My backyard hop situation

[HopGobbler]

Lookin good!

 

[Mainer]

Do any of you good hop-growing folk also have dogs? My wife has banned me from growing hops (and elderberries, but that's a different subject) because they're poisonous to dogs, and our 13-year-old GSP will scrounge anything he can.

 

[thaymond]

In my experience, both of my shelties ignored the plants and the flowers, even when they had open access to eat them.

 

[Senormac]

Do any of you good hop-growing folk also have dogs? My wife has banned me from growing hops (and elderberries, but that's a different subject) because they're poisonous to dogs, and our 13-year-old GSP will scrounge anything he can.

I never heard of dogs eating hops before. Hops don't have any fruit so I can't think what would attract a dog to eat them. I'm not a dog owner though.

 

[Mainer]

I never heard of dogs eating hops before. Hops don't have any fruit so I can't think what would attract a dog to eat them. I'm not a dog owner though.

Well, my dog is kind of a weirdo. He loves to snack on milkweed pods, blackberry leaves, clover, and ferns. I wouldn't put it past him to have a munch on some hop cones.

 

[paarman]

Definitely protect them from dogs. When ingested by dogs, they produce hypothermia-like symptoms... So make sure to keep them away, regardless if they're attracted to them or not!

 

[cram]

I have three dogs and hops growing all over the yard. My dogs will nibble on hop leaves, especially growing tips [emoji51] but have no interest in cones. Even when harvesting and they drop on the ground, the dogs let them be. And these are labs that eat anything. No guarantee that another's experience will be the same, but I don't give it a second thought. That said, I would never pour IPA wort dregs, for example, where the dogs can get at it.

 

[Senormac]

I hadn't had time to do much with my hops for over two weeks. The EKG's were on the move......

One bine actually crept all the way over to the Fuggles and had made a couple wraps upward.....

 

[Senormac]

Mature (3+ year old) hops plants grow incredibly fast. I leave em alone for a few days (except for watering) and am surprised how far they go. This runner had to be cut so I could keep my varieties straight. Having mixed varieties on the same ropes doesn't sound like a good idea.

Notice how thin this year 2 Fuggles is. The leaves are spaced around 6 inches apart as it goes up the twine. I don't worry about it, cuz I know they will come in thicker as the years pass.

 

[Senormac]

My EKG is well established, going on 6 or 7 years now (I think) and puts out lots of bines that can't find the rope. Since I already have 6 - 10 bines going up each rope, and the growth is thick, I will cut these new low growers off.

Occasionally, I'll find a nice long growth that I had missed before and decide to wrap it into the rest. I just take it and spiral wrap it up the twine. It really thickens out the growth and the yield will be excellent. Notice how the leaves are all wonky. That's nothing to worry about. They were used to "looking" at the sun in their previous position but will soon shift their leaves to finding the sun in their new upward growth positions.

 

[Senormac]

All the runners that I don't want to wrap, I cut off close to the ground, but I'm not very precise about it. I just cut them close in.

Hop maintenance is pretty simple. Watch, water and drink beer is most of it

 

[Senormac]

Hop Race 2017 !! Chinook and Centennial have not reached the wire yet which is 13 feet up

 

[Senormac]

Hop Race 2017 !! EKG and Fuggles are winners !! Growing soooo fast now !! No cones yet but the beginnings of flowers are showing

 

[Senormac]

The EKG's are sprouting flowers/cones like crazy

 

[Senormac]

taken today, sat. 6-17

 

[Senormac]

EKG

 

[Senormac]

3 ladybugs and a fly..... can you spot em ?

 

[Senormac]

I was watering my hops today and saw this little bug on one of the leaves. Kind of a caterpillar like lookin thing. My first reaction was unfavorable towards the creature

 

[Senormac]

Then I noticed that there were LOTS of them on my plants. Mostly on the underside of the leafs. Many of them seemed to be connecting themselves there and changing into a cocoon state. Looking closer I saw that there were lots of aphids on the leaves also. You can see a number of them in the first and third pics. I started to get worried....

 

[Senormac]

After googling a few "hop insect pests" and not finding it, I tried......

ladybug larva


Woo Hoo !! It's like God sending the cavalry to help my plants !!

My EKG is getting huge and cones are not far off !!

 

[thaymond]

Yeah, you want those pests. They oblitrerate all the other bad pests.

 

[Senormac]

Lol !! A good pest !!

 

[Senormac]

My EKG

 

[Senormac]

Won't be too much longer before these will be ready for harvest. I've heard some people pick as the year progresses, but I usually wait till everything is at max and cut the whole growth down at once. Then the picking party happens

 

[thaymond]

They're getting there. Looks good!

 

[GiavaBear]

Great thread and some beautiful hops! I've got 6 varieties growing really well, all in their first year. 3 from rhizomes (Cascade, Chinook, and Crystal) and 3 from small starters (Mt Hood, Nugget, and Willamette). Cones are growing on Nugget and Willamette. I'm curious, when the season ends, should I cut the bines down from near the ground or should I let them be? Any advice would be great! Thank you!

 

[Senormac]

Great thread and some beautiful hops! I've got 6 varieties growing really well, all in their first year. 3 from rhizomes (Cascade, Chinook, and Crystal) and 3 from small starters (Mt Hood, Nugget, and Willamette). Cones are growing on Nugget and Willamette. I'm curious, when the season ends, should I cut the bines down from near the ground or should I let them be? Any advice would be great! Thank you!

thx

As to harvesting, I'm not sure what everyone does, but when I'm ready to harvest, I just cut them off about 4- 6 inches above the ground and take the whole pile of it over to a picking table on the patio. Usually, I'll let it set there for a day or so to give the bugs (if there be any) a chance to escape.

 

[Lefou]

Very nice looking plants.
You're lucky to have the ladybugs around. If they don't stick around, another good remedy for aphids is neem oil - just don't apply when aphid predators are around.

 

[paarman]

Those of you who use a dehydrator to dry your hops, what temp/length of time do you use?

Last year I did the air filter/fan method which seemed to work fine, but took a day+, so looking to turn it around a little quicker and more efficiently this time around possibly.

 

[Senormac]

I have about 5 or 6 clumps of growth like this on my EKG. I guess they are seeds. I don't know if they have a use or not.