Pictures of hop plants

[Jako]

This is a first year centennial. Are these the beginnings of hop cones? It seems like its too late for them to develop into big delicious, usable cones, bit for next year is this what they look likemView attachment 735215

looks like side arms to me. you will know when it starts to flower.

you have tons of time left for hops. some hops will flower late in the season. it also depends on the time you plant etc.

the cones on my centennial are 1/4 inch at most. i believe they tend to bloom sooner than most. i would say mid to late aug depending.

 

[Jako]

Started a new hop garden this year on my nephew's farm in North Alabama. Going there Wednesday to build the trellis. The plan is to set a post on each end that extends 20 ft above ground level. Then using a boat type winch on each post to raise and lower 1/4 in cable that the bines and their twine will attach to. I'm a little late getting them strung but work in the Sunshine State and constant rain have set me back a bit. Looking forward to many years of fresh home grown hops. I planted 7 varieties but only 5 have survived.

do you know why the others died?

 

[Jako]

This is the third time trying to grow hops, last couple of times wildlife and then my chickens ate the rhizomes, this year I’m starting them in pots in a part of the yard the chickens don’t go in and then plant the crown at the end of this year and they should keep coming back. I’m not expecting much this season but excited to see how this goes. These are the 2 of 5 that were planted.

i would be so mad at the chickens haha.

 

[Jako]

so i excitedly ran out the greenhouse this afternoon to check on my fan. well at first it wasn't running.... so after some messing around looks like i had a loose wire. (cheap wire from amazon.) fan kicks on and i was impressed. One thing... i mounted the fan backwards you know standards pollock stuff. For now i used a stick to prop the vent open so the fan can still move air.

i cant decide if i want to vent fresh air in or pull air out of the greenhouse. i have read its just about moving air and who knows how much it helps in my small greenhouse. what i really need is shade cloth in areas to help minimize some of the intense high elevation sun we receive. its all a learning process. next year i have big plans.

 

[T Murph]

do you know why the others died?

I believe they were dead when they arrived. They looked like dead dried up sticks but I planted them anyway. Adventures in Home Brewing promised to replace the ones that didn't sprout when next year's crop is released.

 

[Jako]

I believe they were dead when they arrived. They looked like dead dried up sticks but I planted them anyway. Adventures in Home Brewing promised to replace the ones that didn't sprout when next year's crop is released.

Bummer, great it was already worked out for you.

 

[Transamguy77]

i would be so mad at the chickens haha.

Oh I was!!
These were taken tonight.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

we had a hail storm roll through.
at least 30 mins. of super hard hail.
beat the hell out of the tops of my hops.
Pure insanity.
Never seen anything like it before.
leaves everywhere.

I think the plants will survive loosing most of their leaves at the top.
there are still buds on the lower parts though.

 

[Kaz15]

Hail is the thing I fear most.. I hope it’s just a minor setback.

 

[Kaz15]

Cascade anyone?

 

[Jako]

we had a hail storm roll through.
at least 30 mins. of super hard hail.
beat the hell out of the tops of my hops.
Pure insanity.
Never seen anything like it before.
leaves everywhere.

I think the plants will survive loosing most of their leaves at the top.
there are still buds on the lower parts though.
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wow that's all i have to say. you are not alone in this weird weather. not as destructive but the insane heat and lack of rain scorched my cascade. growth stopped. its recovered and the lower half is looking happy. its becoming a pain keeping the plant from going insane.

 

[Jako]

Cascade anyone?

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man look at he size of the cones. i feel like i am not doing something right.

Thinking growing my hops in pots and me not wanting to over feed the plants has lead me to starve the plants of needed food.

 

[GoeHaarden]

man look at he size of the cones. i feel like i am not doing something right.

Thinking growing my hops in pots and me not wanting to over feed the plants has lead me to starve the plants of needed food.

Yup, I feel ya. First time grower here, and I just started fertilizing mine over the past month and growth has taken off. I just hope it's not too late. No cones, maybe some buds but I can't tell if they are just more leaves...

 

[superiorsat]

Comet is ready to be picked, huge cones now have that papery spring back when you squish them( don't know when I'll find the time to pick and process). Cashmere on the last photo is just at the beginning of the flowering stage. It is weird they have everything identical. Last year they were first year hops and finished at the same time. I guess maybe a blessing that everything isn't ready at once.

 

[Kaz15]

Yup, I feel ya. First time grower here, and I just started fertilizing mine over the past month and growth has taken off. I just hope it's not too late. No cones, maybe some buds but I can't tell if they are just more leaves...

The difference between 1st year and 3rd year hop plants is pretty staggering. If you’re a first time grower, you certainly shouldn’t be comparing your plant to mine. Climate, soil, total sunlight, variety and growing conditions all play a big role.

