Texas Hop Garden

[AnonyBrew]

Has anyone picked their hops yet? I'm going to pick some Perle & possibly Cascade as well today. Some of the hops have browned on the vine from this year's extreme heat. I've been watering them like mad & all except Hallertau are doing well.

 

[mwhc22]

any kind of consensus on the amount of sunlight hops should have? i am living in SLC, UT as well. IN the summer it gets like 100+ and anything facing south and/or west gets blasted with sun without some type of partial cover. would it be ok to face them on a slightly west facing north side of a house? they would still get hit pretty good in the afternoon... but wouldn't bake from morning till night.

 

[davis073005]

Really big ones.

Looks great, Ed!

everything looks great I just built a trellis 18' tall with guy wires to hold 140 plants of course I do plan to sell some but I have to say from my understanding hops need a min of 15 hours of day light to bloom and I am at 14.8 they bloom well here in IL but will they grow in texas? I think your to far south I had a crazy Idea to grow hops in northern mexico on my friends farm but he only gets 10 hours of light a day in peak summer the farther north the more hours of light you get

 

[bmwbrewer]

I was skeptical at first about growing in SA but I saw some fresh cones at the Todd's LHBS last fall that someone had brought in.

I believe there's a perfect spot in my backyard that gets full sun all-day-long. Only thing that worries me is the trend towards 100F temps and zero rain. It was hot hot hot last summer and even worse this year. I think we've crested 100F nearly everyday since mid-May.

With zero experience I'm thinking watering is the key around here. It'll be impossible to over-water them in this heat.

So when the rhizomes become available again next year it'll be Cascade and Chinook probably.

There will be questions...

Radtek, I'm wondering if you're still thinking of growing this season. I'm just outside of 410 on the northwest side and debating whether to construct something with full southern exposure in the backyard or doing a trellis up the east north east side of the house. With this past summer's heat the locals should have a good idea whether hops are San Antonio realistic or not.

 

[quickerNu]

In my experience- stick to Cascade!

 

[bmwbrewer]

In my experience- stick to Cascade!

I guess they grow better for you. What is your proportion of full Texas sun to shade?

I'm leaning toward morning sun and afternoon shade but that may not be adequate.

 

[quickerNu]

Mine get a little shade from the east, but are in full sun from 1030ish til sunset

 

[BrownBomber]

Has anyone tried just throwing a rope over a very high tree branch and just letting them climb that way?

 

[quickerNu]

I would figure under a tree branch would be a little too shady.

 

[buzzkill]

in the hot south, hops can use some shade. in fact,they may just enjoy some shade.

 

[mbtech]

Well, I live here in the Dallas area and I've got 3 Chinook vines coming through now, along with 2 Cascade and 2 Willamette. Never grown hops so this should be interesting. BTW, is it vines or bines?

 

[drunkrhino]

Radtek, I'm wondering if you're still thinking of growing this season. I'm just outside of 410 on the northwest side and debating whether to construct something with full southern exposure in the backyard or doing a trellis up the east north east side of the house. With this past summer's heat the locals should have a good idea whether hops are San Antonio realistic or not.

i am in houston and grew cascade last year. 100F+ an no rain for almost 2 months. I watered a little in the morning (6am) and a little more at 5pm. they were in direct sunlight most of the day with some shade. i had zero wilting and first year plant produced 1/2oz dried.

 

[bctdi]

got some rizomes on order here in GA....is there anyone from GA that can advise on how deep and or wide to ammend the soil? The soil here is basically clay.

 

[stephelton]

Well, I live here in the Dallas area and I've got 3 Chinook vines coming through now, along with 2 Cascade and 2 Willamette. Never grown hops so this should be interesting. BTW, is it vines or bines?

I believe it is 'bines.'

 

[cookietruck]

so it's warm here. i've got a few bines that are racing up the rope.
2nd year nugget.
should i trim the bines back down and wait for new growth to train?
the longest bine doesn't have any side growth really...

 

[tjderrington]

i am in houston and grew cascade last year. 100F+ an no rain for almost 2 months. I watered a little in the morning (6am) and a little more at 5pm. they were in direct sunlight most of the day with some shade. i had zero wilting and first year plant produced 1/2oz dried.

Rhino,

I just read your post and realized that we are practically neighbors....the wife and I live in Champions. Do you have any tips for growing in our neck of the woods?

 

[Thorsty]

I live just north of Fort Worth and my hops are on their 2nd season this year. I was happy to be able to get a pretty good harvest last fall from the first year growth. From 2 bines I had enough for 1 batch of beer anyway.

This year though I'm trying to figure what to do with them. They grew like crazy this spring and I already have many hop flowers. They got to a point where I felt they needed picking and I just did harvest what was there. But the growth had slowed once the flowers started. What I am wondering is should I cut back the harvested bines to get the growth going again? Or will they continue to grow on the same shoots and I just harvest as they grow? It is supposed be 100f here this 1st day of June and I don't want to stress the plants.

I have searched the thread and found many harvesting questions but I have not seen problem with too early a harvest. I would think other Tx growers have had this same type growth.

