My Hops Garden Project

[JensenBrew]

I've got a chainlink fence that just backs up to some farm land that sounds like it would work well for growing some hops. I also have a fenced-in garden next to my house where I could implement something like you have done.

Sounds like you are liking the convenience of the fence. Should I just try that route first?

 

[Gridlocked]

Looks gorgeous! The only thought I have is where the rhizomes are planted near the fences, you'll want to make sure you have access to the roots so that you can trim them every few years or so.

I think that without some trimming, they WILL spread wildly. Just a thought that popped in my head.

Ha. Yep, that was the idea for the fence hops - let them go wild.

--> Jensenbrew:
Yes, the convenience is awesome and they seem to be happy as the hops on a rope, so why not? If I were you, I would absolutely go for it but remember that if you can get to them, so can dogs, deer, animals, etc. If it doesn't work out, you're out five bucks (or whatever the cost of a rhizome).

 

[JensenBrew]

Good point about the threat of animals. We do get some deer back there and I would have to keep a close watch on my dog. Are hops poisonous to Dogs? I thought I heard that some where.

 

[Gridlocked]

yep, you don't want your dogs eating your hops, it is poisonous.
I hope my dogs have the sense to leave mine alone, but I guess I'll find out. Only the stupid one would eat them anyway...

I did some youTube watchin' over the weekend and found that dogs will die if they eat the hops. It sends them into some kind of hypothermia and the guy on the video said his dog ate some as was gone in about 16 hours. That would suck, so yes, be careful!!!

 

[Gridlocked]

I've been keeping a close eye on the hops and, of course, I've been looking forward to the harvest but I think the time has come. This is kind of a difficult thing because I've only smelled and experienced pellet hops, so I don't know what I'm looking for, but thanks to Paulasarus, youTube, threads on here I think I have a pretty good idea of what to look for.

They feel papery. When I squeeze them, they spring back. Some of the pedals are browning. The Lupulin is gold. My hesitation comes from the things still smelling like a weed rather than like a hop.

This one was up near the top of the vine, but there are also cones with brownish pedals at head height.

A little video of the hop pinch...
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g82/SuperTedMaximus/Hops/?action=view&current=video-2010-09-02-18-01-41.mp4

 

[Paulasaurus]

Maybe you should boil up a 12 oz test batch of cascade pale ale to be absolutely positively sure. I'd like to see the grain bill on that batch.

Lupulin looks really nice and gold in them photos.

 

[tschoolman]

I think you're good to go Gridlocked. I'm starting my Centennials and Cascades this weekend (and probably should have started earlier). Tettnag needs a little time.

I've not found my cones to smell like weeds when I break them open though. When I do, I get a great hop smell, and fingers get sticky with the lupulin.

 

[Gridlocked]

Yeah, I think I'm going to start a-pickin' this evening after I clear off enough room in my garage for my screen door that I stole from my downstairs patio entrance last night. I know that I'm going to have to do multiple harvests, so I anticipate the need to get up there a few times. My Chinook has newly developed spurs, but that one is on the fence so no climbing needed.

My harvest plan: Pick, climb down, THEN open a beer. wait, what fun is that?!

 

[tschoolman]

Have the beer first to steel your resolve, and then a beer after to relax!

 

[Gridlocked]

I like where you're going here. I think a bomber of my Imperial Stout (10% or so) should do the trick. HA!

 

[Gridlocked]

Well, here's the update, everyone.

My boy and I got out onto the ladder last week and harvested the hops that were ready. The Cascades (pictured below) WERE really ready, and I could have most likely harvested them a few days earlier but I wanted to error on the side of caution.

For other first-time harvesters, here's my experience with my hops. Some of the cones started to turn brown, and the top-most part of the cones started to curl up. The cones felt very papery and made a crunch like if you were squeezing a ball of tissue paper. They sprang back quickly and just felt "dry" and the lupulin was very gold. I did have some that weren't ready so I left them on the vine.