I have a few 3rd year plants and a few first year plants. My Cascade gets the most sunlight of all my plants just based on yard location and is also the biggest plant by far. Here is a picture of my 3rd year Hartwick next to my 1st year Golding for comparison. My Hartwick is nowhere near as robust a Nitrogenwidget’s Hartwick. As with most things, YMMV.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

Cascade anyone?

mine are much smaller than yours and only just starting to flower.
I mostly have just a few bines each on the wire for my cascade and they are small.
but this is 2nd year for them though.

funnily enough one of the cuttings from one of my hartwicks are next to the cascade and the hartwick will probably catch up to the cascades by end of summer.
i doubt i'll see cones but I was surprised when i went to my mom's to look at them after a few weeks.

 

[Jako]

Yup, I feel ya. First time grower here, and I just started fertilizing mine over the past month and growth has taken off. I just hope it's not too late. No cones, maybe some buds but I can't tell if they are just more leaves...

My Tahoma just never stops growing. But as soon as I added some quality 7-7-7 food the plants just took off again

 

[Jako]

you can see the damage to the second to hop in from the right side. sad.

 

[Sylvain]

 

[Toxxyc]

Damn that's beautiful

 

[superiorsat]

I guess only the tops of the 3 Comet were ripe and ready. I picked 2-5 gallon buckets full and dried and vacuum sealed one bucket, the other went into a wet hop beer. What a PITA that was with 45 oz wet hops. Decided to use the 50 gallon kettle with a huge mesh screen. The screen is almost as big as the kettle so I figured it would work great, but it clogged by the end because the screen is so fine . Literally took hours to get 12 gallons post boil transferred. Started with 20 gallons ended up with 12 useable gallons of wort.

 

[Sylvain]

I guess only the tops of the 3 Comet were ripe and ready.

How would you describe his aromatic profile?

 

[Sylvain]

Damn that's beautiful

Yeah, it’s a beautiful plant, but at my place we didn’t have a summer, too cool and wet.

What you see is the most beautiful.

I have some plants and seedlings sick by late blight

 

[Sylvain]

Personal variety, I have raised it since 2019, and the last two years have been hot and dry.
it didn’t make me realize she was susceptible to mildew

Amalia :

 

[Sylvain]

Seeds for 2022

 

[superiorsat]

How would you describe his aromatic profile?

Dank Lemon Grass.

 

[Jako]

Some of the coolestook

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Some of the coolest looking hop flowers.

 

[Jako]

Personal variety, I have raised it since 2019, and the last two years have been hot and dry.
it didn’t make me realize she was susceptible to mildew





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Amalia :

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I will take pictures of my cascade. Took a major major hit by something. It's first year it did the same thing. I depending on what you guys thing I might pull it from my greenhouse and invest in a better variety for my location

 

[NitrogenWidget]

i'm not sure my hops are going to make it.
the flowers are shriveling on me and the plants have started throwing out new shoots like crazy.
i'm cutting the new shoots down hoping the energy will go to the existing bines (which are thick as my thumb) but the plant may of decided to write those off.

not sure if I should fertilize or not.

my cuttings in buckets are struggling also due to all the rain.
if they survive they will be transplanted into a raised planter next yr.

Edit: I was was actually wrong.
both plants have hops on them in not easily seen areas from my patio.
I had to walk around to the sides where i don't normally go and saw some.
nothing even close to last yr though.

 

[Sylvain]

here also in the west of France the rain is doing some damage: my Neo1 is beautiful but it starts to suffer the powdery mildew

 

[JAReeves]

i'm not sure my hops are going to make it.
the flowers are shriveling on me and the plants have started throwing out new shoots like crazy.
i'm cutting the new shoots down hoping the energy will go to the existing bines (which are thick as my thumb) but the plant may of decided to write those off.

not sure if I should fertilize or not.

my cuttings in buckets are struggling also due to all the rain.
if they survive they will be transplanted into a raised planter next yr.

Edit: I was was actually wrong.
both plants have hops on them in not easily seen areas from my patio.
I had to walk around to the sides where i don't normally go and saw some.
nothing even close to last yr though.

Last year my hops made it to the 2nd story roof, this year, not so much. I think it is the wind, which has been excessive compared to previous years. The top of the hops basically stopped growing, and they have been throwing off new bines, not sidearms, from about 10' off the ground and up. They have some cones, but apparently are still struggling to reach full size. Additionally, it has been a cold summer for Los Angeles, I don't think it's gone above 90 and then only a couple of days. My hops do not grow well when it is too cold in the summer.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

Last year my hops made it to the 2nd story roof, this year, not so much. I think it is the wind, which has been excessive compared to previous years. The top of the hops basically stopped growing, and they have been throwing off new bines, not sidearms, from about 10' off the ground and up. They have some cones, but apparently are still struggling to reach full size. Additionally, it has been a cold summer for Los Angeles, I don't think it's gone above 90 and then only a couple of days. My hops do not grow well when it is too cold in the summer.

interesting.
average temp here in the Buffalo area is 85 ish and majority of height was achieved in the high 70's low 80's.

