New Hop Garden 2014 (pic heavy)

[philipCT]

Okay - loving this thread as a first time hops grower on Southern Connecticut.

Cross posted this in another hops growing thread but wasn't able to upload the whole build thread of photos (apparently a limitation of the new mobile version of this forum).

Anyway - I decided to copy the 2x2 by 12" deep boxes from previous posts in this thread. Got started yesterday. Photos should speak for themselves except to say that SWMBO was very awesome and supportive of me hacking into the side garden for this project. I had to relocate a rose bush and a hydrangea, but that seems a small price to pay for a pretty sweet spot on the Southern side of the house near a spigot.

Enjoy... more to come after I string the coir climbers today.

 

[thaymond]

Okay - loving this thread as a first time hops grower on Southern Connecticut.

Cross posted this in another hops growing thread but wasn't able to upload the whole build thread of photos (apparently a limitation of the new mobile version of this forum).

Anyway - I decided to copy the 2x2 by 12" deep boxes from previous posts in this thread. Got started yesterday. Photos should speak for themselves except to say that SWMBO was very awesome and supportive of me hacking into the side garden for this project. I had to relocate a rose bush and a hydrangea, but that seems a small price to pay for a pretty sweet spot on the Southern side of the house near a spigot.

Enjoy... more to come after I string the coir climbers today.

Thanks for the kind words! Yours also looks good. Mine sit on the north side of my yard, but still get good sun. I wonder what it would look like on my southern fence. Unfortunately that's where the kids play, so I couldn't plant it there. Best of luck on your build and growing season!

 

[philipCT]

Finished running the climber lines today with the help of my two boys. That roofline is 25 feet above the garden so no way I had a ladder that high. Had to get up on the roof with drill, caulking gun, coir bundles and screw eyes to rig them. Rigged a big old line I had around as a safety line. Seems like a big production for my 2 Centennial and 2 Cascade rhizomes. Expecting those soon I guess.

Yesterday evening my lab went digging in my freshly topsoiled and manured grow pits. Arrgh. Guess she wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Bought some chicken wire today to keep that from happening again once I get the rhizomes in.

I had 50 foot bundles of coir so I was able to run them up from the grow boxes to the eye and back down to a cleat mounted on the wall. At the end of the season I should be able to let the bines down to the ground and harvest them without having to climb back up to the roof again.

 

[philipCT]

Got a message from Farmhouse Brewing Supply yesterday that my rhizomes have shipped. Expected to arrive tomorrow. Perfect timing! Very psyched.

 

[thaymond]

I have several purple heads poking out after doing the rhizome dig. I'm planning on taking only the strongest after Tax Day. After that, I'm stringing the lines, and it's game on!

I'm thinking of different ways of stringing the lines this year so that I don't end up having too hard of a time training bines as I've had in the last 2 years. Once it hits the back of the trellis, it's very hard to manage. I will have to put some thought into it, but I have a few ideas.

Anyway, onto the pics!
Nugget
View attachment 1459448202256.jpg
Zeus
View attachment 1459448247254.jpg
Cascade
View attachment 1459448261795.jpg
Chinook
View attachment 1459448277617.jpg

 

[thaymond]

Finished running the climber lines today with the help of my two boys. That roofline is 25 feet above the garden so no way I had a ladder that high. Had to get up on the roof with drill, caulking gun, coir bundles and screw eyes to rig them. Rigged a big old line I had around as a safety line. Seems like a big production for my 2 Centennial and 2 Cascade rhizomes. Expecting those soon I guess.

Yesterday evening my lab went digging in my freshly topsoiled and manured grow pits. Arrgh. Guess she wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Bought some chicken wire today to keep that from happening again once I get the rhizomes in.

I had 50 foot bundles of coir so I was able to run them up from the grow boxes to the eye and back down to a cleat mounted on the wall. At the end of the season I should be able to let the bines down to the ground and harvest them without having to climb back up to the roof again.

Having the cleat will help with harvesting. I ran to my roof in my first year of growing too. I'm glad I didn't do that again. I had to get up on the roof and untangle an angry nugget plant from the satellite dish it tried to eat. It was such a pain.

Once those plants get established, the side of your house is going to look like a jungle. It will be very cool. It's a fun little side-hobby to have, and when all is said and done, you have hops for your beer. Best of luck on this year's growing season and harvest!

 

[thaymond]

It's not much, but here had been the progress over 2 weeks. Cold Temps and not much sun is holding them back. I've read a few posts and threads about not doing the full trim back. I'm considering only taking the strongest of the non-bull shoots and trimming the rest because of out crummy April. This could give me some extra green grow time before they flower, meaning a possible bigger harvest. I have already done my soil and fertilizer amendments, so we're should be taking off pretty quickly here.

Nugget
View attachment 1460664296631.jpg
Zeus
View attachment 1460664332394.jpg
Cascade
View attachment 1460664367029.jpg
Chinook
View attachment 1460664392274.jpg

I'm hoping to see some good progress this weekend, at least with identifying which are my bulls.

