New Hop Garden 2014 (pic heavy)

[WilliamSlayer]

Definitely inspired by the original, my hop cage for this year has just been built! I used 2 x 4 lumber that I stained to prevent rot. The cage is only about 3x3 feet. Surrounding the bottom is some vinyl house siding to prevent the roots from spreading. It is buried 8 inches into the ground. I took thaymond's advise on space around the cage and left myself space on the backside against the house. I am hoping to build another just like it to the right in the photos, keeping a bit of space in between.

Question - what are you guys fertilizing with exactly? This my first attempt at growing hops!

Also, I plan to use 25lb test nylon line unless that sounds too light?

I'm excited!

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[day_trippr]

Anyone in here notice it's 2015?
No?

Cheers!

 

[thaymond]

Anyone in here notice it's 2015?
No?

Cheers!

AYE!

"shouldn't title be "2015"

Indeed it is... Can't change the title now... Unless a Mod wants to flex their mod muscle and rename it.

 

[thaymond]

Definitely inspired by the original, my hop cage for this year has just been built! I used 2 x 4 lumber that I stained to prevent rot. The cage is only about 3x3 feet. Surrounding the bottom is some vinyl house siding to prevent the roots from spreading. It is buried 8 inches into the ground. I took thaymond's advise on space around the cage and left myself space on the backside against the house. I am hoping to build another just like it to the right in the photos, keeping a bit of space in between.

Question - what are you guys fertilizing with exactly? This my first attempt at growing hops!

Also, I plan to use 25lb test nylon line unless that sounds too light?

I'm excited!

Looking good! All you need is enough room to squeeze your arm being the trellis and the house to train it in the back. I would step into the cage to train before they became unruly. This year, with stronger tensile line, I am not going to worry as much about bumping a line. Last year, it would be mildly windy and begin to snap. I ended up using wire to tie the bines to the posts at certain points.

I use vigoro 10-10-10, blood meal, and bone meal. I used an initial mix of equal parts mushroom compost, manure, and topsoil to plant. I had weekly treatments (2 gallons per plant) of the recommended amount of the vigoro (usually on Saturday morning). I would then slurry up the blood meal bi-weekly until I started seeing cones. Then I switched to the bone meal slurry. I'll stay with this regiment this year, unless someone can steer me in a different direction for applications. This is on top of watering nearly daily in the heat of summer. I limit it to one full watering can per plant, which is two gallons. I also watched the weather to determine if I should water or not. If it was going to rain, I'd save the water and let nature do her thing.

Williamslayer, what's your plan?

 

[day_trippr]

AYE!

Indeed it is... Can't change the title now... Unless a Mod wants to flex their mod muscle and rename it.

Hint: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=520741

Cheers!

 

[WilliamSlayer]

Because I have never done this before, my intention was to use a standard commercial fertilizer ie miracle grow. my watering plan was to do two waterings 1 when I get home from work and another one at sunset. I get home from work around 1 p.m. just FYI. 2 gallons of water per plant?! Sounds like a lot, but again, I have never done this before!

 

[WilliamSlayer]

I did put down a bag of compost and a bag of topsoil packed around the rhizomes when I first planted them. The soil in this area has a very heavy clay content. So I am hoping to leave some space around the plants for drainage. Is there a possibility of drowning these plants?

 

[thaymond]

Because I have never done this before, my intention was to use a standard commercial fertilizer ie miracle grow. my watering plan was to do two waterings 1 when I get home from work and another one at sunset. I get home from work around 1 p.m. just FYI. 2 gallons of water per plant?! Sounds like a lot, but again, I have never done this before!

I'll water once in the early morning so as to not burn the leaves
with the mid summer sun. It cools the ground and absorbs it seems. I'll get home and the soil is dry in the afternoons. If you're starting with rhizomes, I'd go easy, water when the soil is about an inch or so down. People also set up drip lines on timers, but that's super serious. A cheap watering can puts me in the garden where I want to be anyway.

I did put down a bag of compost and a bag of topsoil packed around the rhizomes when I first planted them. The soil in this area has a very heavy clay content. So I am hoping to leave some space around the plants for drainage. Is there a possibility of drowning these plants?

If you over water, they will rot and die. You can always till in some sand or something in the bed in order to allow for drainage. It should be okay as long as you don't have standing water. That's a sure way to kill them or significantly stunt growth.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

Ok, I will go easy then till they get going.

 

[Pelikan]

How many more clever folks are going to post about 2014 vs 2015 before actually reading the thread?

Awesome stuff here!

 

[WilliamSlayer]

I can see growth, but slooooow. Weather has been poor too.

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[thaymond]

I just took the clippers and hacked everything down to the crown. All plants had very large bull shoots coming forth, so I cut them down in the hopes to get very vigorous and healthy growth from each crown. This year, I am trying to only use 4 total bines from each plant. Chinook, who was near my top producer, only did so with 3 bines. Nugget had many bines, and produced less. I'm going to give that a try to see if my yields are any different this year.

