Organic deep water culture hops (HYDRO HOPS)

[shantigrows]

Enjoy!

 

[shantigrows]

Hops are one month old today, and are up to 8 feet tall in both soil and hydro.

 

[Crito]

,.....

The southern edge of North Carolina gets about 14 hours of day length at the Summer Solstice. Hops prefer 15 hours to cone properly. Less day length can reduce yields; sometimes significantly. This is actually why growers in the far Southern States have to use artificial lighting to get normal yields. That's exactly why you don't see commercial hopyards down south

.........

-Brian
GLH

This is awesome info. I am going to use some blue grow lights (let me know if this is correct spectrum).

I grow outside. But two 60 watt ones can add an hour or two of extra daylight to get the required 16+ where I live. I just need enough light to trick the plants. Maybe I will get more yield this growing season.

Edit. I have a 20 by 12 garden bed.

 

[CA_Mouse]

- Best, so far: Same as the last. I keep dropping it down as it hits the top. But instead of leaving it where it falls, I start wrapping the bine and twine around the pole in a barber's pole fashion. So now I get 12 to 15 feet of growth compacted into the first 2 to 3 feet of the pole, its all going "up", nothing is in the soil. It just seems happier. Eventually though, it turns into an ugly bush at the top because side arms are going in every direction and tangling themselves up. But I guess beauty isn't priority number 1 here, right?

Do you have any pics of this option? I'm limited in space on the home-front and had thought about doing this, but never seen anyone else doing it this way. :rockin:

 

[aiptasia]

Have you considered SCrOG growing? It works wonders for hops cousins when you can train them to a grid/trellis system and keep equal parts of the plant suspended directly under your light system at an even height. If I were the one investing in an indoor hops hydro grow, SCrOG would be the way I would do it. Stealth grow cabinets employ this idea for growing in tight space constraints. The part that I like about it is that hops plants should be easily trained to a lattice like pattern. You can make a frame in PVC and then use 1" chicken wire as the lattice and just weave and train the hops plants to it as they grow.

Food for thought. Otherwise, those VHO T-8's or T-10's you're using are never going to have enough PAR value for good hops flower growth. You'd either need to build a bank of very expensive high intensity 3watt LED's or use very very hot metal halides, which might scorch the plants.

 

[GVH_Dan]

Do you have any pics of this option? I'm limited in space on the home-front and had thought about doing this, but never seen anyone else doing it this way. :rockin:

I couldn't find a picture that didn't have someone standing in front of it. Sorry. I ran outside to take a picture but everything is buried in snow. Remind me in the spring and I"ll snap a couple of pictures...of course with the winter we are having in WI, spring won't be until June.

 

[shantigrows]

Whoa. it has been a while since we logged on. These pictures were from a few months ago. We got lots of vegetative growth but since their main source of light was from a window,and as spring/summer approached the days got longer, they wouldnt preflower inside. I ended up taking down the indoor hops display from the store once spring hit and my outdoor hopyard started growing (Lots of work) It was very pleasant to be growing hops during the winter however, and next winter we will work on getting some hydroponic indoor hops to bloom. Cheers everybody. Please feel free to post pictures if you decide to try hydrohops yourself!!!

Zachary Shanti

Belmont Hops
Barefoot Gardener

 

[shantigrows]

They took over our store this winter, and the store next to ours!

 

[shantigrows]

lots of hoppy winter fun!

 

[CA_Mouse]

I couldn't find a picture that didn't have someone standing in front of it. Sorry. I ran outside to take a picture but everything is buried in snow. Remind me in the spring and I"ll snap a couple of pictures...of course with the winter we are having in WI, spring won't be until June.

Okay... How about July? That should also give a good idea of the growth rate too!