 

[NoisufnoC]

Putting my existing plant and a rhizome I picked up in the ground this weekend. Seems like compost/manure/top soil is the ticket for planting these guys, yeah?

 

[thaymond]

Putting my existing plant and a rhizome I picked up in the ground this weekend. Seems like compost/manure/top soil is the ticket for planting these guys, yeah?

It worked great for me.

 

[thaymond]

What a difference a few days makes. The pics above were last Thursday. These were taken this afternoon, 4 days later.

Nugget
View attachment 1461031954327.jpg
Zeus
View attachment 1461031973738.jpg
Cascade
View attachment 1461031988624.jpg
Chinook
View attachment 1461032005686.jpg

Chinook and Nugget obviously have some rhizomes that are running out from the main crowns. I may trim them back a second time this season and do some potted plants. I still have some rhizomes for sale as well.

I'm thinking of running lines this weekend. I'll post updates once they're up. If the warm weather continues, I'll have to begin training. I'm like a month early, which is awesome. That will give more time for the green growth phase, and hopefully more nodes for sidearms and flowers.

 

[chudsonvt]

Oh boy, oh boy! I just finished reading and I have really enjoyed this thread. This will be my first year and have learned a lot just from reading this.

I have Centennial, Chinook, Columbus (CTZ) and Comet on the way. I just bought materials on my lunch break for a trellis. Since space is not of concern for me, I'm going with a pair of A-frames with a steel cable suspended between them and staked on either end. Then I found some heavy twine that is supposed to support at least 39 LB. Although I just realized I did not buy enough. I have 8 plants total so I will run two 15 ft pieces to the wire for each plant, making a V for each plant. If they are all 15 ft, then I will need 240 ft. I bought 150 ft. Oops.

 

[thaymond]

This is a great read. It can answer many questions you find on the forum.

http://www.greatlakeshops.com/hops-blog/grower-notes-spring-2016

 

[chudsonvt]

This is a great read. It can answer many questions you find on the forum.

http://www.greatlakeshops.com/hops-blog/grower-notes-spring-2016

I actually ordered my hops from them! lol

 

[thaymond]

Busy day today. 4 am start to a brew day, made a palate wrecking DIPA at 104 IBUS and 1 lb of homegrown hops in the boil. It was nuts. It got hard to stir there was so much. The gravity sample tasted amazing.

View attachment 1461457273105.jpg

Then I got to lines up for the trellis. I'll need to replenish the hops after this DIPA monster.

View attachment 1461457334026.jpg

The hops grew like mad today. The growing season begins! Some bines are already over a foot tall, even after hacking all the initial growth back early in April. I'm hoping that we will get amazing growth and even better yield this season.

 

[olotti]

Busy day today. 4 am start to a brew day, made a palate wrecking DIPA at 104 IBUS and 1 lb of homegrown hops in the boil. It was nuts. It got hard to stir there was so much. The gravity sample tasted amazing.

View attachment 351587

Then I got to lines up for the trellis. I'll need to replenish the hops after this DIPA monster.

View attachment 351588

The hops grew like mad today. The growing season begins! Some bines are already over a foot tall, even after hacking all the initial growth back early in April. I'm hoping that we will get amazing growth and even better yield this season.

So are those bines that we can see in the bottom pic the ones you'll end up training around the twine?

 

[thaymond]

So are those bines that we can see in the bottom pic the ones you'll end up training around the twine?

Some of them, yes. There's a few bull shoots that are there. I shan't be training them.

 

[olotti]

Some of them, yes. There's a few bull shoots that are there. I shan't be training them.

So are the bull shoots the tallest of the bunch in the pics? Aren't the bull shoots are hollow? Is there a way to pick them out by the feel or do they usually grow the tallest first? I just want to make sure I trim back the right bines.

 

[thaymond]

If you gently pinch bines, you can feel if they're hollow or not. I'll pick a big bine, pinch it, and if there is some give, it's hollow. Bull shoots are usually the largest in diameter and most aggressive bines, and have the greatest distances between nodes. I can't remember where I read this, but it holds true most of the time.

You want a strong bine that has shorter distances between nodes. The more nodes, there sidearms, the more potential for hops.

 

[olotti]

If you gently pinch bines, you can feel if they're hollow or not. I'll pick a big bine, pinch it, and if there is some give, it's hollow. Bull shoots are usually the largest in diameter and most aggressive bines, and have the greatest distances between nodes. I can't remember where I read this, but it holds true most of the time.

You want a strong bine that has shorter distances between nodes. The more nodes, there sidearms, the more potential for hops.

Ok cool thanks. And nodes are the offshoots as the bine grows?

 

[thaymond]

Nodes are every point on the bine that has leaves.

 

[thaymond]

I was able to get out and really enjoy the weather this weekend. I was able to get all of the lines up and pruned back all of my bull shoots and took the strongest bines from the crown and began training.

Everything before it was pruned.
View attachment 1461615487848.jpg
Nugget after pruning.
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Post Pruned Zeus
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Cascade after a trim
View attachment 1461615624181.jpg
And finally, a well groomed Chinook plant.
View attachment 1461615645271.jpg

I'll be fertilizing soon. We're supposed to get severe weather, so the bines and lines will get an early test tonight.

