Our hop farm

[Mojzis]

This past weekend my brother and father and I started our hop farm. The family owns a large section of land in PA and variety of tools. I purchased 18 rhizomes this year after reading up. They have been sitting around in the fridge for a while until everyone got off from work.

My father is into forestry and logging on the property so I took 12 of the straightest trees that had no use. Austrian pine I believe. We thought about using iron wood but I felt like that was a waste of a nice tree.

Saturday my brother and I cut up 12 posts roughly 21ft long each. They ranged from 7-6" at the base. We used the forest winch (8k pound dragging limit) to pull the logs out of the forest. Then we drug them to an unused grassland with deep dark soil.

Sunday my father used the plow to plow over the grass and then the disk to cut it up. We used the 12" pto driven auger to make the holes for the posts and made them 3-4' deep. The ends of the posts were de-barked and then coated with tar as a preservative. We put the posts in and ran galvanized wire through them. The ends of the wire were tied to cinder bricks and buried 3-4' underground for tension. Normally we would put a dry bag of cement around each pole, but I want to see how they work first.

We put fencing around each rhizome and spaced each crown four feet apart. Three poles are spaced 18' apart for a total length of 36'. Each row is 6' apart from the last. 8 plants per row. We will use the wood chipper next to fill in the area to stop anything else from growing. Bought some twine to let the bines to run up so that will be done soon.

Anyway, not planning for much the first year. Will try to keep them healthy and see how they do. I purchased cascade, centennial, ctz, chinook, tettnang and goldings. Total project cost right now is close to 30$. The hops were roughly 23$ and the twine ran me 7$/520ft. The rest was salvaged or stuff we had around. Gas probably was the next high cost.

I'll try to post some pictures as they grow. The poles need to be de-barked further so insects don't ruin them, and the chips need to be dispersed. Then we'll run twine from the crowns to the top.

 

[AGRowles]

Subscribed! My grandparents have a 67 acre 200 year old hop farm in schoharie NY. I plan to move out there from colorado to start farming some hops next year! Keep us all updated on your progress and anything you might want to share along the way..


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[Mojzis]

 

[Mojzis]

 

[Mojzis]

 

[Mojzis]

Subscribed! My grandparents have a 67 acre 200 year old hop farm in schoharie NY. I plan to move out there from colorado to start farming some hops next year! Keep us all updated on your progress and anything you might want to share along the way..


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Wow that's old and large. What varieties do they farm?

We're going to keep it small for now. Maybe if/once we get the hang of it we will keep adding. I expect these 18 will be a lot of work but we will see!

 

[AGRowles]

Sorry I forgot an important piece, it hasn't been a hop farm for a few generations, and I plan on starting small as well. Do you plan on hand picking or do you have access to any sort of harvesting machines?


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[Mojzis]

Hand picking. For the small amount we're going with it will work out. If we had much more we would be on the lookout for a machine. We'll see how painful harvesting is

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

There is an "affordable" hops picker available. I believe it is the binemaster 2000. GVH DAN helped design it. I built my own but it took forever and still only works ok. Good luck on the farm. I have around 200 hills and it is a lot of work being 1 deep. (also on the remains of an 1802 property). Looks Great, wish I could have done mine that cheap!!

 

[GVH_Dan]

Two items that caught my attention:

...We put the posts in and ran galvanized wire through them. The ends of the wire were tied to cinder bricks and buried 3-4' underground for tension....

When you say galvanized wire, do you mean galvanized steel aircraft cable wire? Or are you talking single strand stuff like one would use for making electric fence? I only ask because I've seen people try the latter only to have to restring everything in the late summer when it snaps. The pictures aren't quite high resolution enough to tell.

If you did use the latter, seriously consider re-doing it. Yes, it has the rated strength for the number of 30lb to 40 lb mature plants you have but when there is a big wind storm and those plants are rocking back and forth, expect the momentary loads to be 6x's to 10x's the actual weight of the plant.

...We will use the wood chipper next to fill in the area to stop anything else from growing...