I had heard reports of them smelling citrius-like, but mine never really did. The aroma wasn't necessarily "strong" and didn't smell at all like the pellets, and for some reason I expected that it would. They smelled like weeds to me, but once I got into the pickin, it they smelled much more hop-like.

Both of the two, tall Cascade plants AND the Chinook on the fence by the trees have spurs from newly grown side-shoots, so I didn't touch those. About half of the Chinooks cones were ready so there are still probably 30-40 cones still on the plant. I didn't touch the Centennial on the fence, but those cones are teeny.

I took better pics, but here's one for now.

Most of these are Cascade, the ones in the bottom right are Chinooks. Very different looking cones.

 

[Randar]

Thanks for the update. My aroma observations in the hopyard are similar to yours. They don't really smell like pellets or like hop aroma you find in beer. I actually found it a bit overpowering once I started picking. (I cut the bines down and harvest on the ground in a huge pile o' bines) My Chinooks were ready 1-2 weeks before the Cascades. I do wonder if that was normal or if it was just an anomaly (for one of the 2 of us) that ours were ready in reverse order.

 

[Gridlocked]

well, everyone, the harvest is over as of a few weeks ago. My 2 1/2 year old and I plucked the delicious cones and loved it. Max still talks about "pickin' da hops and puttin' em in the bucket so they can go in the beer..." Awesome. I had the start of a second harvest but the weather turned fairly cold here (Minnesota) fairly quickly and my October is booked just about every day for the first three weeks and I wouldn't have had time to harvest them so into the fire they went.

I ended up with a bout 8-9 ounces, mostly Cascade - maybe an ounce of Chinook. I consider it a success for first-year plants.

They never really smelled "hoppy" so I'm hoping for the best. Both the Chinooks and Cascades both smelled very similar and I will report what they taste like when I brew with them. I'm planning a SMASH (single malt and single hop) batch with them to get an accurate idea of what they taste like. I don't have a Vacuum sealer so the brew session will probably happen at the end of October or early November. They're in the freezer now and I'll probably throw them all in one batch for a Smash-a-licious (and hopefully not veggie tasting) IPA.

All the plants have been cut to about 6" or so of stub except for the Centennial on the corner of the fence because I blinked and hit it with the weed wacker. Whoops.

 

[Paulasaurus]

Not bad at all for first year, good work. Next year you'll have to have the whole family out harvesting.

Award for goofiest mash paddle goes to........ Gridlocked!

 

[Gridlocked]

HA! I posted that pic so you could see it. It works, but you can see why I've already sketched out a new one... It just bugs me to look at it.

 

[chiteface]

I followed this thread all the way to the end and then...
how did the beer turn out?

 

[Gridlocked]

Man, what the hell was I thinking?!?!

I followed this thread all the way to the end and then...
how did the beer turn out?

I used all 12-13 ounces in one five gallon batch.
1st hop addition:

And the last:

It is the beer right here \/
It was AMAZINGLY cloudy - like when you dump creamer into coffee. I'm thinking that it may have to do with the amount of hops... that's sarcasm. I didn't take into account the massive amount of absorption for the leafs and had to dump the kettle into a bucket with a liner and let that drain. That must have pulled quite a bit of extra protein but it all settled out in the primary. There was a few inches of crud at the bottom of the carboy when it was done.

I tried the first one about mid March and it was pretty good. The flavor has blended a bit since then but it turned out to be a really good beer.

2011 Update:
Four of the five plants have broken ground or otherwise shown signs of life.

2010 Cascade

2011 Cascade This one is about as big as my thumb.

2010 Centennial

2011 Centennial

 

[rollinred]

Nice looking garden.

How in the hell do you have hops coming up already in MN. You must be far south because I am here in Northern Michigan and it is going to be frosting for a couple weeks yet with no real sign of weather above 40. I always thought MN was much colder than we have here even if we do get a lot more snow that you folks.

