# 2010 Hop Plantations



## JestersDarts (16/8/10)

G'Day - 

Searched for a 2010 thread, there was none, so I thought I'd start one off with a few snaps of my cascade coming up strong





Still in glass because I still think jack frost is about..

JD


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## JestersDarts (16/8/10)

And hallertau
Was a lot sleepier than the cascade, but coming up now



I bought them from a bloke on ebay - if youre here around, I'm the bloke who complained that you sent them to the wrong address.. no harm done.. 
These are the results!


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## Screwtop (16/8/10)

Chinook, Cascade, Wurtemberger, Perle, POR here.

But nothing poking it's head out here as yet this season, will keep you all posted.

Screwy


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## Blue Dawg (16/8/10)

Planted my first rhizomes yesterday with 2 Cascade and one POR, they appear to be of a decent size with plenty of shoots.

I will have them on the shed walls with height to grow of about 4 meters. 
I'm on the Victorian SW coast where shit just grows, so this should be good.

Still have to set up a trellis, which will be a fan type set up of thin rope from each rhizome to 3 or so rafters on the shed.


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## Bribie G (16/8/10)

No sign of my wee Cluster plant yet. There's a huge long fenceline in full sun most of the day, so I'll espalier the shoots along wires. The other side of the fence is a laneway so no problems with the neighbours. 






Soil on Bribie Island is almost pure sand so I dug in a bag of potting mix and a good dose of NKP slow release.


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## Nick JD (16/8/10)

BribieG said:


> Soil on Bribie Island is almost pure sand so I dug in a bag of potting mix and a good dose of NKP slow release.



I'm 3 blocks from the beach so it's pure sand here too. I've decided to grow it up a Bangalow Palm - let it go as high as it wants. The palm's fronds are really thin and high, so they won't shade it really at all. Just need to run a string or two up the north side of the trunk with some staples or something. Should get full sun from 5am to 6pm all summer ... probably not enough though, but we'll see.






My Chinook rhizome had more than 10 shoots coming out all over (thanks Dr. Smurto!) and has been in the fridge for months now. I buried it about 5cm under with the shoots facing up (sort of - they were on both sides, but one side more than the other). Have been watering lightly daily.

It's in a 40L pot ($11 from Bunnies). I'll set up a drip feeder soon because I suck at remembering to water.


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## gibbocore (16/8/10)

i remembered after about a month and a half after moving that i'd left the 'dug up' rhizome in the fridge in now dry news paper, rhizome was fairly woody but i plated it anyway, will see what happens, but not expecting anything.


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## NickB (16/8/10)

Spent late last week transplanting my hops from pots (same as NickJD's) into the ground. Dug out a garden bed along the front of the house, it has a north-westerly aspect, and gets sun from mid morning until mid afternoon. Found that at my previous house, where the plants were in the sun all day, they got quite badly burnt and wilted during the heat of summer.

No hops at all last year (first year plants), but hoping for a reasonable crop this year.



L-R: POR, Tettnang (3 small rhizomes in same hole), Tettnang (one large rhizome), Chinook. Only the Chinook has shown no movement as yet


View attachment 40180

POR Rhizome - this is the biggest of the four at the moment


Cheers


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## brewmasterz (16/8/10)

Hi all,

Need some advise.....

My Sazz is really sleepy! :unsure: ! Its only now that is 15mm above ground is this late for this time in the year or normal. I have looked after it, water regulaly and chicken sh** it every 2- 3 weeeks. Sun factor is now good, as days are getting longer and more sun.

Can any one help??

Cheers,


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## NickB (16/8/10)

Don't stress mate, from what I understand you should see some growth shortly, as the traditional time for hop plants to start sprouting is late August/early September. If you have no movement by then, then you may need to worry. All I'd be checking is wether your plants have enough drainage, as my first attempt at growing a couple of years ago resulted in a rotted rhizome from over watering in the winter. Also, be careful with the fertiliser as you can badly burn the plants if you apply too much too often.

Just for the record, three of my plants are about 2-3cm above ground, and my Chinook has the purple shoots, but no foliage at all. Again, don't stress!

Cheers


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## brewmasterz (16/8/10)

NickB said:


> Don't stress mate, from what I understand you should see some growth shortly, as the traditional time for hop plants to start sprouting is late August/early September. If you have no movement by then, then you may need to worry. All I'd be checking is wether your plants have enough drainage, as my first attempt at growing a couple of years ago resulted in a rotted rhizome from over watering in the winter. Also, be careful with the fertiliser as you can badly burn the plants if you apply too much too often.
> 
> Just for the record, three of my plants are about 2-3cm above ground, and my Chinook has the purple shoots, but no foliage at all. Again, don't stress!
> 
> Cheers



Thanks NickB - That does put my mind at ease, as from what you have discribed - purple shoots & no foliage is exactly what i've got!

Cheers,


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## Siborg (16/8/10)

Late August! Better get planting!

Anyone else got any pics of their plantings or good info on growing for a first time hop grower?


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## Wolfy (16/8/10)

brewmasterz said:


> My Sazz is really sleepy! :unsure: ! Its only now that is 15mm above ground is this late for this time in the year or normal. I have looked after it, water regulaly and chicken sh** it every 2- 3 weeeks. Sun factor is now good, as days are getting longer and more sun.
> 
> Can any one help??


Don't stress, mine are not even in the ground yet. 
Most 'commercial' hop growers will 'prune' back all the early growth in early spring, that allows for more vigerous later shoots (and also for them to harvest all at one time). By letting shoots grow at various stages (as most home growers do) the crop tends to be spread out over some time (and is why some people suggest they get multiple crops from their plants).


Siborg said:


> Late August! Better get planting!
> 
> Anyone else got any pics of their plantings or good info on growing for a first time hop grower?


Check last years thread, there is lots of info there, there is also the AHB DIY Hop article here and the Yahoo Hop growing group. Various websites have lots of info and this booklet might be useful too:
View attachment HopsManual.pdf


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## wakkatoo (16/8/10)

man, since mine got planted just after the xmas in july swap, its done nothing but bucket down. Had close to 150mm in the last three weeks. My poor 'zomes and fruit trees have been given snorkels and I'm just hoping they dry out soon as the ground is VERY wet where they are planted. Even been busy with the mattock cutting drainage in to get the water away from the roots.


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## Wolfy (16/8/10)

My hops are not in the ground yet, so very wet and still some risk of a frost.
So this is the extent of my 'Hop Plantation' so far, hop Companion Plants growing (from seeds) in my backyard under glass:








Calendula (Pot Marigolds) (center round pots), Coriander & Dill (grass like stuff in square tray), Nasturtium (purple pots on right), Tansy, Yarrow, Hyssop (small not growing much stuff in square trays).


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## JestersDarts (23/8/10)

Took a few more snaps of my hops as I've planted them out in the garden, on mounds with chook poo turned in, and run two training twines up for each of them up about 4m high. Hopefully theyre in a good sunny position. 

Still in glass, doing a good job of keeping them from the frost..

Cascade



Hallertau



Buddies


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## Fourstar (23/8/10)

yesterday i ripped my rhizomes out of the pots to see how they have developed. chinook are two seasons old and POR one season (i have a cluster at my folks place i might check on the weekend.)

Wow, the POR is HUUUUGE after one season and it gave me around 100g of wet cones.

one of my chinooks is a dwarf and one is the size of the POR. The dwarf is about half the size of the POR.

Kind of makes sense as the only one of the chinooks thats given flowers has been the one thats nice and big. i wonder why one of them has been stunted with gwwoth as i feed them all at the same times, all have had the same potting mix/soil combo and all get fertilised with the same product at the same times.

They are all also in the same position as eachother as well. Quite interesting to say the least. either way, they all have heaps of buds ready to kickoff so they have been loosened from the soil and repotted as one of the chinooks was starting to rootball. i will get them some biggeer pots and transfer asap so it doesnt happen permanently.


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## drsmurto (23/8/10)

JestersDarts said:


> Took a few more snaps of my hops as I've planted them out in the garden, on mounds with chook poo turned in, and run two training twines up for each of them up about 4m high. Hopefully theyre in a good sunny position.
> 
> Still in glass, doing a good job of keeping them from the frost..



Where in Adelaide are you JD? 

Checked mine of the weekend and they are learning. 1st season one of them popped his head up in August and froze solid - didnt grow at all for the next 3 months! Last year they waited until after the frosts. Last frost up here in the hills is late September, early October so they should be burrowed under the horse manure till then. 

That gives me a few more months to talk about how i am going to build a trellis this year and then grumble through spring/summer whilst training them up the fence.  :lol:


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## JestersDarts (23/8/10)

DrSmurto said:


> Where in Adelaide are you JD?



