Show off your 2012 Hops garden!

[BrewPirate]

I ordered and planted my Cascade, Centennial, and Hallertau late, but Centennial and Hallertau are already breaking through. Made the three-section planter with scraps left over from building the fence. One section for each type of hop. It is hard to see in the pictures, but there are two strands of twine anchored in each section and strung to the top of the fence and over to my porch - about 20 feet in all. Wife was jealous, so I had to build her the vertical planter for veggies.

 

[homebrewhaha]

Very nice brewpirate! What kind of flowers are in the 3-section bed?

 

[BrewPirate]

Very nice brewpirate! What kind of flowers are in the 3-section bed?

Marigold and Zinnia. The Zinnias are the small green plants in the close up picture. They will grow into a multicolored flower. Both are supposed to attract ladybugs, aka garden badasses. Marigold repels some other pests as well.

 

[BearHarry]

Year 4 of my hop garden in Mt Pleasant, MI. This weekend I set down weed barrier and mulch. This pic shows the work in progress. I laid 2 yards already and getting more tonight. Hopefully no weeding this summer! Thats always a pain.

But not all hops are in the 4th year. I added 10 last year and replaced a few here and there. I have a lot of varieties. I never do use them all... I have pounds in the freezer still.

 

[homebrewhaha]

Marigold and Zinnia. The Zinnias are the small green plants in the close up picture. They will grow into a multicolored flower. Both are supposed to attract ladybugs, aka garden badasses. Marigold repels some other pests as well.

Ah, I was wondering if that was the case (help with pests). Nice work. I decided to plant some nasturtiums in my vegetable garden this spring for similar reasons (they're supposed to help keep aphids off tomatoes and others). A bonus is the flowers are edible. Fun!

I have a lot of varieties. I never do use them all... I have pounds in the freezer still.

Time to brew exclusively IPA's for a while or ship some my way IMO!

 

[Boris_the_Russian]

1st year growing in central Florida. Thought I'd try and see what happens. So far I've been impressed but, don't know how well it will work.

 

[bhughes]

Marigold and Zinnia. The Zinnias are the small green plants in the close up picture. They will grow into a multicolored flower. Both are supposed to attract ladybugs, aka garden badasses. Marigold repels some other pests as well.

Hey Brewpirate, nice to see fellow pirate holding it down with a hops garden.

 

[thatfatbastard]

It's my first year growing hops, and rather than start yet another newbie thread I'll just share here.

Here is a link to an album of what I did.

I ordered 5 rhizomes this year - 2 Goldings and 1 each of Nugget, Fuggles and Cascade.

I'm currently unemployed and cheap so I tried to utilize as much stuff that I had laying around as I could. I used some old chain link fence stuff, a bunch of cinder blocks, and some bits of logs. I'd love to know what y'all think.

 

[sweetcell]

It's my first year growing hops, and rather than start yet another newbie thread I'll just share here.

Here is a link to an album of what I did.

I ordered 5 rhizomes this year - 2 Goldings and 1 each of Nugget, Fuggles and Cascade.

I'm currently unemployed and cheap so I tried to utilize as much stuff that I had laying around as I could. I used some old chain link fence stuff, a bunch of cinder blocks, and some bits of logs. I'd love to know what y'all think.

really nice work - great salvaging.

thought that came to mind when i saw the Goldings & Cascade beds: what is keeping the "walls" in place? if the soil gets heavy, or the roots start pushing out, what's preventing the cinder blocks or logs from being pushed aside?

 

[sddanc]

This thread got me nervous my rhizomes were duds. Went out, moved around the dirt mound to find shoots coming up! They are about a half inch to an inch deep still, but I hope they start poking within the week!!

 

[thatfatbastard]

really nice work - great salvaging.

thought that came to mind when i saw the Goldings & Cascade beds: what is keeping the "walls" in place? if the soil gets heavy, or the roots start pushing out, what's preventing the cinder blocks or logs from being pushed aside?

Wishful thinking? Hopes and shattered dreams? I dunno, I'll burn that bridge when I come to it.

 

[homebrewhaha]

I planted my rhizomes this past weekend so I have nothing to show. Did I start way too late?

 

[xsists]

I planted my rhizomes this past weekend so I have nothing to show. Did I start way too late?

I still haven't planted mine

 

[sweetcell]

Wishful thinking? Hopes and shattered dreams? I dunno, I'll burn that bridge when I come to it.

lol

you're likely right, i doubt that will become a problem. *if* it does, you could consider driving some re-bar or stakes into the ground to hold things in place.

 

[rvklein]

I planted my rhizomes this past weekend so I have nothing to show. Did I start way too late?

Mine took several weeks to break ground. Some of my cenntenials are just breaking ground now after 5 weeks. be patient.

 

[sweetcell]

I planted my rhizomes this past weekend so I have nothing to show. Did I start way too late?

they can take several weeks to break ground, so you're fine.

and it's definitely not too late. we've had an early spring this year, but there are other years when early may is when folks are planting in NY state. you still have lots of summer ahead of you to grow the plants.