You may want to reconsider the use of wood chips. They actually deplete nitrogen for the soil, which is something you need a lot of. From the publication: SUL 12 Using Mulches in Managed Landscapes

Organic mulches can dramatically impact soil microbial activity and nutrient availability. Mulches with a high carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) ratio, such as hardwood bark, ground wood pallets, straw, and sawdust, can induce nitrogen deficiency in plants by stimulating microbial growth, which depletes underlying soils of available nitrogen.

Instead, look at using a cover crop like dutch white clover. It will stay short and won't compete for nitrogen. If you really want to get away from weeding your first year, there are biodegradable plastics you can put down but you'll probably end up ripping it up before it degrades.

 

[Mojzis]

Thanks for that info Dan. The cable is stranded galvanized steel made for outdoor fencing. The application was/is to fence in 1-3 acres of forest to keep deer out. I am not 100% on the strength but I imagine you could load 1000lbs on it if you had to without an issue.

We will reconsider the wood chips. I left the rows big enough to run the tractor through to mow the weeds. So if we need to cut once a week or two no big deal. Might keep some chips around the crowns to keep the soil moist though. Will look into the clover (nitrogen fixer also if I remember right) as ground cover. There is a lot of clover there already.

 

[Mojzis]

There is an "affordable" hops picker available. I believe it is the binemaster 2000. GVH DAN helped design it. I built my own but it took forever and still only works ok. Good luck on the farm. I have around 200 hills and it is a lot of work being 1 deep. (also on the remains of an 1802 property). Looks Great, wish I could have done mine that cheap!!

I think I know which you are talking about. If I remember right the price tag was around 14k. We do have some conveyor's sitting in the barn, maybe we can rig something up from them. I was thinking about maybe making a brick packer using the woodsplitter. What do you do about drying? Large solar oast/kiln?

 

[GVH_Dan]

Ha, he was close. Bine 3060...but the post was at 6:00 am. Anyway, it is a bit much for 18 bines. It really takes an acre or so to pay make it worth it.

Figure 1 labor hour per bine to harvest by hand in the third year.

Why pack it into bricks? That's usually done for larger quantities needing long term storage. With your volume, you should either be looking to sell them wet for a harvest beer or dry them and sell them for use in a dry hop.

Final, no heat...no sun. Both degrade the alpha acids and boil of oils/flavors. Its best to dry them as cool as possible in a dark place.

 

[Mojzis]

Yeah overkill for 18 plants, but if we ever continue it would be considered. And yeah I figured the one hour a plant, the last I harvested took about the same before drying/weighing and bagging. The brick idea was so that packaging/weighing was easier. Last time I tried my scale had a hard time being accurate with a high volume of low density cones. I figured if they were compact it would make weighing a cinch. How would you go about it?

And okay we will avoid the heat. I forget now where I heard/read hot and dry..oh well, no information like misinformation (Edit: radical brewing states 150F in an oven, homebrewers garden states 110-160F). I was considering making a stack of drawers with screens on the bottom of each and a box fan at the base. Or would you do something different? We have plenty of wood, screen and fencing to build just about anything.

Anyway like I said this is all experimentation with growing. We don't know much about it so all your information and advice is much appreciated.

 

[milldoggy]

Subbed, pa brewer , let us know when you are ready to sell in a few years . My cousin has 60 Some acres in De, need to convince him to do this!

 

[rekoob]

Subbed! I want to live vicariously through you... I so wish I could do something like this. very cool.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Ha, he was close. Bine 3060...but the post was at 6:00 am. Anyway, it is a bit much for 18 bines. It really takes an acre or so to pay make it worth it.

Figure 1 labor hour per bine to harvest by hand in the third year.

Why pack it into bricks? That's usually done for larger quantities needing long term storage. With your volume, you should either be looking to sell them wet for a harvest beer or dry them and sell them for use in a dry hop.

Final, no heat...no sun. Both degrade the alpha acids and boil of oils/flavors. Its best to dry them as cool as possible in a dark place.

Opps!