The Hops are planted at the family's farm in Renmark, near the river, so long frosts in winter, and also scorching dry heat in summer - so we'll see how they go. I'm building my brew rig in Renmark, and plan to brew up there, and bring cubes back to Adelaide to ferment and then... what's the technical term for the process after that stage?? oh yeah...

Drink and be merry 

JD


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## Nick JD (23/8/10)

Grow, you little fecker!


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## Bribie G (23/8/10)

Good timing Nick, mine popped up as well today



And the hops



B)


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## bradsbrew (23/8/10)

My Vienna gold has popped it head out and sprung some leaves. My cascade is being a bit shy though.


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## MarkBastard (23/8/10)

My Chinook only really fully died back about a month ago hahaha...

I wonder when it will start growing this year, given that fact?

I better hurry up and re-pot it I guess.


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## Bribie G (23/8/10)

I was reading a US site about hop growing, and they said to wait for a few shoots to come through then chop off the first two and go with the rest, as the first two will not be as robust. Is this common practice?


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## the_yobbo (23/8/10)

BribieG said:


> I was reading a US site about hop growing, and they said to wait for a few shoots to come through then chop off the first two and go with the rest, as the first two will not be as robust. Is this common practice?



I don't know, but that's kinda what I did. I thought it was shooting too early so I cut off all the shoots (5 of them). Buggered if I know if what I've done is right or wrong, but more shoots (about another 5) are growing so I haven't killed it. It's a 1st year cascade.


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## keifer33 (23/8/10)

Well for my first year of growing my Cascade is flying along. About 2 Weeks ago a few shoots came up then bam all of these appeared. I can almost watch it grow. My other 2 hops have gone nowhere at all (Wuert).


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## Florian (23/8/10)

Mine are doing quite well.

Got them from DrSmurto a while back, chucked them into the lagering fridge and forgot about them. I still did not remember them when I turned the fridge off as no beer was there to lager. A few weeks later I cleaned the fridge out and found the rizhomes. Because it had become warm they had started sprouting, but due to the lack of light, all sprouts were white. I put them into the soil and covered them completely, and a few days later they appeared.

I have now trained them around some 3m long wooden sticks, and have the potential to extend them to 6m. If I'm game enough that is. So far SWMBO hasn't discovered them... I have a fair idea of what she would think of them growing 6m up our walls...



POR, actually four of them, the three smaller ones trained around only one stick.




One Chinook, the other one got his head chopped off. POR in the background



Florian


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## MarkBastard (23/8/10)

BribieG said:


> I was reading a US site about hop growing, and they said to wait for a few shoots to come through then chop off the first two and go with the rest, as the first two will not be as robust. Is this common practice?



Careful. With regards to hop growing you get even more bad advice than home brewing if you ask too many questions!!!

They grow like weeds. Don't do anything you don't absolutely have to do IMO. The only thing you really risk doing is too much.

My best plant only actually created one shoot.


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## Wolfy (24/8/10)

BribieG said:


> I was reading a US site about hop growing, and they said to wait for a few shoots to come through then chop off the first two and go with the rest, as the first two will not be as robust. Is this common practice?


It's common practice for commercial hop growers.
Usually they will mow or cut back the first shoots in early spring, since this allows them to control all subsequent growth, have all the bines the same age, and most importantly, harvest the entire crop at the same time - all very useful in a commercial situation.

However, it's debatable if any of these benefits are useful to home-grown hops, and looking at my own plants there is nothing to suggest that the first few shoots will not be as robust/strong/whatever as any of the other shoots. Especially if you have a new hop rhizome that's been recently planted, I think that chopping the first few shoots will do more harm than good, however for later years growth, I don't think it really matters, but I don't see any benefit to it.
If you don't trim back the shoots and they all grow at different rates your hop plant will most likely have 'multiple' or 'extended' harvests, the harvest time being related to the time it takes the bines to grow, if you do trim them you can harvest them all mostly at the same time.


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## Leigh (24/8/10)

Looks like gardening is on my to-do list this weekend...hops, asparagus, citrus all into pots :beer:


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## dcx3 (24/8/10)

BribieG said:


> I was reading a US site about hop growing, and they said to wait for a few shoots to come through then chop off the first two and go with the rest, as the first two will not be as robust. Is this common practice?


Ive read this, ive also read that the Romans used to regard the "spring shoots" as a delicacy so they always chopped them off and cooked them up.


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## JonnyAnchovy (24/8/10)

Didn't know the Romans knew about, or cultivated hops.


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## dcx3 (24/8/10)

JonnyAnchovy said:


> Didn't know the Romans knew about, or cultivated hops.


Im not sure how true that is its something i read when researching hop cultivation
Hops and dope are also related so they have both been around for a while but only recently been mass produced by humanity.
Here's a pdf on hops 

View attachment HopsManual.pdf


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## matho (24/8/10)

Thought i would post the link to the AHB hop growing article for those that dont know it exists.

cheer's matho


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## cdbrown (24/8/10)

I think matho broke the website.....


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## arogers (24/8/10)

Good news, I've got nearly 100pc strike rate this year - all 9 have popped their head up (except for the Chinook, still waiting there).

Will take some pics tomorrow I think.


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## jyo (24/8/10)

Second year Cascade popped up today. Hoping for a cracker of a year.


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## arogers (25/8/10)

OK, here is some pics this morning...


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## Jye (25/8/10)

Just saw that my 2nd yr Columbus has broken through with a few tiny leaves.


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## white.grant (25/8/10)

Crikey, with all this action I thought I'd better transfer my rhizomes out of last years pots and into the ground. 

It was my first year last year and was happy to get a handful of flowers from my POR and just leaves from my Hallertau and tettnang but at least I didn't kill them. 

I wasn't expecting much really, so when I shook them out of the pots I could not believe how much the rhizomes have grown. All of them were quite seriously pot bound (40cm pots) and the Tett had escaped out of the drain hole and into the ground. So I got out the big shovel and they're now safely planted, watered and fed. 

Lots of young shoots coming through, so I'd better get cracking on the trellis this weekend.


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## losp (25/8/10)

First yearer here!

are we ready yet in melbourne? it has been very rainy and cold recently.



Leigh said:


> Looks like gardening is on my to-do list this weekend...hops, asparagus, citrus all into pots :beer:


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## Steve (25/8/10)

losp said:


> First yearer here!
> 
> are we ready yet in melbourne? it has been very rainy and cold recently.



yeah, chuck em in the dirt it'll be right.

Actually put my Chinook from DrSmurto in the ground last Saturday.

Cheers
Steve


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## HeavyNova (25/8/10)

This thread has inspired me to try and grow some hops - looks fun!

They should be arriving any day now -1 cascade and 1 saaz. Location is in Dunsborough, South West WA which should be pretty suitable for them.


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## Wolfy (25/8/10)

Grantw said:


> I wasn't expecting much really, so when I shook them out of the pots I could not believe how much the rhizomes have grown. All of them were quite seriously pot bound (40cm pots)


I noticed the same with my Poor-POR-in-a-pot from last year, it seemed to hardly grow at all compared to the other plants, and there were no cones, but when I dug it up the root ball was quite large.


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## NickB (25/8/10)

+1

My POR had by far the largest root ball


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## Banshee (25/8/10)

Do hops contain any THC?
They are related to the canabis family.


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## goomboogo (25/8/10)

Banshee said:


> Do hops contain any THC?
> They are related to the canabis family.



Why don't you light some up and see?


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## Nick JD (25/8/10)

Banshee said:


> Do hops contain any THC?



Yes. I'll sell you an ounce of POR for $350.


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## DUANNE (26/8/10)

Nick JD said:


> Yes. I'll sell you an ounce of POR for $350.




jeez i wouldnt pay that for the real thing, the stuff must be realy pricey up that way.


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## unrealeous (26/8/10)

Banshee said:


> Do hops contain any THC?
> They are related to the canabis family.


http://forum.grasscity.com/advanced-growin...ly-amazing.html

Before you get too excited - make sure you read the 2nd post of that thread.


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## wakkatoo (28/8/10)

woo hoo. Got some time to check mine today and saw that 4 of my 5 have come thru. Only waiting on the Tett to show its self.


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## Wolfy (29/8/10)

Here is the basis of my 2010-2011 hop plantation, the rhizomes have been stored in the fridge, but were starting to shoot, so it was time to get planting.
Another 1/2 dozen rhizomes are still in my parents fridge, but so far all the rhizomes have survived the 'winter' well and look happy/healthy/ready to grow.






Since mum's vegies didn't grow well last year, the hops had to move, luckily my sister has some room to plant them.