 

[Gridlocked]

2010 Cascade 2

2011 Cascade 2

And finally, the 2010 Fence Centennial

2011 Fence Centennial (tough to see but they are there. One left, two or three right rear of the pic

Thanks! Actually I'm not that far south. I'm about 30 minutes west of Minneapolis. The plants are on the south-facing side of my house and I'm thinking with the afternoon sun, the heat from the foundation of the house and the sun reflecting off of the house, they have started. I had them under 8" or so of ground up leaves. We've only been above 40 for a week or so. I was really surprised to see any action, that's for sure.

You are just about exactly straight west of me.

 

[rollinred]

I happen to almost always have warmer weather than you though because of Lake Michigan a mile away from where I actually live. It is essentially like an ocean keeping the temps higher here. I also have mine south facing.

Maybe we just get so much more snow that they get uncovered later. Mine uncovered last Wednesday for the first time.

 

[Gridlocked]

Ah, right on! We got a record amount of snow this year (eighty-some-inches) and the garden where these are was one of the first parts of my yard where I could see the ground. But I didn't cover the plants by the fence with any leaves or anything and one of those two is already showing signs of life.

rollinred, how many years have you grown hops? I need to build boxes around my plants this year so I don't end up with more than I want and I plan to chop out some rhizomes for a few buddies while I'm at it. I've searched quite a bit and can't seem to find when is the best time to do that. Also, about how it's done - does the rhizome need to be chopped off at the crown or can you just lop it off wherever?

 

[rollinred]

Ah, right on! We got a record amount of snow this year (eighty-some-inches) and the garden where these are was one of the first parts of my yard where I could see the ground. But I didn't cover the plants by the fence with any leaves or anything and one of those two is already showing signs of life.

rollinred, how many years have you grown hops? I need to build boxes around my plants this year so I don't end up with more than I want and I plan to chop out some rhizomes for a few buddies while I'm at it. I've searched quite a bit and can't seem to find when is the best time to do that. Also, about how it's done - does the rhizome need to be chopped off at the crown or can you just lop it off wherever?

Ha, that is the key, the amount of snowfall. Our annual snowfall average here is 96", so average is more than your record snowfall. Makes sense now!

I can actually help you out on this one because I took rhizomes last year to start a crop at my cousins. There are a couple of ways I have done this. First though, if you going to take rhizomes you need to start digging NOW. If you wait any longer you might stress the plant. Doing it now they will still have time to recover if you hurt them at all (which I doubt you will.

Just dig around your plat until you find a shoot going outward, find a spot with a couple buds and follow that one outward until you get right to the end of it. dig that baby out and you can cut it in to section where each section has buds. Those can all become new plants this year! Just make sure it has buds on it or it may be a root that will not become a new plant.

The other thing I have done is started plants for my cousin during the season. The best way is to get a small plastic planter and cut a small hole in the side near the middle height wise. Stick the shoot through there and then fill it with soil leaving the whole thing attached to your main rhizome. What will happen is that the part going through the soil in the pot will start to root (to help it along the rooting process scrape the size of the bine a little bit where it will be covered by the soil). Then give it a month or two and you can cut it off the main plant and plant it somewhere. But this option is best used with a larger plastic pot that you leave growing all year long. Next year it would be a stronger plant than doing rhizomes.


Now after this year what you want to do it NOT cut down to the crown on a couple off the thickest bines. Instead keep those about 3-4 feet long and bury them just under the surface. Next year when your bines start shooting up you can dig those out and where each leaf section was you should get one rhizome from each one as there will be buds coming out there.


Sorry it was so darn long. I could not find info on this at all either so last years I did a lot of research and found these techniques but find them hard to explain.

Search for "layering plants" and you will get the info on live propagation. Also search for plant propagation. I have tried most of them so PM me with ideas that you might find and I will let you know if I have done it to give you tips.