 

[thatfatbastard]

lol

you're likely right, i doubt that will become a problem. *if* it does, you could consider driving some re-bar or stakes into the ground to hold things in place.

Yeah, I've got some old rebar lying around that I might use if it comes to that. I was trying to work these in along with my honey-do list, that's why I took shortcuts.. The rhizomes had been sitting in the fridge for almost a month.

 

[rejart]

Just snapped some pics of my first year hops.

Willamette:

Cascade:

I'm having a time keeping the bugs off and the squirrels out of the beds, but they're still alive. The Willamette even looks halfway decent. I'm not expecting any yield this first year, so I'll just be happy for them to stay alive and build up a healthy root system.

 

[dbhokie]

Here are a couple pics of my garden. This is a new addition this year, I am keeping a lot of my crops at another location, due to space constraints. So these are first year cascade, that have been stomped on a lot, while building a small greenhouse to accomodate some other needs.









BTW, in case it piques curiosity. I use lawn clippings for mulch, they work as excellent weed control and provide decaying nitrogen matter to your soil.

 

[coypoo]

I am on the late-train too. Just got them in the mail yesterday (centennial and newport, no cascade or chinook were left) and will plant them tomorrow.

I'm not too concerned about the late-ness per say b/c as first year plants I just want them to have enough time to get some good root work done and then next year I'll care about the yield.

 

[kellanv]

Here is my last remaining Cascade plant from last year's drought. Slower to emerge than last year but looks to be strong! Trellis is some cabling I have attached to the side of my house. Works pretty well.

 

[Kylito87]

Here are my second year Nugget , Cascade , and Chinook plants. The Chinook was the runt of the litter last year , not this year. Hopefully the frost doesn't come and kill them all down. Plus this year we are putting in about 12 new hop plants at my dad's as he is starting brewing Planning on more cascade , Zeus , willamette . Hoping that I can do some wet hop beers this season. There will be many more hopefully better quality pictures to come. Moved this over from the other hop thread. These pics are a few weeks old. I will post some current ones in a couple weeks including planting day.

 

[sahuaro]

I really dig your design. How long of a 4*4 middle post did you use and deep did you set it? Are those 10' or 12' timbers surrounding it? I think this is a simple, yet classy way of growin your own.

 

[BrewPirate]

Hey Brewpirate, nice to see fellow pirate holding it down with a hops garden.

Hopefully the zinnias come out mostly purple so that i have a nice purple and gold spread with the marigolds. Aaarrrrg

 

[Brewer4]

Cascade in Connecticut. Second year so they should flower. Growing very nicely.

 

[Rivenin]

Cascade



Northern brewer

 

[thanantos]

Year 4 of my hop garden in Mt Pleasant, MI. This weekend I set down weed barrier and mulch. This pic shows the work in progress. I laid 2 yards already and getting more tonight. Hopefully no weeding this summer! Thats always a pain.

But not all hops are in the 4th year. I added 10 last year and replaced a few here and there. I have a lot of varieties. I never do use them all... I have pounds in the freezer still.

Nice setup!

I'm a little ways south of you (Holland) and just planted my first cuttings (Brewer's Gold, Williamette, Nugget and two Cascade).

Fingers crossed!

 

[PleasantValleyHops]

Def feel like im late in the game but really just hoping for some good root growth this year. Rest of trellis still to come this week. Have to wait for the concrete to set up completely on the 4x4s. I have 5 different kinds

Fuggle cascade cent golding and will. The planters r 3x3. Friend brought up his mini x to dig for me and i mixed in about 3 yrds of garden soil to make it look nice and rich. Rain is supposed to come for the next couple of days so im hoping the do something good. Heres a pic

 

[day_trippr]

My last post in this thread was on April 26, just before the spousal unit and I took off for a Bahamas "out island" for a couple of weeks. Got back late yesterday, so got my first look at my wee hop farm this morning.

Centennial in the beds, Fuggles in the pots...

Chinook...

Cascade...

All fifteen second year plants are doing well, aside from some incidental bug munching damage - so far not enough to warrant bringing out the artillery, but I'll be keeping an eye on it. I'm hoping predators will arrive to preempt the need for chemical warfare.

Nearly all the bines were sticking to the coir drops so far, I did have to retrain the few that had lost their way back onto the drops. One of the Chinook bines has made it the 15 feet to the upper deck railing, the rest are between 4 and 12 feet tall already (the short guys are the potted Fuggles). Most are starting to side-shoot. Also had to cut off a dozen+ rogue runners that emerged from the beds while we were away.

Growth is way ahead of the first year, which produced a couple of pounds of dried cones. I'm trying to decide whether to put some risers on the upper deck to allow the bines to grow another ~8 feet or so above the upper deck railing before running horizontally. It's a bit of a pita mechanically, but might be worth it...

Anyway, so far, so good!

Cheers!

 

[WhiteEagle1]

They look great!!