The idea is to have two lines of hops - running north to south - along the western boundary fence and up the hill (to the garden shed in the picture).
The soil is a fertile red clay type (good for growing potatoes it seems) and there is a vineyard/winery just a few km up the road, so hopefully it will be fine for the hops.
Each rhizome will be planted in a hole about 500x500x500mm, back-filled with a mix of native soil and mushroom compost (1/2 cubic m from garden supply place).

At present there are 20 varieties to plant, so they'll take up about 40m of fence-line.





Each row will have 2 plants of the same variety placed 1.5m apart (this year there is only 1 of some varieties).




The cattle press and remaining poles are cemented into the ground and will be removed soon.

Today we planted; Golding, Fuggle, Target, Challenger, Williamette, 2x Mt Hood, Chinook, Liberty, 2x Cascade, 2x Columbus, and by the time it got dark we were almost 1/2 way up the hill:





Next weekend (Fathers day BBQ), hopefully the rest will get planted.
Then on the to-do list:
grass/weed suppressing ground cover/mulch
trellis frame & support wires
automatic drip watering.


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## keifer33 (30/8/10)

Wow Wolfy that takes the idea of plantation in the thread title to a whole new level. There is plenty of space out there for hoppy goodness.


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## drsmurto (30/8/10)

With all that space Wolfy why plant them so close together?

My chinook has sent out shoots more than 2m from where i planted the rhizome. Its more than 3m from the nearest other rhizome but each year they seem to shoot closer together.

Very keen to see what you do for a trellis, I measured the spot up yesterday trying to work out how to best tackle this.

Have asked on more than one occasion if my partners parents could let me use a small portion of just one of their paddocks for a hop plantation but the effort in keeping the goats out would be more hassle than its worth.


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## Malted (30/8/10)

Got my hops (Bought on Ebay from Wagga NSW) planted in half wine barrels ($40 each at Paramont Browns on Cavan Road) in potting mix (bought a trailer load as it is 170 litres per pot).
Left to right: Chinook, POR, Saaz, Hersbrucker. The Saaz and Hersbrucker will probably get a bit of shade from the tree but I figure since they don't like it too hot this will be good for them.





The trellis is only 9 foot above the pavers due to the neighbours tree (which I've hacked into already). Effectively the top lines would only be 7 foot above the pot soil surface so I might run some horizontal lines back to the house (at left) if I have to. I have used tie wire on it to stop it blowing over until I make some stainless cables & turnbuckles. There are two wires at the top and one wire on each end bracing it back to the fence. I have written on the pots what is in them AND also nailed the aluminium tags to the horizontal beam on the fence. Bolting the trellis uprights straight to the pots seemed to put them on the perfect angle!

When I drilled drainage holes in the pots it smelled so good that I kept the shavings for smoking meats! A double layer of shadecloth went in before the potting mix (which had some water crystals stirred in by me). I will also have to mulch them soon.


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## Wolfy (30/8/10)

DrSmurto said:


> With all that space Wolfy why plant them so close together?
> 
> My chinook has sent out shoots more than 2m from where i planted the rhizome. Its more than 3m from the nearest other rhizome but each year they seem to shoot closer together.
> 
> Very keen to see what you do for a trellis, I measured the spot up yesterday trying to work out how to best tackle this.


There is lots of space, but she is still worried about how the hops will 'look' especially with a 5m trellis and all the associated wires etc, as you can see the block is quite open, and has a fairly good view, and a view to it from elsewhere, so they have to be 'neat'.

The biggest worry I have is water over the summer, there is a huge tank behind the shed in the pictures, so with an automated trickle watering system, I hope they will be fine (but I don't expect her to hand water or really care about the hops), so if they were positioned elsewhere, they would be very difficult to water.

I did want 3x 'colums' placed 2m apart, but she suggested that would take up too much room (and had other ideas) so now the plan is to let the hops in each 'row' grow together as they wish, and so there will just be a 'row' of each variety, rather than individual plants, but between the rows, I'll remove the rhizomes/roots and keep each variety separate.

In the pictures (along the fence line) you can see some gal-pipe-stuff, like what flag-poles are made from, hopefully we can arrange something in a TT type shape, and run the wires along those - thats the plan at this stage.


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## Nick JD (30/8/10)

Those cows will love them, Wolfy! Mmmmmm, hops MOOOOO!


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## DUANNE (30/8/10)

sounds much better than grain fed beef,hop fed beef yum.more on topic my hallertau rhizome has just sent up three shoots,looking forward to my first go at growing hops.


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## Wolfy (30/8/10)

Nick JD said:


> Those cows will love them, Wolfy! Mmmmmm, hops MOOOOO!


LOL, cows have short necks and they are being planted 1m in from the fence, so they *should* be OK, I hope.


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## the_yobbo (30/8/10)

BEERHOG said:


> sounds much better than grain fed beef,hop fed beef yum.more on topic my hallertau rhizome has just sent up three shoots,looking forward to my first go at growing hops.




Speaking of which, my cascade has about 4 shoots I beleive. I'm a little confused with what happens next. I'm following the advice/technique of having the timber stake in a pot and growing a single shoot up a bine which I'll lower down when it gets near the top. What do I do with the other shoots? Keep cutting them off?


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## wakkatoo (30/8/10)

earlier on in this thread I think there was talk to just let them grow and you will get a staggered harvest. The idea behind select 1-2 and cutting the rest comes from the hop farmers wanting to have just the single harvest.


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## Mitternacht Brauer (30/8/10)

Wolfy said:


> LOL, cows have short necks and they are being planted 1m in from the fence, so they *should* be OK, I hope.



Hey Wolfy,
If the cows take a shining to the hops I think the fence might be in trouble .

MB


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## the_yobbo (30/8/10)

wakkatoo said:


> earlier on in this thread I think there was talk to just let them grow and you will get a staggered harvest. The idea behind select 1-2 and cutting the rest comes from the hop farmers wanting to have just the single harvest.




Ok, that makes sense (I recall reading that earlier, didn't realise it was this thread). So, If I've got a stake in a pot with only a single screw eye at the top, I should convince all the shoots head up the single bine or I should be looking at getting a trellis setup and let it grow where ever it wants.


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## Wolfy (31/8/10)

The Muzz said:


> If I've got a stake in a pot with only a single screw eye at the top, I should convince all the shoots head up the single bine or I should be looking at getting a trellis setup and let it grow where ever it wants.


Hops will grow to about 5m tall, can you put the pot near a tree, building or something tall you could tie a line to?
The next best thing (but requires a bit of work) is to force/train the bines along a horizontal fence/trellis or the like.


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## Nick JD (31/8/10)

Wolfy said:


> LOL, cows have short necks and they are being planted 1m in from the fence, so they *should* be OK, I hope.



Never underestimate the cunning of a bovine with a single foodsource. :icon_cheers:


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## Wolfy (31/8/10)

Mitternacht Brauer said:


> If the cows take a shining to the hops I think the fence might be in trouble .


So far the only thing that has damaged the fence is one of those big round hay bales rolling down the hill - I think the fence will be fine.


Nick JD said:


> Never underestimate the cunning of a bovine with a single foodsource. :icon_cheers:


Yep, its called _grass_, and they have a paddock full of it!


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## the_yobbo (31/8/10)

Wolfy said:


> So far the only thing that has damaged the fence is one of those big round hay bales rolling down the hill - I think the fence will be fine.
> 
> Yep, its called _grass_, and they have a paddock full of it!




Whatever helps you sleep at night Wolfy.


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## unrealeous (31/8/10)

Look on my hops, ye mighty, and despair


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## Malted (31/8/10)

Mitternacht Brauer said:


> Hey Wolfy,
> If the cows take a shining to the hops I think the fence might be in trouble .
> 
> MB



Wolfy,
I totally agree with MB. 

Time for some cow culture (I apologise if I am telling you how to suck eggs):
1 metre is not much despite their 'short' necks, they'll push on the fence just to try and eat the hops out of *curiosity*. Despite primarily eating grass they will chew or lick the darndest things: trickle irrigation line for instance - I have seen them walking around with lengths hanging out of their mouths and chewing on it like bubble gum and that was in a lush green pasture with grain feeders also available (so they could not have been starved)! They'll lick *anything and everything* (eg cars, motorbikes) just to suss it out, like the way we touch things to investigate them.

Imagine when the hops are flowering and smell good to us, betchya they will like the smell too... 

Fences are more like an honesty system for cattle, if they have enough motivation they'll keep pushing until something gives and you're putting temptation quite close; the rhizomes are 1 metre from the fence _but the foliage will spread a bit_... 
*BTW*, they don't really bite grass off, they yank on it. If they get a few leaves in their gob they'll pull down what ever comes with them.

Maybe I am being too pessimistic, maybe they won't touch the hop bines (but I suspect they'll like the smell of the flowers); let's just call this over-cautious & unsolicited advice.