I also weeded the beds. They desperately needed it. Now they can grow in peace in their beds without weeds inhibiting their nutrient uptake. This weekend I hope to string up the lines. I'll be using sisal twine this year. It has a stronger tensile strength, so I'm hoping it can last through the full season. I was considering manilla rope, or a synthetic poly rope, but wanted something that will make harvest time easy and will eventually biodegrade. Well see how it goes.

 

[thaymond]

Just had BYO feature article in my setup in the May/June issue. Check it out!

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[Snowden]

Just had BYO feature article in my setup in the May/June issue. Check it out!

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Very cool! Congratulations!

 

[rekoob]

Just had BYO feature article in my setup in the May/June issue. Check it out!

That's awesome! Congrats.

 

[A50SNAKE]

Just had BYO feature article in my setup in the May/June issue. Check it out!

yes, that is awesome, very good job!

 

[MatchstickBrewingCo.]

I really enjoyed the pictures from last year! I planted Cascade, Centennial, and Northern Brewer rhizomes a couple days ago. I'm not expecting much from them as I only have 2 twine strings about 8 ft tall strung up for each rhizomes. You had no problem training multiple bines to the same twine right? I'm thinking of trying that but don't want to strangle any bines by doing so.

 

[thaymond]

I really enjoyed the pictures from last year! I planted Cascade, Centennial, and Northern Brewer rhizomes a couple days ago. I'm not expecting much from them as I only have 2 twine strings about 8 ft tall strung up for each rhizomes. You had no problem training multiple bines to the same twine right? I'm thinking of trying that but don't want to strangle any bines by doing so.

I had Zeus and Nugget with multiple bines per line. My line was the problem. Tomato jute is all but useless in this application. You should be fine doing 2 bines per line.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

Just had BYO feature article in my setup in the May/June issue. Check it out!

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Glad to hear it! Congrats! Now even more folks can be inspired.

 

[thaymond]

Very cool! Congratulations!

That's awesome! Congrats.

yes, that is awesome, very good job!

Glad to hear it! Congrats! Now even more folks can be inspired.

Thanks!

 

[thaymond]

FIL picked up some sisal twine from TSC today in Indiana. Hopefully this will hold up for the season. It seems much stronger than the tomato jute from last year.

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Any feedback on this before I string up the trellis? It has to happen this weekend. Each of my lovelies were hacked to the ground a week ago, and they're already back en masse. It helped that today was 85°and sunny. I'll post pictures when the sun comes up.

 

[thaymond]

Here's this year's new growth update:

Nugget View attachment 1430997710194.jpg
Zeus View attachment 1430997729145.jpg
Cascade View attachment 1430997746295.jpg
Chinook View attachment 1430997777306.jpg

This is about 2 weeks after tilling the top in and hacking it all down. Notice on Chinook, three runners about 2 feet from any other growth, top left, bottom right, and bottom left.

I have to get my lines up soon so these gals have something to hold on to!

Here's hoping for a banner year!

 

[FourSeasonAngler]

I bought sisal twine from Hobby Lobby last year and strung it up this year. Sad to say I don't think it will last. It's breaking strength when new was low enough for me pull apart with my bare hands.

Yours may be of better quality, I don't know.

I plan to pull mine down, cut lengths of synthetic twine from the hardware store tie-down spool the appropriate length and wrap it with the sisal so the bines have something to grab onto. Since I only have 4 bines it shouldn't be that much extra work.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

Does the nylon string not work well? I have strung up some 25lb stuff, but sadly my bines are barely growing... :-(

 

[FourSeasonAngler]

I have heard that the nylon twine does not work well. It lacks the texture needed for the bines to grab ahold of and grip.

 

[thaymond]

The nylon is supposed to be harder to work with. I like that I can toss it out with the bine once I harvest and not worry about it.

 

[thaymond]

I bought sisal twine from Hobby Lobby last year and strung it up this year. Sad to say I don't think it will last. It's breaking strength when new was low enough for me pull apart with my bare hands.

Yours may be of better quality, I don't know.

I plan to pull mine down, cut lengths of synthetic twine from the hardware store tie-down spool the appropriate length and wrap it with the sisal so the bines have something to grab onto. Since I only have 4 bines it shouldn't be that much extra work.

Sounds like the tomato jute I used last year. Cheap string got me cheap results. This was a little more pricey, but at least I have a lot of it. It seems like it is stronger than the stuff I used last year.

I was also considering doubling the lines up for added support, since I have half of a mile of it.

 

[thaymond]

Here's the Sunbeam that I gifted to my mom. It's currently taking over a fence and will spread to the two adjacent bushes. She loves the color. The Leaves are a bright yellow, even though they show up as green here.

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[thaymond]

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More Sunbeam. Probably won't harvest it, but it is very pretty.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

Cascade showing some growth. Hoping to attach to the string guides this week.

If they don't take to the nylon twine, what do you guys think about using small ties to attach the bines?

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