 

[Jako]

Adding pictures... finally

 

[Sylvain]

Neo1

 

[JAReeves]

As I see how my hops react to the environment here in Southern California, I am looking more and more at the Neomexicanus as a viable alternative to some of the varieties that struggle with the dry (always) and the heat in late summer (now). On a related side-note, I am also learning which grapes love our weather and which ones are not fans; Italian varieties like the area more than French.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

so i have a few bunches of hops on my Arcadian's because they jumped the trellis and attached to some pine branches and were protected by the hail.
hartwhicks are doing worse hop wise. there are a few spots with maturing hops and new hops just starting.

over at my mom's house I have 4 cascade plants with just a few bines on one string loaded with hops.
fuggle did not produce hops.
sorachi ace are just a tangled mess but there are some hops forming. These plants apparently needed my attention almost daily to ensure it keeps climbing up the string. Didn't get it so they are just bushes now on tomato cages. lol!

i'll get some pics soon.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Sylvain - now that's what I call a hop garden in the literal sense! How long until the banana goes?

Additionally, it has been a cold summer for Los Angeles, I don't think it's gone above 90 and then only a couple of days. My hops do not grow well when it is too cold in the summer.

I find that hard to believe - remember they are temperate plants, somewhere like Kent will rarely see summer temperatures above 80°F, and this year has struggled to get much above 70°F. It may be something like getting too warm in winter? They really like to have at least 42 days below 37°F/3°C in winter to flower properly. And being temperate plants, they like short nights in summer - the UK can see daylengths of over 16 hours at the height of summer, it doesn't get dark til 9-10pm. And rainfall of course - somewhere around 24-28" (600-700mm) is probably about the ideal, they are thirsty plants, particularly in the main growing stage in May, and around flower set in July.

 

[JAReeves]

So, it may not be cold enough in the winter, and I may need to water them more. Interesting conundrum.

Thank you!

Reevesie

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Heh, I'd not seen this recent paper from Bill Bauerle at CSU Fort Collins, which suggests the traditional wisdom in Ray Neve's book is wrong about hops needing vernalisation. Growing Cascade, Cashmere, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, Galena and Willamette in artificial growth chambers that allow 4 growth cycles per year, he suggests that vernalisation has little to no effect, it's all about daylength. (see the classic paper from Thomas & Schwabe at Wye for more on that, if you have access).

It could be a cultivar-specific thing, Neve was working at Wye with European varieties, and it seems Bauerle did see a bit of an effect with Cashmere (or at least, he didn't see a statistically-significant null effect). My impression from this forum is that European varieties don't do as well in the more southern parts of the US as the US varieties, and so that could be part of it. Or they could just have a "harder" daylength requirement - certainly the fact that the South African varieties have broken the daylength requirement altogether suggests it can be manipulated.

But broadly - you need to ensure you have enough growth early on to sustain the burden of flowering, and then keep that growth happy through the flowering season. And yeah, neomex genetics will probably work better for you.

 

[B-Hoppy]

Heh, I'd not seen this recent paper from Bill Bauerle at CSU Fort Collins, which suggests the traditional wisdom in Ray Neve's book is wrong about hops needing vernalisation. Growing Cascade, Cashmere, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, Galena and Willamette in artificial growth chambers that allow 4 growth cycles per year, he suggests that vernalisation has little to no effect, it's all about daylength. (see the classic paper from Thomas & Schwabe at Wye for more on that, if you have access).

It could be a cultivar-specific thing, Neve was working at Wye with European varieties, and it seems Bauerle did see a bit of an effect with Cashmere (or at least, he didn't see a statistically-significant null effect). My impression from this forum is that European varieties don't do as well in the more southern parts of the US as the US varieties, and so that could be part of it. Or they could just have a "harder" daylength requirement - certainly the fact that the South African varieties have broken the daylength requirement altogether suggests it can be manipulated.

But broadly - you need to ensure you have enough growth early on to sustain the burden of flowering, and then keep that growth happy through the flowering season. And yeah, neomex genetics will probably work better for you.

I've been following this work for a while and haven't seen any follow up data. Being that there has been no long term testing, do we know if the plants will produce efficiently in the years to come? Knowing that hops grown in a conventional manner (producing one harvest per year) tend to accumulate carbohydrate reserves in their rootstock makes me think that long term vigor is at risk?