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## batemanbrewer (31/8/10)

This is my first year setup- 2700mm high, bout 1500mm wide

these trellises (trellii? :huh: ) probably won't last more than a year but I'm happy with it for the first year


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## Nevalicious (31/8/10)

batemanbrewer said:


> This is my first year setup- 2700mm high, bout 1500mm wide
> 
> these trellises (trellii? :huh: ) probably won't last more than a year but I'm happy with it for the first year



Wanna be careful a gust of wind doesn't blow them over into the pool... When in bloom and full height, may be a little top heavy??

I hear the hop plants can become quite heavy?!

Bah, I'm a noob at all of this too. Who knows, will probably be fine! :icon_cheers: 

Tyler


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## Wolfy (1/9/10)

DrSmurto said:


> My chinook has sent out shoots more than 2m from where i planted the rhizome. Its more than 3m from the nearest other rhizome but each year they seem to shoot closer together.


What I forgot to mention is that for any variety's with only a single plant, I'll be encouraging it to spread like this in the first year.
Rather than trim additional shoots, the plan is to let them grow to about 2-3m, dig a trench across to the other side of the row to bury most of the bine.
By the end of summer the buried bines should have taken root and will be new plants/rhizomes.


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## Bribie G (1/9/10)

Doing nicely so far. I was reading on an American Site that when the runners are 30cm long I should select four or six of the best and prune the rest. So I'll probably run two off one side and two off the other, and train them on wires stretched from fence post to fence post. And wow don't they look like my stepdaughter's croppy she has in pots in her sunny courtyard where nobody can see in h34r:

Edit: Wolfy, yes I did read your post but at this stage I'm not concerned with proliferating the plants as it's just along a longish fenceline, would prefer to keep everything manageable and compact.

Also another question for the experienced:






The fenceline is shared by an easment into a unit complex behind us and there is a little strip of bushes and decorative plants along their side that is looked after by their body corp. The fence on my side points North West and gets full sun virtually all day from around mid morning. So is the foliage going to grow nearly all on my side? I hope so as I don't want to have the body corp guys hacking too much down. <_<


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## drsmurto (1/9/10)

Why do people cut their plants back?

All the reading i have done suggest this is something commercial hop growers do to make harvesting easy. Somehow its turned into an urban myth and now quoted as THE thing to do.

Does anyone following this practice have any evidence that such a practice increases the yield or is this a case of monkey see, monkey do?


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## arogers (1/9/10)

I'm no expert when it comes to growing plants but...

...how is cutting bines off meant to increase yield?

Surely thats a little like saying "Hey, I'll cut this branch off that pine over there... It will grow to full size quicker that way."


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## MarkBastard (1/9/10)

DrSmurto said:


> Why do people cut their plants back?
> 
> All the reading i have done suggest this is something commercial hop growers do to make harvesting easy. Somehow its turned into an urban myth and now quoted as THE thing to do.
> 
> Does anyone following this practice have any evidence that such a practice increases the yield or is this a case of monkey see, monkey do?



I've found if you try to cut the sprouts from the ground back it just means the existing ones will grow laterals near their base and these grow up as if they were coming from the ground anyway.

The hop plant wants a certain amount of bine/leafs/flowers above the ground IMO and it will find a way to do it.

On one of my hops I only had a single bine, and I accidently broke the tip at about 1.5m high, not to worry, all of the leaves underneath it turned into laterals which climbed up the existing bine like it was a trelis and I ended up having about 15 'bines' coming off this main one by the end of the season, all wrapped around each other.

Just chuck the buggers in the pot / ground and make sure they don't rot or dry out IMO.

BTW Batemen your pots look completely wrong for hop growing IMO.


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## Bribie G (1/9/10)

I would guess that if it's to do with increasing yield then it may be analogous to pinching out tomato side shoots so you end up with a few strongly growing vines with lots of fruit, as opposed to just letting them sprawl and ending up with mostly weak stems mostly foliage, and often poor crops. Maybe.
Also I read somewhere that you should keep the plant 'opened up' to avoid fungus diseases. Hopefully not a problem in QLD where my nearest hops would be at QLD kev's place 

edit: oops, forgot about Mark B - Mate I'm going to install a quarantine gate at the Bribie Bridge


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## QldKev (1/9/10)

DrSmurto said:


> Why do people cut their plants back?
> 
> All the reading i have done suggest this is something commercial hop growers do to make harvesting easy. Somehow its turned into an urban myth and now quoted as THE thing to do.
> 
> Does anyone following this practice have any evidence that such a practice increases the yield or is this a case of monkey see, monkey do?



My understanding it has more to do with planting closely together on commercial properties as they are trying to maximise the return per acre. If you have too many bines growing too closely together they can block out the light from each other limiting growth potential, and also possibly causing fungal problems. So by keeping 3 bines per plant you achieve a larger healthier crop. Height is generally a cheap way to increase real estate. Since at home we tend to have our plants spaced out more it is not such an issue.

QldKev


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## beerbrewer76543 (1/9/10)

Last year I let my 7 new rhizomes go wild and regularly watered and fed them. I think I got 5 hops in total from them, though they were first year plants.

This year I plan to trim back all but 4 shoots on each plant to get strong growth on those rather than a heap of spindly bines like last year

Also I'm going to move them into the full sun all day. I thought they wouldn't hack it in summer but I'm pretty sure being in the shade half a day didn't help with growth or yield. As long as they are watered every day in a heat wave they seem to be able to handle the heat without wilting. Time to set up that aquaponics system perhaps...


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## MattSR (1/9/10)

regulator said:


> I'm no expert when it comes to growing plants but...
> 
> ...how is cutting bines off meant to increase yield?
> 
> Surely thats a little like saying "Hey, I'll cut this branch off that pine over there... It will grow to full size quicker that way."



Pruning does help - I always keep my tomatos to two runners and it increases tomato yield for sure - more energy goes into the fruit rather than sprouting leafy green crap.


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## arogers (1/9/10)

Hey guys, my POR is starting to get some browning on the edges of the leaves.

This guy shot off well about a month ago but has remained about the same size since and has now started looking a little sick.

Any ideas? They get plenty of water.


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## felten (1/9/10)

MattSR said:


> Pruning does help - I always keep my tomatos to two runners and it increases tomato yield for sure - more energy goes into the fruit rather than sprouting leafy green crap.



Tomatoes aren't hops though, I could say that my unkempt and unpruned tomatoe plants yeilded about 4-6x more than my pruned and wellkempt tomatoes. 

You would think the more leaves the hop plant has (and other plants in general), the more energy it can absorb and store in the rhizome, and use for the hop growing energy spurt it needs.


I'm pretty sure the commercial American hop growers use large harvester trucks that come along the lines and automatically cut the bines off and stack them up, and its more efficient to have fewer bines per plant.


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## MattSR (1/9/10)

That sounds true too...


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## batemanbrewer (1/9/10)

Nevalicious said:


> Wanna be careful a gust of wind doesn't blow them over into the pool... When in bloom and full height, may be a little top heavy??
> 
> I hear the hop plants can become quite heavy?!
> 
> ...



You can't see very well (kind of on the right on side of the pic) but there's a line running along the top of the trellii (pretty sure that's not a real word but I'm running with it) with a tensioning knot to keep the things upright. It runs from part of an old pool fence which now just keeps the garden in line to the pergola with 2 'U' nails along the top of each trellis to keep them from moving or spinning in the wind.

Thanks for the concern :icon_cheers: 
Mitch


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## batemanbrewer (1/9/10)

regulator said:


> Hey guys, my POR is starting to get some browning on the edges of the leaves.
> 
> This guy shot off well about a month ago but has remained about the same size since and has now started looking a little sick.
> 
> Any ideas? They get plenty of water.




I had this problem with some other plants last year... The problem with mine was that there was a tree with acidic leaves blowing over and making the soil acidic, stunting the growth. My problem tree was a pine but I think a lot of fruit trees cause the same problem. If you're finding leaves of any tree settling around your hops I'd just move them.

Could also be from over-watering or just from the rain if you don't have proper drainage.


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## arogers (1/9/10)

batemanbrewer said:


> I had this problem with some other plants last year... The problem with mine was that there was a tree with acidic leaves blowing over and making the soil acidic, stunting the growth. My problem tree was a pine but I think a lot of fruit trees cause the same problem. If you're finding leaves of any tree settling around your hops I'd just move them.
> 
> Could also be from over-watering or just from the rain if you don't have proper drainage.



Yeah I just realised that that plant is the only one to be using an older batch of potting mix, all the others have fresh 2010 potting mix.

So it's likely to be a soil issue, now I just need to figure out what the issue might be!