Again, sorry it is such a long post.

 

[Gridlocked]

Man, that was GREAT! If you have more info, feel free- post away! I sure appreciate it!

How old were your plants last year when you chopped some out for your cousin?

I've read about the rhizome with buds vs the root, so I've got that under control. As far as the starter goes, do you think a peat-pot would work so the whole thing could be buried as-is, without disturbing it to replant it? I really like the idea of leaving a few feet and burying those.

Again, thanks for taking the time to help out! Need any Cascade, Chinook or Centennial? I'll send em to you for the advice!

 

[B-Hoppy]

The rhizomes will usually grow outward from the crown like the spokes on a bicycle wheel. So, just start somewhere about a foot or so out from the center of the crown. Stick a spade into the ground and lift the soil kinda gently and you'll see if there are any rhizomes running out from the crown. Just knock the soil off of the rhizome and follow it back to the crown and snip with a knife or hand pruner. Then keep up the same method until you have worked the entire circumference of the plant. Once they're established, and if you have decent soil, they may run outward for a few feet over the corse of the growing season. If this is the case you can have anywhere from 10 -20 rings of buds/eyes along that rhizome. The industry standard for cuttings is usually two rings of buds per rhizome but as long as you have a bud, you have the potential to grow another plant. Like was mentioned in the previous post, you can also take a shoot that pops up a couple inches away from the main crown and start gently pulling on it. If the soil is loose, you can sometimes follow it all the way back to the crown and just pull it off. There will usually be a bunch of little roots starting all along the underground portion that will continue to grow once you stick it into a pot with some soil or wherever you decide to plant it. Hops are one of the easiest plants to clone so have fun and remember to B-Hoppy!

 

[rollinred]

Thanks for the offer but that is what I have planted.

Last year I didn't do anything but try to figure out the best ways to propagate hops because me and my cousin intend to sell rhizomes. So the idea is we are trying to figure out which way we can multiply plants the quickest. That way when there is the "newest/latest greatest" hope variety for the time we can propagate for sale within two years instead of waiting for an entire crop to mature. In other words focusing on root growth and plant multiplication above all.

By "starter" do you mean the layering technique using the pot? That is the most interesting one because there is sooo many things you can do with it. If you had a bine that was 6 feet long you could take that one bine and make it in to three new plants on its own. Except for the fact that you have them still feeding off the main plant so they grow much quicker than rhizomes do if they take root quickly. Last year in our experiments we did some very interesting things. Using the layering technique with only two months left in growing season we were able to cut a plant loose from the main, transplant it and get 6 feet of growth. The plant that we ran in to a pot with soil/compost manure mix right at the start of the year acted exactly like a first year plant after cutting it from the main 1 month after.

I do have some fears with the layering in pot method. Cutting it off to early would stunt growth and not form an appropriate root structure to support coming back next season. This seems to be best combated by cutting the tip of the bine after transplant so that growth is focused on root versus bine. I can not tell you if that will hold true every time but it did for us as the root structure was much larger in those plants that we cut the tip. I also fear leaving plants in the pot during the winter months around areas like ours where the temps are way bellow freezing. Since the pots are above ground they will be much colder than a normal rhizome gets. I also fear bringing them inside because the already stunted growth after cutting them may force the plant to throw more shoots. So this only leads me to say that the pots should be buried and covered with some thing insulating during winter months for best chance at having a return on a normal cycle.

Again, this is all complete experimentation and I have never read anything about this stuff even though I have searched and search again MANY times. You may have heard of how notorious Michigan States Universities agricultural programs are? Well their newest thing is helping farmers in my county, Leelanau County grow hops. It turns out that our soil and temperatures are absolutely ideal for hops and grapes and many agricultural centers are trying to get farmers here to switch from food to hops or grapes because they don't find many places like this... long story short they have Hops growing seminars for the farmers every month or so. I happen to know plenty of farmers and have read one of the manuals and NOT ONCE did it talk about layering for propagation. Imagine if in the first year a farmer could get 4 plants from one rhizome and make rhizomes from each of those four plants the next year. They could easily save hundreds or thousands on rhizomes and get quicker yield.