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Yeah overkill for 18 plants, but if we ever continue it would be considered. And yeah I figured the one hour a plant, the last I harvested took about the same before drying/weighing and bagging. The brick idea was so that packaging/weighing was easier. Last time I tried my scale had a hard time being accurate with a high volume of low density cones. I figured if they were compact it would make weighing a cinch. How would you go about it?

And okay we will avoid the heat. I forget now where I heard/read hot and dry..oh well, no information like misinformation (Edit: radical brewing states 150F in an oven, homebrewers garden states 110-160F). I was considering making a stack of drawers with screens on the bottom of each and a box fan at the base. Or would you do something different? We have plenty of wood, screen and fencing to build just about anything.

Anyway like I said this is all experimentation with growing. We don't know much about it so all your information and advice is much appreciated.

I use a large aluminum military container (NO COMMENTS DAN IT IS DUAL PURPOSE, YES I AM CHEAP) with heat lamps on the bottom and a perforated black metal shelf they shine on. I have three good size bins that stack in it with a fan that pulls air in from the bottom and out the top with temp switches to shut the lamps off at 120F. It is really hard to get them below 20% RH IT TAKES A WHILE.

 

[GVH_Dan]

Yeah overkill for 18 plants, but if we ever continue it would be considered. And yeah I figured the one hour a plant, the last I harvested took about the same before drying/weighing and bagging. The brick idea was so that packaging/weighing was easier. Last time I tried my scale had a hard time being accurate with a high volume of low density cones. I figured if they were compact it would make weighing a cinch. How would you go about it?

Well, you kind of need an accurate scale (balance) either way. Something that will get you to at least 2 significant digits on ounces or grams. This is for measuring moisture content of the hops. If you leave them much above 12%, most brewers won't like it because it will hose up their recipes and there's a better chance of degradation.

You can bale them but at about 10:1 compression, there is a chance of lupulin glands bursting. So keep it below that. You can do the log splitter thing, but we found the piston didn't have enough travel. So even though the power was there, we would have to set it up multiple times just to get to 6:1 on our bales.

 

[GVH_Dan]

And okay we will avoid the heat. I forget now where I heard/read hot and dry..oh well, no information like misinformation (Edit: radical brewing states 150F in an oven, homebrewers garden states 110-160F). I was considering making a stack of drawers with screens on the bottom of each and a box fan at the base. Or would you do something different? We have plenty of wood, screen and fencing to build just about anything.

Anyway like I said this is all experimentation with growing. We don't know much about it so all your information and advice is much appreciated.

Heat increases air's ability to hold moisture thus lowering the Relative Humidity. Lower RH means the air will take more moisture from the hops so you don't have to move as much air and get the hops dry faster. That's the basic idea when you are drying hops for Bud. Get-R-Done and out of the dryer.

You have time...use it to make a higher quality product that a brewer will want to buy.

Check out this thread: GVH Drying Method. It explains my drying method and why it works for us.

 

[GVH_Dan]

I use a large aluminum military container (NO COMMENTS DAN IT IS DUAL PURPOSE, YES I AM CHEAP)

Military container...Can you hear me laughing?

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

I will Recycle it one more time kicked out of a c-130 somewhere over the pacific. It was a Business write-off!

 

[Mojzis]

Well, you kind of need an accurate scale (balance) either way. Something that will get you to at least 2 significant digits on ounces or grams. This is for measuring moisture content of the hops. If you leave them much above 12%, most brewers won't like it because it will hose up their recipes and there's a better chance of degradation.

You can bale them but at about 10:1 compression, there is a chance of lupulin glands bursting. So keep it below that. You can do the log splitter thing, but we found the piston didn't have enough travel. So even though the power was there, we would have to set it up multiple times just to get to 6:1 on our bales.

I have two accurate scales, but the issue was piling up light, dry cones in an object with a relatively small base. One ounce of dried cones has a very large volume relative to its weight. Compressed cones would make this easier to measure and bag. I see what you mean about the splitter. We will likely do it straight for this first year (if we get enough growth). It might just be as easy as searching for a better weigh boat.

