New 100 Rhizome hop farm

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Poor weather take a toll on any of the plants? Seems like the temperature has finally broken for good here.


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Great thread and congrats on your first year success. Having all your harvest pre-promised to a brewery must feel extremely rewarding.

I know you guys dont have the worse of weather down there, but it was a pretty rough winter this year. From what you can tell so far, have you experienced any loss from the winter?

My family is putting in nearly 1 acre, 900 plants, this year in Western NY, we're gluttons for punishment!
 
900 is a lot of work, we will grow our operation soon. The only thing we will need to look into is harvesting. Much over he's we have is entirely too much hand work


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How are the plants looking? Weather all these storms ok?


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I saw that you got 1/4 lb from your plants last year (first). Does anyone know what expect harvest would be from 2nd, 3rd etc and what year harvest would plateau with the same 96 plants? I understand that you would eventually dig up rhizomes ad replant them and expand hop farm. Just curious as to how much production you can get out of mature plants. Basically a return on investment.
 
From everything I gather it should be between 1 and 2 lbs by the 3rd year depending on variety.


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Awesome 1st year. Good luck this year!

Since we're (hopefully) closing on a house this month that sits on 1/4 acre I just ordered up some Rhizomes to get going... Might be a little late to the planting party once we're moved & I get some sort of growing setup in... but I will be looking forward to next year. Nothing quite this large but enough for me.

Hell of a setup!
 
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Today


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The brewery that I will be supplying is opening up this weekend. 3 great guys own the place and they make great beer. Stop buy and check out their bar if you are in the stafford area; the grand opening is this Saturday. http://adventurebrewing.com


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You prolly mentioned it above but what fertilizer you using and other soil treatment?


Bone meal and blood meal. We applied miracle grow a few times last year but have yet to do so this year. We added manure and threw lime out before the growing season started this year. Still have a couple of spots to mess with in order to improve drainage.

The soil in the area where the hop yard is really doesn't need to be improved. Up until about 40 years ago it was a hog lot and then from 1978-2013 my parents kept a compost pile in that area. Needless to say when we tilled everything up the soil in that location was rich and black. The lime is definitely a must in this virginia clay but we could probably get by with that alone.

I have also been feeding them every couple of weeks with a mixture of composted spent grains and manure.


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Sweet thanks out soil is rich in lime but will have to find the two meals you talked about, all five of my rhizomes are showing life already from plantin on Friday so there liking something already lol all I did was mix compost, top soil, and natural soil together made my mounds then topped with mulch, thinking about after building my boxes and burying them around topping off with miracle grow.
 
Sweet thanks out soil is rich in lime but will have to find the two meals you talked about, all five of my rhizomes are showing life already from plantin on Friday so there liking something already lol all I did was mix compost, top soil, and natural soil together made my mounds then topped with mulch, thinking about after building my boxes and burying them around topping off with miracle grow.


We used it a couple of times last year and they loved the miracle grow. They really are pretty hearty plants. As long as you keep them watered and give them a little bit of food they will do well.



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Male plant... It had to be killed today. We were not sure last year but it was for sure this year

Here is what they were looking like today
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I've looking at some of the older pics and noticed....are you spreading spent grain directly on the plants or are you composting it first? If directly, do you dry it at all first?
 
I have done composted as well as fresh out of the mash tun... I only do that in the winter


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Going for harvest number one on the Columbus plants today, will update with pics and totals


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ImageUploadedByHome Brew1402776125.350613.jpg the winner for the day!

Ended up with 6.6 wet lbs off of this mini early harvest of about 15 Columbus plants. These plants are throwing off new sidearms and have a lot of new cones on them as well. We just wanted to harvest some of the higher up cones that were drying out and had been on the plants a while before they turned completely brown


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Pics are if the Columbus drying in the basement, of the cascade plants loaded with cones, and another shot of the whole yard


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