Too Late to Plant?

[Fletch78]

I've been offered a Nugget start, free, the obvious answer is "go ahead and plant it, what have you got to lose?" but I'm curious.

High temps are in the 90's, we are in a drought, I know the nugget is probably rootbound in it's little pot, am I probably just going to work for nothing on this one?

I got my first year cascade from the same guy, it's doing fine for now, grasshoppers are voracious in a drought, with nothing to eat except what humans keep alive.

 

[Fantastical]

Better now then next spring. It will get a good chance to create a good root system now. It may not produce but it's getting a headstart for next year!

I would plant it. It's only June. Down in Georgia you guys probably have warm weather until October?

 

[B-Hoppy]

What work? Just dig a hole and plant it. Give it a little water every couple days until it's going and then let it do it's thing. If it makes it fine, if not you could have a ceremony for it that includes a lot of cold beer! Seems like a win-win to me.

 

[JMaslar]

I would snag it. You will be that much farther along next year. You should be able to get a good amount of root growth before the temperatures drop.

 

[avidhomebrewer]

Yeah, plant it.

 

[Fletch78]

So what yall are saying is that I should plant it. Do I understand you correctly?

 

[dap325]

Plant it! I put 2 of my 5 rhizomes in the dirt a few weeks ago and they took off like crazy. I finally got a chance to plant the other 3 yesterday. I'm not expecting a harvest, but I'm hoping to turn that tiny little rhizome into something I can work with next year. If its in a little pot, move it into a bigger pot. I've got mine growing in big (20 gallon?) plastic bins this year because I did not have a permanent spot in the ground yet. Just keep it watered and I think you'll be happy you planted it.

 

[Fletch78]

Yall done made me dig a hole. Nugget is in the ground.
5-1-1 sprayed all over it, watered in real good-like with lots o compost.

 

[SaccharoVices]

Hey Fletch78- i live in NC (USDA zone 7) and it is getting pretty damned hot and dry here already- GA must be worse- here's my 2c worth: hops are a root (rhizome) plant, and roots need fairly cool, moist soil to grow and spread. My hops are shooting up in the first week of april. Just like with shrubs here, we plant either in march (before the heat kicks in, enough time to let roots grow) or october( heat gone, plenty of time for roots to grow brefore the frost) I would re-pot the root in a larger container and nurture it until the fall (maybe indoors). FWIW i have grown hops for 11 years, but not claiming to be an expert, just offering my opinion on what i would do in your shoes

EDIT: when you do put it in the ground, till the s#$it out of the soil, amend it with crumbly loose stuff (peat moss, composted cow manure, organic top soil) to keep it from being bound up

 

[Fletch78]

Great..... NOW you tell me.

It's in the ground now, it was about 3 feet tall, completely rootbound in it's container which was about 8 inch diameter by about 6 inches deep.

The soil is loosened up and aerated, I tilled in 50% mushroom compost with the crappy clay dirt that came out, mulched it well, so I figure if it was alive in that little pot, it should stay alive through November. The rhizome was a March or April rhizome from one of they guy's existing plants, so I'm not trying to "start" a rhizome this late, more of a transplant.

 

[SaccharoVices]

8" x 6"- that's a tiny pot for a hop- i have dug up 3 yr old roots that were 2" in diameter and 6 ' long (seriously- willamette, totally psycho growers)- just love the thing like a child, water it often, and all will be fine- in mid-late 2013 you will have a good usable crop (first year yields are pitiful, they really kick in second and third year)

 

[Fletch78]

It wasn't the intent to grow them in that little container, the guy harvested rhizomes and was trying to sell them on CL, when buyers kept driving away because there was a cop car in the driveway (he's a cop), the plants just kept growing, until the point he is just trying to give them away because he's already got 10 or more full grown plants, the "starts" would just go to waste.

 

[BrewThruYou]

So what yall are saying is that I should plant it. Do I understand you correctly?

I'm gonna go against the grain and say that you should plant it.

 

[bierhaus15]

You can always plant them in pots and start them indoors. That way you wont have to worry about too much heat and/or lack of water.

 

[Fletch78]

5 days in the ground and it isn't looking good.

Transplant shock with full hot sun, and grasshoppers, it doesn't look good. It's still alive, but on life support. Feeding with compost tea, which I enriched with my own urine. To quote Morrisey, do you think she'll pull through?

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Umbrella?