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## benny_bjc (1/9/10)

1st September

Spring Day 1 - 

Notice first growth popping out of soil of my very first hop plant. (Chinook)


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## MarkBastard (1/9/10)

regulator said:


> Yeah I just realised that that plant is the only one to be using an older batch of potting mix, all the others have fresh 2010 potting mix.
> 
> So it's likely to be a soil issue, now I just need to figure out what the issue might be!



It's probably not even a problem. There's only a little bit of brown on one leaf from what I can see, and it probably appears to have stalled because now that it has a decent amount of leaves to grab sun light it's focusing on growing some roots.


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## arogers (1/9/10)

Yes there is one real bad one, but if you look closely (not sure if its clear in the pic tho) they are all getting a little burnt off on the edges.

Ah well.


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## MarkBastard (1/9/10)

I must admit they don't look very green but that could just be the photo.


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## Bribie G (1/9/10)

If it's in a pot I'd try repotting into larger pot with fresh potting mix and a good dose of slow release NKP fertiliser.


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## outbreak (1/9/10)

My Rhizomes arrived today, I will plant on saturday. I got Saaz and Cascade. Can't wait to get them growing!


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## HeavyNova (1/9/10)

outbreak said:


> My Rhizomes arrived today, I will plant on saturday. I got Saaz and Cascade. Can't wait to get them growing!



That's funny, I'm going to be planting a Saaz and a Cascade this Saturday too!


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## bcp (1/9/10)

HeavyNova said:


> That's funny, I'm going to be planting a Saaz and a Cascade this Saturday too!


I just put in a Saaz, a Cascade & a Kent Goldings. That's a good start on a lot of my american, european and brit favourites right there. 

But i had to build my wife this you-beaut raised garden bed with wooden seating all around the top before i could get them in.


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## arogers (2/9/10)

BribieG said:


> If it's in a pot I'd try repotting into larger pot with fresh potting mix and a good dose of slow release NKP fertiliser.



done.... now can anyone suggest a good NPK fert to use, i saw some all rounder NPK at the garden shop but i have bags of dynamic lifter - is this just as good?


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## unrealeous (3/9/10)

regulator said:


> done.... now can anyone suggest a good NPK fert to use, i saw some all rounder NPK at the garden shop but i have bags of dynamic lifter - is this just as good?


How can you go wrong with dynamic lifter?

These hops are tough little bastards - The first hop to shoot has been pulled out of the ground twice now by kids (a week apart) and then dug up by a dog, and each time I replant and water it in (noting with sadness all the damage to the new shoots) but it continues to grow.


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## bill_gill85 (3/9/10)

unrealeous said:


> How can you go wrong with dynamic lifter?
> 
> These hops are tough little bastards - The first hop to shoot has been pulled out of the ground twice now by kids (a week apart) and then dug up by a dog, and each time I replant and water it in (noting with sadness all the damage to the new shoots) but it continues to grow.



The planting instructions I received with my hops do not recommend dynamic lifter because it raises the ph of the soil. Blood & Bone was the recommended fertiliser to lower ph. 

Hops prefer a mildly acidic soil with a ph of 6.0 - 6.3, so it would be wise to check your soil's ph first.

Ben


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## newguy (5/9/10)

Autumn in the northern hemisphere - time to harvest!




A panoramic shot of about half my backyard. From L-R, Centennial, Willamette, then my Cascade is hiding by the corner of the house, and a Mt Hood is growing up the backside of the trellis and up the string toward the Willamette. The Mt Hood's aroma is to die for, the Willamette is pretty good, as is the Cascade, but the Centennial isn't nearly as aromatic as last year.




A bit better shot of the Centennial and Willamette to give you a better idea of the scale of these beasts.




My Fuggle on the left and Hallertauer on the right. I just finished harvesting the Hallertauer earlier today. Aroma was fantastic! :icon_drool2: 

I also have a Sterling, Golding, and another Centennial but they're not nearly as impressive as these. Still, not bad for their 2nd year!


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## Nick JD (6/9/10)

After wondering why I had roots coming up to the surface, hitting the sunlight and shriveling up - and thinking this Chinook had a broken gravitropic chip inplant by Aliens or somethink, I've finally realised why.

Hops are MENTAL. 

The rhizome has completely _owned _the pot. I've got two shoots that have come up on complete opposite sides of the pot (50cm apart). Mainly, it looks like because they had nowhere else to go but up. If it was in the soil I'd say there would be shoots nearly a meter from the rhizome. This stuff makes bamboo seem non-invasive. 

One side.






Other side.


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## Bribie G (6/9/10)

regulator said:


> done.... now can anyone suggest a good NPK fert to use, i saw some all rounder NPK at the garden shop but i have bags of dynamic lifter - is this just as good?



I just got a tub of Brunnings (not Bunnings, BRRRunnings) slow release NKP from ALDI on special the other week, and drizzled some around in a circle and then scuffed up the potting mix and watered. Although the rhizome is in the ground I used a whole bag of potting mix in the pit as Bribie soil is just greasy sand that's hard to wet.

Newguy, who needs roses round the cottage door when you can have hops ? :icon_cheers:


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## unrealeous (6/9/10)

Impressive crop there Newguy.

I was wondering how the hell these hops climb a support as they don't have tendrils like pumpkins and beans - and after a bit of reading have just discovered if you touch one side of the plant - it bends in that direction. So every time some part of it comes in contact with an object, it bends towards the object at that point.

I just gave it a go - takes less than an hour to see it. Clever little vines...


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## Nick JD (6/9/10)

unrealeous said:


> Clever little vines...



Whats you gots there is Thigmotropism. Sounds like a made up word but I shit you not. The cells on the side of the stem that aren't touching are told to grow longer (by the ones on the touching side), causing the stem to curl around the object.


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## JestersDarts (7/9/10)

OK an update because I cant help myself 

Was at the farm on the weekend, and checked out the Cascade and Hallertau

Both seem to be going well, although not much movement in the Cascade since 2 weeks ago... but I forgive you because it is still cold 
cascade



hallertau



JD


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## cdbrown (7/9/10)

I've neglected my hop plants ever since I got them from gryphon - still in the small pots. Noticed the other day there's a few green shoots coming up from the 3 plants which have had some good sunshine and none from the one that seems to be shaded by a tree. I'm going to put these in to bigger pots and have got myself a wine barrel which I originally intended to cut in half and plant two of the hops. However I'm thinking of keeping the barrel intact and using it in the bar. 

I might try and get to the big green shed tonight and get some large pots (hopefully larger than 50cm diam which is the min recommended), some good potting mix with slow release fertiliser and some twine (anyone happen to know what section twine might be, or if there's a particular type I should get?). When I pull them out of the existing pot should I do anything to the rhizome and roots apart from clear off the old soil? I'll try to take some pics to add to the thread.


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## big78sam (7/9/10)

cdbrown said:


> I might try and get to the big green shed tonight and get some large pots (hopefully larger than 50cm diam which is the min recommended), some good potting mix with slow release fertiliser and some twine (anyone happen to know what section twine might be, or if there's a particular type I should get?). When I pull them out of the existing pot should I do anything to the rhizome and roots apart from clear off the old soil? I'll try to take some pics to add to the thread.



The big green shed had 55cm pots for $12 a couple of weeks ago. There is a similar product at the reject shop.

I didn't even use twine, I just got a roll of the stuff you use to tie up plastic bags, you know thin wire thread through the middle, covered in a thin layer of flat plastic. You can get rolls of it that you can cut to whatever length you want. They did the job no problems. I'm not recommending this as "best practice" just pointing out that in my experience there are heaps of things that will work. I'm sure if you ask they'll point you in the direction of something that will do the job


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## kelbygreen (7/9/10)

i put my posts in for the trellis and dug all the grass out of the soon to be hop bed  also threw heap really old lawn clippings in they mostly turned to dirt as they been there so long, thats all been turned in and will do more prep work this weekend. 

my POR is growing good considering i keep leaving it in the shed all week, when you go to work at 5am its hard to remember to put them back out again lol doesnt seem to fase them though


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## MarkBastard (7/9/10)

You can use any twine.


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## white.grant (7/9/10)

I'm looking at using nylon cord for my hops again this year, it weather's well and is relatively inexpensive. Last year I attached it to the pots and containers I was using, but now my hops are in the ground, I'm wondering what's the best way to anchor the cord to the ground. Should I just hammer in a stake and tie off on that or is there a clevererer way?

cheers

grant


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## kelbygreen (7/9/10)

I just got 6mm rope i think it is or could be 8mm hope its not to big. I am just going to hammer a peg into the ground there will be no weight pulling up so peg should be fine.