I am just kind of freelancing this experiment because I am almost more interested in this than I am getting a good crop. I don't brew too much right now so hops are not something I need a lot of. I do want to do something that most people wouldn't do, and that is subject their precious hop plants to torture and see what they can do!

The good thing is that layering can not and will not ever hurt a plant because you are still letting it do exactly as it intended. Except for it just shoots out a new root system from the area it is touching going through the soil. Even cutting rhizomes hurts the plant more because you disrupt some of the existing root system. But if you have a two year or more old plant do not worry, the amount you do hurt it cutting rhizomes will be repaired in a week or so. I do know that from experience.

The proper way to Make rhizomes intentionally is to leave the 3-4 feet and bury it after you harvest like I mentioned. That is how most of the companies make the rhizomes you buy.


To sum this up. The method I recommend for propagating is by layering through the pots. But I do not yet know the best time or method for transplanting so that would be at your own risk.

The safest but slower method is to bury a couple of 3-4 foot bine sections and make rhizomes the "proper" way.


I want you to keep my informed when you do cut rhizomes or try anything. I actually am going to try to write some kind of manual for this. Not as a money source but just for us private growers. Since most people don't want to mess with their hops like this I don't mind experimenting with it. If it eventually helps someone then I might take a couple ounces but for now it is just in fun and for helping this community. So I do need a few others to try a couple of these things so I have sources outside of my crop. So if you want to experiment I do have things you could try for me!

 

[Paulasaurus]

Great info! I'd be down for trying some experiments. I have a cascade that has yet to show that is a 3rd year plant, a 2nd year Centennial that is showing, and a 2nd year Columbus that is showing.

Hops are looking great Ted, they're gonna be monsters this year. Kinda scared of what my 3rd year Cascade is going to do, if its anything like last year its bound to uproot itself and take over the city.

 

[Gridlocked]

weeds

OH, I also put the Magnum in the ground today. I had one vacant spot in the bed near the house.

 

[tchuklobrau]

where they on the house side of the crown? If so would not supprise after what i found 2day digging for 4 hours. I bet root stock went down hit the wall then went up. when they got near surface started sending shoots. would be how it happens in the wild hits a tree or other surface travels up and tries to grow.

 

[rollinred]

where they on the house side of the crown? If so would not supprise after what i found 2day digging for 4 hours. I bet root stock went down hit the wall then went up. when they got near surface started sending shoots. would be how it happens in the wild hits a tree or other surface travels up and tries to grow.

This is what I was thinking also. Hops throw new shoots horizontal just under the surface.

Those are too weird looking to be a bine. Bines would have one tip and several other shoots going out the sides. The ones you found have a whole bunch of little shoots on just one end. Strange but cool find because I bet those suckers are gonna grow like crazy.

I would also say to plant them vertically because you could have a mess if some of those shoots don't pop upward and grow horizontal for a while. But either way would work. Just make sure those shoots are bellow the surface when planted as always.

 

[B-Hoppy]

For ease of 'containing' the growth, you're better off to plant them vertically. If planted vertically, the spokes of the bicycle wheel(rhizomes/shoots) will radiate outwards and will usually orient themselves vertically within a foot or two from the crown. If planted horizontally, the buds on the south side of the rhizome, due to their orientation in the soil, will begin growth towards china. Eventually they will realize that something is wrong and begin to turn upward toward the sun. In this case (opposed to vertical) they may come up much farther away from the crown. It's kinda hard to diagnose without actually seeing the site but I think the horizontal planting may have played into the situation. Plants can do strange things if you let them. In order to have more time to drink, stick those new ones into the ground with the buds pointing straight up. Less time tending and more time drinking!