Thanks

 

[Roy]

I live in Bastrop Tx. and want to grow some hops, this thread is what I was looking for Thank you ALL for the info and nice pictures.
Roy

 

[BARBQ]

I grew some Cascades in Cypress, TX. I had the problem of the cones maturing in time for the August heat. As soon as the heat hit they didnt seem to want to mature fully. I probably didnt water like I should have and stuff and it was the first year. I didnt take care of them after so they never came back.

I want to do another crop of them. I only did two rhizomes before. Thanks for the insight on this thread. I might try a few of these things.

These cascades were in 8/25/2008

 

[happyinsonoma]

Definitely has to do with water. Once they wilt out they will protect themselves and not grow flowers like you would want. One thing I'd suggest is thick 4'' mulch. Also a cheap home depot watering time and a small investment in drip irrigation and black pipe. Keep it on an autowatering. It will grow much differently when its not up and down in moisture.

I'm going to plant some of these along my garden fence this year to get a crop rolling for the future. I was going to do it last year and now that california is getting record rain and cold I wish I would have... would have given them a good start and nice fair weather to keep rolling roots out while they are young so they were good and ready to crank it out when the weather is great.

I'd guess that the warmer the weather the better the crop if you can keep them watered enough. Compost teas make a big difference too.

 

[pennelmore]

Saw the recent post reviving the thread. I wanted to report on my 2010 hop growing failure. I'm in the DFW area and planted in my patio facing north or getting direct sun only between about 11 am through 3 pm (strong indirect morning till dusk). I planted Cascade and got good initial growth but the bines would not attach to the nylon blend rope I had for support. After replacing with a very rough twine the bines latched on but by June/July I could tell they were not getting enough sun by the lack of appreciable growth. I planted in a very large pot with about 3-4 inches of mulch on top and did not have any water issues but definately need to reconsider planting in a different area where it can get more sun or possibly moving the pot from my yard to the patio after a good 8-10 feet of bines have grown. It was my initial intent to have the hops take over the rafters of my patio covering giving some shade and that great hop aroma. Alas, maybe 2011 will be better. Happy growing!

 

[bydranch]

We are just setting in a garden and I have a local brewer that would be interested in any hops I can produce. I see by scanning that other people in my area have planted the Cascade, Centennial and Haulertau. Have you seen growth yet. Irrigating is not an issue, I would be fertilizing ala natural (organic growing).
Where do you order your rhizomes from?

 

[pennelmore]

I actually ordered from www.thymegarden.com
Last year was my first rhizome purchase so i'm not an expert but since mine grew I thought it was a good product!

 

[BARBQ]

I got my cascades from here
https://www.freshops.com/cgi-bin/sh...s=all&template=PDGCommTemplates/rhizomes.html

 

[VVino]

Just planted five different hops in five different 24" planters (about 20gal). Used a 2-1 mix of Miracle Gro Moisture Control potting soil mixed with compost. Varieties:

Cascade
Centennial
Mt. Hood
Nugget
Willamette

Wish me luck!

 

[VVino]

Wow.

3 days after planting and 3 out of 5 have already sprouted!

 

[Thorsty]

They have already climbed over 4 feet high. I have just added some composted manure around them. Last years harvest was pretty impressive but was over once the Texas heat and drought set in.
I bought mine from Midwest Brewing Supply.
I used them for a couple of batches of brew but will be wiser next time. I wound up over hopping one of my batches by using too much. Still quite tasty but more hop bite than I like.

 

[csiewert]

Just bought some Cascade and Chinook rhizomes from freshops.com... SWMBO really wanted to do this so I figured we'd give it a shot. Oklahoma is already in a drought, so we'll see what happens. Planning on planting two large pots, one on each corner of the house facing east (one ESE and one ENE) and see which one does better.

Was planning to use two or three ropes going up to the base of the roof from each pot in a V-pattern... don't know if this will work or not with one plant... thoughts?

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I planted them Thursday along with some raspberries. So far the raspberries are showing some signs of life but no sprouts from the hops yet. I planted them in native soil with some compost fertilizer so I'm sure they will grow a little slower than people who went with more amended soil.

 

[TheDirtyV]

After reading this thread I was inspired to try a small hops garden also. I live in Houston and made two small raised beds in my backyard along a East-West fenceline. Last night I put the beds ~ 5-6 ft apart, dug up the St. Augustine in them, bedded with loose compost then filled each with 1cf garden soil and amended with 20 lbs humus & manure (If this is stupid, let me know; I'm not much of a gardener). I pseudo-mounded the center of the bed and planted my rhizomes (1 nugget and 1 cascade) vertically with my buds facing up about 1" below the soil. I used cedar mulch all around the "hump" but left the crown unmulched so shoots could show. I bought a cheapo drip irrigation system and put two 1 gal/hr emitters on each mound. I will bracket a 1/2" x10 ft conduit approximately 4 ft up a fencepost in the middle of the beds and run some rough twine I found from the corners of my beds to the top of the pole @ about 14 feet. If anyone has any advice, I'm all ears. Wish me luck!