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## jakub76 (7/9/10)

I had birds chomp off the first few shoots while we were away so I bodged together some old chicken wire to protect the little suckers until they're a few feet high.



Here's one of my two pots...I've rigged 4 lines climbing onto a palm tree. Any extra shoots I'll train onto the metal railing behind.



The healthy hallertauer shoots ready to climb that palm.



This is my POR, smaller rhizome less shoots but it's growing really fast.



Maybe I'm lazy but I'm planning to just let this one climb the tree it's next to.


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## pk.sax (7/9/10)

Both the hallertau rhizmoes I planted now have ~1.5 inch shoots with tiny tiny leaves starting up  Need to get a move on and string some wire.

Is SS wire considered OK to train hops up on? I'll only probably have 2.7-3 metres from ground to where I'm gonna tie the cables to but there would be scope to train the bines horizontally towards the house from there on for another couple of metres. Q here, if at that point, I trim the bines to prevent them growing wild, would it negatively affect the hops in any way? I'm guessing that ~5 metres of total growth per bine per plant would give me enough hops between two plants...... hmnnnnn


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## JestersDarts (8/9/10)

Nice job mate!


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## drsmurto (8/9/10)

Went for a look at the hops this morning as i let the chooks out. Noticed they made a beeline for the fence right in front of the goldings and proceeded to scratch away.

On closer inspection there were more than a dozen shoots poking their heads out of the ground on the chooks side of the fence and the chooks had dug all around them looking for grubs but hadnt touched the shoots themselves. 

Guess i better adjust the fence asap. <_< 

The rest of the hops are still asleep and given the frost yesterday morning i dont blame them.


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## sim (8/9/10)

Stainless probably isnt the best because it would be a bit slippery for the fellas to hold on too, something fiborours would be better. I use sisal twine. easy to get from the harware and biodegrades in a season or two.


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## chestynuts (8/9/10)

I went and checked out my hops on the weekend. They are planted at my dads farm as it is in the south of WA which has a nice climate and he has plenty of room. He planted them but I had to come down and help put up the trellis. They are only shoots as it is still a little cold down there. I have a Cascade, Saaz and Perle.


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## raven19 (8/9/10)

DrSmurto said:


> Guess i better adjust the fence asap. <_<



So what are we building to grow them on this season mate?

I have a new plan for mine, but it requires me to build the fence to support a telescopic support post first!


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## newguy (8/9/10)

I've been using jute (plant fiber) twine and next year I'm changing to small diameter nylon rope. The twine can't support the weight of a fully grown hop vine, nor can it support the lateral loading of a stiff wind. I also have to rethink/change the hooks I use for support, as well as what they're screwed into.

DrSmurto: don't worry about frost. This is my second year with hops and both years my hops all sprouted, got about 30cm tall, and then it 1) snowed, 2) got down to -10C to -15C, and 3) stayed that way for a week. The shoots didn't even change colour - they didn't get any frost damage whatsoever.


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## gibbocore (9/9/10)

question for those in the know.

I had recently all but killed my biggish chinook rhizome by leaving it in the fridge for to long and drying it out, after i eventually planted it i watered it and it simply rot all except a thumb length section that i have cut away that has some buds forming and did have a white fresh root growing out (that i accidentally broke off) that i have replanted near the surface. Now i have heard of guys getting the cuttings to turn into rhizomes and using root food or some such to encourage root growth and various other fertilisers, or should i just leave the poor buggar be?


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## Frank (9/9/10)

DrSmurto said:


> Went for a look at the hops this morning as i let the chooks out. Noticed they made a beeline for the fence right in front of the goldings and proceeded to scratch away.
> 
> On closer inspection there were more than a dozen shoots poking their heads out of the ground on the chooks side of the fence and the chooks had dug all around them looking for grubs but hadnt touched the shoots themselves.
> 
> ...


I guess it is time for me to pay attention to mine again. I will dig some up soon to split the rhizomes.


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## drsmurto (9/9/10)

newguy said:


> DrSmurto: don't worry about frost. This is my second year with hops and both years my hops all sprouted, got about 30cm tall, and then it 1) snowed, 2) got down to -10C to -15C, and 3) stayed that way for a week. The shoots didn't even change colour - they didn't get any frost damage whatsoever.



4th year for hops for me so frosts are the norm. As you noted, it doesn't harm them. 

If they can grow hops in NZ and Tassie i can grow them here. :icon_cheers: 

Goldings is always first (insert joke about poms being premature), chinook always last (insert joke about slow yanks). 

It's been a wet winter and looks to be a wet spring so i am hoping for big crops this year. 

Raven - i have some ideas for the trellis that involve no cutting or welding. Given my status as the worlds biggest tool tard i figure this is a wise move.


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## newguy (9/9/10)

gibbocore said:


> question for those in the know.
> 
> I had recently all but killed my biggish chinook rhizome by leaving it in the fridge for to long and drying it out, after i eventually planted it i watered it and it simply rot all except a thumb length section that i have cut away that has some buds forming and did have a white fresh root growing out (that i accidentally broke off) that i have replanted near the surface. Now i have heard of guys getting the cuttings to turn into rhizomes and using root food or some such to encourage root growth and various other fertilisers, or should i just leave the poor buggar be?



Just leave it be and keep it reasonably watered. I kept getting curious and I'd dig around my rhizomes and ended up breaking off rootlets and shoots off of all of them. I eventually left them be and they all sprouted just fine, in time. One of them was rotten like yours too - all fine.


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## hsb (9/9/10)

After an impatient 10 days or so, I've finally got some action from my Mt Hood, one shoot so far.







Got it sat in a (bigger than it looks in the picture) pot next to a ready-made climbing frame.






Massive props to *raven19* for very generously sharing the rhizome free of charge. :icon_cheers: 
Looking forward to seeing this one start shooting up around the balcony...


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## raven19 (9/9/10)

hsb said:


> Massive props to *raven19* for very generously sharing the rhizome free of charge. :icon_cheers:
> Looking forward to seeing this one start shooting up around the balcony...



The real thanks go to BYB for dumping the rhizome in my ute actually. I just split it into around 6 or so. The left over bits I threw into a pot and they are now shooting also! Getting overrun by these bl00dy weeds! :lol: 

Glad its started to shoot.


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## raven19 (9/9/10)

DrSmurto said:


> Raven - i have some ideas for the trellis that involve no cutting or welding. Given my status as the worlds biggest tool tard i figure this is a wise move.



Well the offer is there if you change your mind! :icon_cheers: (bought a new welding helmet this week - new pergola to be welded soon).


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## raven19 (9/9/10)

Mt Hood going nuts early.




Most others have small shoots below the mulch.


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## cdbrown (9/9/10)

Looking good there Raven. 

Hoping to repot mine tonight or on the weekend, but have realised that out of the 4 plants I only know what one of them is, the tags that had the names on it has either disappeared or got water logged and all the writing washed off. I'm guessing there's no way to tell what type they are until they actually grow some hops and then perhaps compare the smell with the pellets???


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## gibbocore (9/9/10)

awesome, cheers mate! @ newguy

edit - lol im a bit slow bit slow,


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## Sydneybrewer (9/9/10)

loving all these pics of the hops, gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside... i will have to post up a pic of my first chinook rhizome, its been through hell with the dogs digging it out and eating every shoot off the rhizome and chewing it to buggery, then the replant and wait and voila four shoots have come through now. also on a side note does anyone else's plant look like marijuana, i have had some doubts whether or not the guy actually sent me a chinook rhizome or a rhizome from his private collection.


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## beerDingo (9/9/10)

Hey sydneybrewer, it's been said MANY times before, but you do know that hops can be lethal to dogs don't you? Not sure if the actual plant material is bad for them, but the actual hops can be deadly. Make sure your dogs can't get at em when they are producing hops!

Sorry, if you already know this, but just thought I'd put it out there.


----------



## praxis178 (9/9/10)

Sydneybrewer said:


> loving all these pics of the hops, gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside... i will have to post up a pic of my first chinook rhizome, its been through hell with the dogs digging it out and eating every shoot off the rhizome and chewing it to buggery, then the replant and wait and voila four shoots have come through now. also on a side note does anyone else's plant look like marijuana, i have had some doubts whether or not the guy actually sent me a chinook rhizome or a rhizome from his private collection.




First few leaves always look like that, that's why Hops are a member of the Canibenacee (sp?) family. 

My neighbor damn near called the cops on me a few days ago cause he can see them over the fence and all..... Took a bit of explaining, but he calmed down, and had a pint of ESB and now all is sweet.


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## Malted (9/9/10)

When tensioning trellis cables, eye bolts are cheaper than turnbuckles and give just as much adjustment:






It is not super expensive. The hardwood timber is from a scrapyard and I made up the cables myself - very easy to do.