Heat increases air's ability to hold moisture thus lowering the Relative Humidity. Lower RH means the air will take more moisture from the hops so you don't have to move as much air and get the hops dry faster. That's the basic idea when you are drying hops for Bud. Get-R-Done and out of the dryer.

You have time...use it to make a higher quality product that a brewer will want to buy.

Check out this thread: GVH Drying Method. It explains my drying method and why it works for us.

I understand very well how humidity, moisture and heat works. This is why I thought the slight heating would work. Ill move away from that and keep it relatively cool with more air movement. I read through that link, thanks! I will be going that route and will likely leave the drying bins in the barn. Same design I had in mind but i'll place the fans on top and keep them cool. No air conditioning and the real-estate in the basement is running out. I will shoot for 12% although this first year I will likely keep and use all of the cones myself.

One thing I am wondering about with heat and degradation of hop flavor is the issue that in the summer the heat can be well above 90 and over 100 without sitting directly in the sun. Is this not detrimental to the hops because of their high moisture content? Or maybe underdeveloped lupulin glands?

 

[GVH_Dan]

Yeah, getting total weight can be a pain. For smaller amounts (under 5 lbs), we'll bag them, hang the bag from a board at the two ends so the middle is open and then put the board on top of the scale that is held up in the air. Subtract the weight of the bag and the board and you have the weight of the hops.

 

[GVH_Dan]

One thing I am wondering about with heat and degradation of hop flavor is the issue that in the summer the heat can be well above 90 and over 100 without sitting directly in the sun. Is this not detrimental to the hops because of their high moisture content? Or maybe underdeveloped lupulin glands?

While they are still attached to the bine, its fine. They are a living organism so its not a problem. Once they are harvested is when oxidation can start.

 

[Mojzis]

Small update. Hops have sprouted and are anywhere from 0-3" tall so far. 5 haven't sprouted yet. We put some fresh cut grass around the crowns for now. We're considering using half decomposed wood chips (3 years old) in the isles which would't reduce nitrogen. Or maybe getting some clover and cutting. Don't know yet.

Watering has been a pain, 5g buckets are too heavy. Since there is a small stream that comes off the mountain we are considering using it to our advantage. I'm looking into one of the 350 gallon totes with the ball valve on the bottom. Or some 55g barrels. The idea is to use a battery and one of my pumps to fill the barrel which will be on a wagon. Take it up to the hill and set the valve on a slow drip either through a soaking hose or another design.

I will add more pictures once the plants get larger.

 

[GVH_Dan]

...I'm looking into one of the 350 gallon totes with the ball valve on the bottom.

Thumbs up! Easier then carrying buckets.



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[HALIFAXHOPS]

I use one of the totes with a 12v pump to take water out of my pond. Drip tape also. Works great. Drip depot has everything needed. A filter is a must. I stacked 2 totes and fill the top one and let it gravity feed the tape, works like a champ. You can also put the fertilizer in it. If you need 5/8 tape I have a ton of new that I would sell cheap.

 

[Mojzis]

I had to look up what the tape was. Looks neat. Wonder how much it would cost fittings and all...

Hops aren't doing too hot. We have 4 around the house which never came up and around 6-7 that haven't come up in the garden. Ground has been moist and weeded and cages have protected them so far. But still only seven have come up.

We planted three columbus, two sprouted and the leaves appear to be chewed off. Looked for an insect but didn't find any. Maybe something small like an aphid?

Looks to be powdery mildew on one plant and holes in the leaves and black spots on another. We will be attempting non-pesticide remedies to see if we can slow down these pests.

Below is our largest rhizome, centennial which seems to be doing good.

 

[Mojzis]

A total of 8 plants came up. Cascades seem to have suffered the most. 5 in the garden didn't come up. We gave a friend 4 to plant around their house, all of which didn't make it, but after seeing how they were planted I'm not surprised. And my second year cascade planted by the house is doing very well and has been growing non stop.

So out of the 18 rhizomes only 9 made it. The survivors seem to have good color and are doing ok resisting pests. Still working on getting the watering barrel set up.