Kent Golding Question

[mithion]

I have a question regarding growing Kent Goldings Hops. I planted a couple of rhizomes (one Centennial and one Goldings) during the first week of april. Does anybody know if this variety of hops is slower to grow than others? My second year hallertau are already 2-3 feet long and my centennial started sprouting about 4-5 days ago. But nothing so far from the goldings hops. Any comments on this?

 

[moonbrew]

Last year I planted three rhizomes in planters in my back yard, one Cascade, one Centennial, and one Golding. The Centennial died. The Cascade took of like a weed and I actually got about 3 oz. of dried cones from it first year. The Golding grew at half that intensity and produced no cones at all. This year is the same story. The Cascade has about 6 bines all the way up my deck, 15', and several more at half that height, and a few already have blooms. The Golding has numerous bines, but has only climbed 6' or so. I thought something was wrong with it but maybe not. I clearly is a slower growing variety.

 

[COLObrewer]

We have 5 varieties, of those the golding is the slowest, Chinooks are the most robust and quickest growers.

 

[mithion]

Well, that's good news. That means my rhizome might still be alive and is just being naturally slow. Thanks for the responses.

 

[moonbrew]

I need some Chinooks then!

 

[Randar]

I need some Chinooks then!

All the "C's" are quite vigorous and quick growers. Same with Nugget and Magnum.

Fuggle and Goldings are slower starting and less vigorous than most of the newer high alpha strains, which are almost all extremely vigorous and good yielders.

 

[mithion]

I didn't account for the fact that we got a pretty crappy month of April. We were probably 10 degrees below seasonal averages for most of the month. I expect this month to much warmer so we should see accelerated growth. At this point, only time will tell if the goldings rhizome will pop out at all. Although I do like the three "Cs" a lot, I was really looking forward to brewing a nice fruity english ale with fresh Goldings.

 

[StAnthonyB]

We have 5 varieties, of those the golding is the slowest, Chinooks are the most robust and quickest growers.

I am new to the hop world but so far slowest is here Wye Challenger. I have planted 2 rhizomes each of ten varieties. The quickest has been Fuggles.

 

[mithion]

Well, looks like my Kent Goldings are going to come out after all. On Monday, I decided to dig them out a bit. They had been in the ground for 5 weeks and I was starting to get worried. When I reached the rhizome, I saw that it had grown some roots, but not bines were coming out. It was obviously still alive so I recovered the rhizome with a handful of dirt, less than there was before. Well, I'm happy to report that a bine is popping out now. I guess I might have planted him a little too deep though it couldn't have been more than 3 inches.