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## barls (9/9/10)

been thinking about something similar to that malted but on a line so i can raise and lower to assist in harvesting.


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## Nick JD (9/9/10)

Chinook are in second gear.











Just got the three shoots atm. I wonder if I'll get more?

Even the coffee is about to flower.


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## pk.sax (9/9/10)

Any reason why the grub at the bottom of primary shouldn't be poured around hops/other plants?

I'm thinking free fertilizer for them but dont want to kill them!!!


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## arogers (9/9/10)

Sydneybrewer said:


> does anyone else's plant look like marijuana



i found my mt hood's looked suspiciously like MJ when they broke the surface, the leaves to fatten up pretty quickly so they dont resemble MJ for long


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## praxis178 (9/9/10)

practicalfool said:


> Any reason why the grub at the bottom of primary shouldn't be poured around hops/other plants?
> 
> I'm thinking free fertilizer for them but dont want to kill them!!!



No reason at all, I did it every brew last year, plan to do so again this year....


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## pk.sax (9/9/10)

Thomas J. said:


> No reason at all, I did it every brew last year, plan to do so again this year....


Awesome, thnx  well, roses got this one. Guess I didn't kill them then  next one haha.

Only 2 inches out they are. Hurry up, c'mon out now!
Spl thnx to Darko for providing the rhizomes.


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## brewmasterz (9/9/10)

Hallertau is been in the gound for 2 weeks and is gone nuts!!
Thanx to darko also!!!

My Sazz is taking its time, slowly but surley!
On the wkend build my climbers above the ground.




practicalfool said:


> Awesome, thnx  well, roses got this one. Guess I didn't kill them then  next one haha.
> 
> Only 2 inches out they are. Hurry up, c'mon out now!
> Spl thnx to Darko for providing the rhizomes.


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## Wolfy (9/9/10)

practicalfool said:


> Only 2 inches out they are. Hurry up, c'mon out now!


Fertilize and water them well and later in the year you'll be able sit outside with a beer and watch them grow.


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## AussieJosh (9/9/10)

beerDingo said:


> Hey sydneybrewer, it's been said MANY times before, but you do know that hops can be lethal to dogs don't you? Not sure if the actual plant material is bad for them, but the actual hops can be deadly. Make sure your dogs can't get at em when they are producing hops!
> 
> Sorry, if you already know this, but just thought I'd put it out there.




This i did not know!

I just planted a bunch of hops in my back yard! And im really looking forward to getting a puppy in the next few months! has anyone had any problems with this? Why are they harmfull to dogs?


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## praxis178 (9/9/10)

Wolfy said:


> Fertilize and water them well and later in the year you'll be able sit outside with a beer and watch them grow.



Yep, I'm already able to "watch" my new bines grow, 1 week out of the ground and already 2' tall! 

Although my two year old Perles are still to break ground this year, don't know why their lagging behind the new ones......


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## Sydneybrewer (9/9/10)

beerDingo said:


> Hey sydneybrewer, it's been said MANY times before, but you do know that hops can be lethal to dogs don't you? Not sure if the actual plant material is bad for them, but the actual hops can be deadly. Make sure your dogs can't get at em when they are producing hops!
> 
> Sorry, if you already know this, but just thought I'd put it out there.



yeah i do know about it and it caused some anxious moments as we couldn't be without our two dogs (even if it would have served them right) but the vet said they showed no signs of poisoning so the bad stuff must be in the cones i think, and yeah the hops are now behind a gated area for there sake and the dogs.


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## newguy (9/9/10)

Sydneybrewer said:


> yeah i do know about it and it caused some anxious moments as we couldn't be without our two dogs (even if it would have served them right) but the vet said they showed no signs of poisoning so the bad stuff must be in the cones i think, and yeah the hops are now behind a gated area for there sake and the dogs.



The cones themselves (I think it's one of the oils/acids/chemicals in the cones) are the poisonous bit to dogs, but I believe I've heard that only "sight hounds" are most susceptible. It causes overheating, IIRC.

Unless dogs like bitter things more than a hophead, I don't think they're going to eat many cones on their own. They smell great, but taste terrible in raw form. I've heard of dogs eating the hops/pellets in the trub poured out of the bottom of the kettle, as that's really sweet. I'd be careful about where I pour the trub but I wouldn't worry about the dog eating cones right off the vine.


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## AussieJosh (9/9/10)

newguy said:


> The cones themselves (I think it's one of the oils/acids/chemicals in the cones) are the poisonous bit to dogs, but I believe I've heard that only "sight hounds" are most susceptible. It causes overheating, IIRC.
> 
> Unless dogs like bitter things more than a hophead, I don't think they're going to eat many cones on their own. They smell great, but taste terrible in raw form. I've heard of dogs eating the hops/pellets in the trub poured out of the bottom of the kettle, as that's really sweet. I'd be careful about where I pour the trub but I wouldn't worry about the dog eating cones right off the vine.




Thats good news! As i said i just planted all my hops and am really looking forward to getting a puppy in the next few months. Dogs eat grass some times...(i heard when there sick?) but i dont really see them eating other plants?
This is my first year growing hops, Do hop cones or flowers fall off the vinne much?


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## newguy (9/9/10)

It's been my experience that the cones don't fall off on their own very easily. However, some varieties will not have cones all the way down to the ground, but others do.

Be careful with the puppy, though. Even if something tastes terrible, they'll still chew it. A little bit of chicken wire around the base of your hops for this first year is probably a good idea. Once the dog gets past the puppy phase you shouldn't have to worry.


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## Sydneybrewer (9/9/10)

Yeah i think the coffee grounds i had mixed in with pottng mix where my rhizome was planted was what set the dogs off, although last year they ate all my wifes cucumbers, capsicums and tomatoes right off the plants.


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## barls (9/9/10)

my little monster loves beers and chillies, the hotter the better, she once ate all the bird eyes off the bush. also has chewed up a fair few plants in the yard as well.
ive got a solid lattice fence to keep her out


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## AussieJosh (9/9/10)

Thanks for the chicken wire tip newguy!

SydneyBrewer your dogs sound vego!

some rhizomes i planted on wednesday.





Uploaded with ImageShack.us

and the blue tongue i trod on! He scared the crap out of me!! But he was ok!


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## thanme (10/9/10)

Wow. I can actually contribute to this thread this year 
I'm attempting to grow cascade and chinook in pots this year, and my cascade starting sprouting on the first day of spring and now has 3 shoots sticking up, and my chinook had it's first pop up this morning  Gonna have to finish my trelis off sooner rather than later though. Will get pics over the weekend.


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## Malted (10/9/10)

barls said:


> my little monster loves beers and chillies, the hotter the better, she once ate all the bird eyes off the bush. also has chewed up a fair few plants in the yard as well.
> ive got a solid lattice fence to keep her out



Is your dog your little monster? :lol: 
That is just crazy, eating chillies off the bush! That is nutters! 
A lattice fence to keep her out of the garden and a padlock on the beer fridge?


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## Malted (10/9/10)

barls said:


> been thinking about something similar to that malted but on a line so i can raise and lower to assist in harvesting.



I had thought about lowering and raising too. Mine is fixed since it is only 9 foot (3 metres) high. I figure I can get to the SS lines easily with a ladder and lower the hay bailing twine that I am going to attach. 

If you went above 3m I think raising & lowering would be a definite advantage. 
There are plenty of trellis designs that can be raised or lowered and factor in things like raising/lowering just one plant or a whole row of them. 
If you are thinking of a 'clothes line' design like mine then maybe the frame could be a bit of box steel so that it is not as heavy as a 3-5 metre length of hardwood timber? I just used the hardwood because I got it cheap. Then you could have the uprights hinging at their base (if not secured to a pot like mine) and use the side tensioning cables to keep them upright with maybe a winch of some sort on them? 

A better idea is:
I have also seen where they have a rigid clothes line T frame like mine but the horizontal cables go through the horizontal frame arms, then come down diagonally and are all joined to the side tensioning cable. The side tensioning cable is thus used to tension the top horizontal cables not hold the frame up. I did not do it this way because the cables also secure my frame in place. If you had the uprights dug into or concreted into the ground then they could support themselves and you could run the cables through them as described above.

The other thing I could do with mine is to tie bailing twine to the fence, then over the top wires and down to the pot. Undo at fence to lower hops, I wouldn't need to go up a ladder then. Easy enough to zip tie something on the ss cable for the twine to pass through to stop sideways movement.

I hope my rambling helps you decide on your trellis design.


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## Wolfy (10/9/10)

AussieJosh said:


> some rhizomes i planted on wednesday.


Make sure you keep better records of what is planted where than the plastic/texta plant labels you have there.
The only labels that lasted even one year for me were aluminum ones, and its also good to keep a written record of what you planted where (and keep that somewhere you will not misplace it).


