all of the healthiest plants I have are growing in partial shade with only the bines reaching into full sun.

The "extras" - mixed cuttings of centennial and magnum - are sitting in ice cream containers behind the house. I have not watered them or done anything to take care of them for a month and they look very healthy. I will plant them around my town sometime, probably up in the hills. Let them go wild in an area that is full of weeds and see if they can compete.

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Grow update time!

Magnum took the spider mites like a champ, I didn't use pesticides but they subsided with a couple mistings of water. Hops are mature and ready to pick today.

Centennial - I have selectively picked off a handful of ready cones and will pick more today. After watching some harvest videos I had to sit on my hands and wait for them to be ready... patience.

Sterling - Looks like it wont flower this year, but has gotten comfortable and grown up into the shrub/tree next to it. Probably 8 feet tall now on one bine.

Homestead - I am now sure that the shade did wonders for the plant. It is healthy and even has a handful of cones on it. It is almost under perpetual cover now. The bottle gourds (hyoutan) ran rampant across the ropes and the tomatoes shield 90% of the sun.

All the plants got an application of seaweed collected from the beach nearby (rinsed the salt off and let it soak in fresh water for a day). Some epsom salts for magnesium also got sprayed on the leaves. My "general purpose" fertilizer does not have micro nutrients in it or even any of the secondary macros (calcium magnesium) so that was causing some nutrient imbalances for my whole garden. You might want to check if you are using fertilizers, to see if you have what the plants need.

How are the hops gardens in other parts of the country now? Its rained a lot down south so I am curious how they held up.

 

[OppamaBrendan]

How'd everyone fare with this extreme weather? I hope everyone is OK there were like half a million people evacuated for typhoon 18! Hops in my yard are now overgrown with hyoutan, bottle gourd plants are up to 12 meters long. The hops are fine under them, but I am done harvesting anything now.

 

[Guzzibrew]

Great thread.

It seems there is a real community growing hops here in Japan. I would love to join you all. I just finished building my house and I included anchor points on the eaves of my house 5 meters from the ground so I could string up bines to grow hops on.

Now I need some plants. Anyone sending out cuttings next spring? I'd be happy to pay for them, or if you are interested I have stumbled upon a lot of corny kegs (pin and ball lock) and I'd be willing to trade a few.

Also is there anyone in Kyushu growing hops? How do they handle the summer here?

 

[OppamaBrendan]

Guzzibrew I may have some rhizomes available and will post around Feb or early March when I check their viability. I cut quite a few this past spring and stunted my plants a bit so this year I will cut a little less. Hopefully other people in here have had success establishing their plants. I haven't accepted payment other than shipping costs, although for a keg trade I could get you Centennial and Magnum no problem! That seems more than a fair trade!

Some people in Kyushu grow, but the typhoons are a real threat. A setup that can be taken down and laid flat on the ground during storms will reduce wind damage, and can be complimented by laying one of those "bird nets" overtop.
The other threat is the heat. Even where I am in Yokosuka the plants do significantly better in a site that has shade during the summer, and will go into heat stress and almost a dormant state if exposed to full sun during July/August.
Cheers!
B

 

[ShizuokaBrad]

Sorry for the massive delay in posting. I've been uber busy since September with no real end in sight!

I grew three kinds in giant planters this summer. Magnum and centennial from Brendan and Shin Suwase and centennial from another friend. I actually ended up with about 20gs of dried hops when all was said and done. Everything grew up to the second floor balcony of my house.

Luckily, we avoided any serious weather problems. In fact, all of my crops did a lot better than usual. Fingers crossed for more luck next year.

Since I started out with only a few small rhizomes it's probably not possible for me to make any cuttings next year but I'll check it out and report back.

Thanks again Brendan!

 

[Mindsculptor]

American here. I'm wondering just how many Japanese varietels of hops there are, as I've only heard of Sorachi Ace. At any rate, I wish you all good luck in your upcoming growing seasons, as I know how much of a pain plants can be.

 

[ShizuokaBrad]

Shin Shuwase is another Japanese hop.

 

[Guzzibrew]

OppamaBrendan,

Missed your post, so I'm a bit late getting back to you.

I haven't accepted payment other than shipping costs, although for a keg trade I could get you Centennial and Magnum no problem! That seems more than a fair trade!

Send me a PM and I'll see what I can do!

As far as the sun goes they'll be growing on the west side of the house sheltered from morning sun by a bamboo grove and afternoon sun by the house. They will be open to the south for part of the day but I'm sure I can give them some shade. How do you shade yours?

When I built my house I intentionally installed eyebolts under my eaves so I can raise and lower bines for plants to climb on. It's 3 floors from the eaves to the ground so they'll have some room to grow.

GB