 

[DurtyChemist]

Where are you directing the bine growing up the middle?

Great photos of where to place the eyelets. 1' mark and string from post to post touching all four posts. 5 bines growing per box.

 

[thaymond]

Where are you directing the bine growing up the middle?

Great photos of where to place the eyelets. 1' mark and string from post to post touching all four posts. 5 bines growing per box.

I'll grow up the center, then wrap around the top perimeter. It made the box fill out completely 2 years ago. I didn't do that last year, and the hops topped at 20 feet, and nothing rally wrapped around the top. This way it will look completely full.

Actually, each box is individually strung. The way they work is to help minimize sidearms touching. It just looks like a continuous string. If I can figure out how to show it, I'll post a picture on how I did it.

I started in the top back left corner in one box and wound counterclockwise in descending eyelets until all eyelets were filled, and the top front right corner on the next box and did the same. I alternated for each box, top left, front right, top left, front right. It ended with that design.

 

[NoisufnoC]

I finally put my potted Columbus in the ground this weekend. I built a hop trellis with 2x2 pressure treated lumber, although I'm not too thrilled with my string work.

My Cascade rhizome got planted too.

 

[thaymond]

Just did a soil test on my Zeus box. I'll get around to th e rest of the boxes later this weekend, though I added a load of blood meal to the soil to boost my nitrogen. My reading was very low, like trace. I've been adding a water soluble N fertilizer for a while, but all the other readings on the P and K were high. Here are my readings on my Zeus box:

pH - 8.0
N - Trace
P - very high
K - Medium

The blood meal is a 12-0-0 fertilizer, and I added 3 cups to the 64 square feet. It may be a lot, but I also watered the heck out of it to help start leeching into the soil.

So, the pH is a little high, and my N is way low. Any thoughts on lowering my pH a point or two without poisoning the plants? The P and K numbers are fine for now, as those will be used up after they flower.

 

[thaymond]

Growth update: all plants have bines over 6 feet. Many over 8 feet. Here's the results.

Nugget
View attachment 1463052042099.jpg
Zeus
View attachment 1463052053876.jpg
Cascade
View attachment 1463052073849.jpg
Chinook
View attachment 1463052087784.jpg

And the Box
View attachment 1463052104554.jpg

We also have a honey crisp tree that has some buds in it. Here's hoping for some apples.
View attachment 1463052147903.jpg
View attachment 1463052161193.jpg

And our strawberry patch. We started with 8 plants 2 years ago. It's now taken over the entire garden bed. This side of the bed had 4 plants. Now it looks like this...View attachment 1463052224203.jpg

I also started a chinook rootlet. I just wanted to see how small of a rhizome I could get growing. It was only about an inch long. It had a small stem on it in april, which died once planted. I thought it was dead for a week. Here's where she is now.
View attachment 1463052364400.jpg

 

[DurtyChemist]

I can see how you keep the lines away from each other in the shot of the whole garden you posted. I will have to see how you run the top one when it gets long enough. I still need to set up my posts and ropes but I have a little more time before they're needed.

 

[thaymond]

A little tragety and heartbreak on the Nugget and chinook cages. I'm not sure how or when, but when I checked on the plants for training, several ropes were cut and a few bines lost their tips. I had to repair lines and re train some bines. Crazy growth continues, however, with many bines exceeding 8 to 10 feet.

Nugget
View attachment 1463877034278.jpg

A pic of the repairs on the ropes in the Nugget cage.
View attachment 1463877260779.jpg
Zeus
View attachment 1463877073365.jpg
Cascade
View attachment 1463877094025.jpg
Chinook
View attachment 1463877227120.jpg
And the profile pic.
View attachment 1463877281025.jpg

They have been trained, cared for, and watered. My work here is done, time to have a DIPA that has all of these hops in it.

 

[NoisufnoC]

My columbus is doing very well, I didn't do much pruning and just let it do its thing.

My Cascade rhizome, on the other hand, has done nothing. I actually dug it up last night to check on it, and it looks the same as when I planted it. I think somewhere along the line it died, not sure if there's any reviving it or not.

 

[thaymond]

The weather is warm, and growth is getting rediculous. After doing the line repair, I added bloodmeal to boost nitrogen in the soil, and drained my pool cover to water the hops. We've had many days where it's full sun, and rain here and there. Bines immediately responded, throwing out sidearms and growing quickly. Many bines are pushing 12 feet already, and it's not even June. Zeus l, Cascade, and Chinook are growing about a foot per day. Nugget is about 6-8 per day per bine. Still, not bad. Now that the lines are holding, my next project is pruning and weeding.

NuggetView attachment 1464541008237.jpg
ZeusView attachment 1464541033036.jpg
Cascade View attachment 1464541047709.jpg
Chinook View attachment 1464541059877.jpg

And the Box profile
View attachment 1464541084853.jpg

I'll probably fertilize when I water later this afternoon.