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## jbirbeck (10/9/10)

I've been watching my POR get ready for a big jump in the last few weeks but it hasn't yet taken off...The Victoria which I haven't watch has gone nuts, a couple of feet already and a lot of bines. Its the only one that hasn't got something to climb up yet  

I did see the cascade had broken the surface as well which is good news. Its suffered at the hands of spider mites the last couple of years so if it can get a head start on them all the better. 

Hoping for a big harvest this year.


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## newguy (10/9/10)

Rooting Kings said:


> I did see the cascade had broken the surface as well which is good news. Its suffered at the hands of spider mites the last couple of years so if it can get a head start on them all the better. .



My hallertauer was ravaged by spider mites last year. I tried spraying with a tobacco concoction (pipe tobacco boiled with water) to try and kill them but it didn't work - only stained the house. I read somewhere over the winter that I needed to introduce some predatory mites and one site suggested that fresh manure would have them. My wife's aunt and uncle farm, so I got several pails of fresh well rotted manure and dumped that onto each hop before they sprouted this spring. I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but no spider mites this year.

It's worth a try if you can find some manure.


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## MarkBastard (10/9/10)

Anyone have any tips for keeping [email protected]%ing green ants out of your pot soil?

Thought I'd take a peek under the soil to see how mine is going and a whole colony of the little wankers jumped out.

I'm going to re-pot which should destroy their nest but how can I stop them reforming?


----------



## jbirbeck (10/9/10)

newguy said:


> My hallertauer was ravaged by spider mites last year. I tried spraying with a tobacco concoction (pipe tobacco boiled with water) to try and kill them but it didn't work - only stained the house. I read somewhere over the winter that I needed to introduce some predatory mites and one site suggested that fresh manure would have them. My wife's aunt and uncle farm, so I got several pails of fresh well rotted manure and dumped that onto each hop before they sprouted this spring. I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but no spider mites this year.
> 
> It's worth a try if you can find some manure.



I can usually get fresh Horse manure and chicken manure...will get out the shovel 




Mark^Bastard said:


> Anyone have any tips for keeping [email protected]%ing green ants out of your pot soil?
> 
> Thought I'd take a peek under the soil to see how mine is going and a whole colony of the little wankers jumped out.
> 
> I'm going to re-pot which should destroy their nest but how can I stop them reforming?



There are powders you can buy similar to ant sand that you shake on the pot, water in and that gets rid of the little blighters.


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## Nick JD (10/9/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> Anyone have any tips for keeping [email protected]%ing green ants out of your pot soil?
> 
> Thought I'd take a peek under the soil to see how mine is going and a whole colony of the little wankers jumped out.
> 
> I'm going to re-pot which should destroy their nest but how can I stop them reforming?



Ant sand. I had a colony in the back yard that made the _Aliens_ colony look small. My back yard is completely sand and since they're gone there's a half meter depression as all their tunnels have collapsed. Sprinkle it around the entrance - and then sprinkle it around any other satellite entrances in a few days (they become the main one). 

The sand doesn't seem to harm plants, but I haven't used it next to a hop rhizome.


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## Wolfy (10/9/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> Anyone have any tips for keeping [email protected]%ing green ants out of your pot soil?


I'd soak the whole thing in a big tub of water, get it really waterlogged and the ants wont survive.
Then when you repot it, put a water tray under it and try to keep water in the tray and the ants won't be able to get into the pot due to the water.


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## cdbrown (10/9/10)

Wolfy said:


> Make sure you keep better records of what is planted where than the plastic/texta plant labels you have there.
> The only labels that lasted even one year for me were aluminum ones, and its also good to keep a written record of what you planted where (and keep that somewhere you will not misplace it).



Can't agree more - I've got no idea which is which for 3 of my plants.


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## drsmurto (10/9/10)

Rooting Kings said:


> I've been watching my POR get ready for a big jump in the last few weeks but it hasn't yet taken off...The Victoria which I haven't watch has gone nuts, a couple of feet already and a lot of bines. Its the only one that hasn't got something to climb up yet
> 
> I did see the cascade had broken the surface as well which is good news. Its suffered at the hands of spider mites the last couple of years so if it can get a head start on them all the better.
> 
> Hoping for a big harvest this year.



Fly spray, or if that sounds too nuclear, pyrethrum based sprays.

I had no problems with spider mites last year and i suspect the reason for that were the little frogs that i spied crawling around the bines.

Harlequin bugs were my biggest enemy last year but i have had the chooks de-bugging my vegie patch this winter and have cut back a few nearby trees that seemed to house the buggers so am hoping they are under control. 

Went and did some weeding last night and the cascade has broken the surface as has the Victoria. Chinook and POR still fast asleep and Goldings demonstrating just why these buggers are thought of as weeds. Stop counting at 40 shoots, some nearly 1 metre from the central rhizome i planted 3 seasons ago.

EDIT - spelling


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## jakub76 (10/9/10)

newguy said:


> I read somewhere over the winter that I needed to introduce some predatory mites and one site suggested that fresh manure would have them.



Manure sounds the go, introducing mites reminds me of Queensland's genius introduction of the cane toad. What could possibly go wrong?


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## Nick JD (10/9/10)

I have a ladybird and two geckos faithfully policing my Tub 'o Hops.

Hoorah for biocontrol!


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## jbirbeck (10/9/10)

DrSmurto said:


> Fly spray, or if that sounds too nuclear, pyrethrum based sprays.
> 
> I had no problems with spider mites last year and i suspect the reason for that were the little frogs that i spied crawling around the bines.
> 
> ...



neither fly spray nor pyrethrum have worked in the past, and neither has a chilli and soap mix nor specific mite killers. may have to increase the humidity in the area to deter them. Have heard the little buggers can winter in nearby plants/trees etc. My area is clear but I suspect the neighbours have a few issues :angry: . 

Ladybirds won't do anything for a mite infestation but if you have aphids (as I do in my roses thanks to the neighbours again :angry: ) ladybirds will held control that problem. I've not had an issue with aphids and the hops


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## barls (11/9/10)

Malted said:


> Is your dog your little monster? :lol:
> That is just crazy, eating chillies off the bush! That is nutters!
> A lattice fence to keep her out of the garden and a padlock on the beer fridge?


surprisingly enough she still hasnt figure out the drip tray for the fridge sits on the ground




Malted said:


> I had thought about lowering and raising too. Mine is fixed since it is only 9 foot (3 metres) high. I figure I can get to the SS lines easily with a ladder and lower the hay bailing twine that I am going to attach.
> 
> If you went above 3m I think raising & lowering would be a definite advantage.
> There are plenty of trellis designs that can be raised or lowered and factor in things like raising/lowering just one plant or a whole row of them.
> ...


mines currently a 4m pole and they are sunk in the ground 0.5m. they have a plastic coated wire as the main wire atm. 
im currently thinking of putting up a spreader bar fixed to the main wire with a pair of wires then fixed to the outer edge of said bar.
im still trying to figure out what im going to use as the bars but current thoughts are two not too thick lengths of hard wood at each end.
but havent got much further


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## batemanbrewer (11/9/10)

guys, just a heads up. Fresh manure can burn the roots of your plants and contain parasites that will harm your hops. It's recommended to age manure for at least 6 months before using it on your garden (though I'm sure that long isn't necessary).

My chinook has broken through sometime in the last 2 days, still waiting on my POR...

P.s.- Dr S., that goldings sounds like a glorious plant :beerbang:


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## Wolfy (11/9/10)

This was linked on the HBT forums, lots of people there found it useful:
Field Guide for Integrated Pest Management in Hops
(it's quite large, right click, save as works best)

It's a detailed document (with photographs) about hop problems and issues and some possible solutions.
Given its published by the US Dept of Agriculture it is most likely USA-centric, and I'm not sure which (if any) of those problems are issues here in Australia, but it may be useful for some things.


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## alkos (11/9/10)

Thanks a million mate! I've posted this link to Irish and Polish forums already, its awesome 

(been fighting with green and black mites this year already - northern hemisphere ;-) )

Cheers to all homegrowers ;-)


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## Wolfy (11/9/10)

alkos said:


> Thanks a million mate! I've posted this link to Irish and Polish forums already, its awesome
> 
> (been fighting with green and black mites this year already - northern hemisphere ;-) )


Yeah, all the USA (northern hemisphere) home-growers said it was a great help.
But I hope that we have less need for it here, I don't think we have all the pests and diseases here, which is good.


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## mxd (11/9/10)

I put mine down last week (cascare, chinook, golding and mt hood.

Hopefully something will happen


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## jyo (11/9/10)

mxd said:


> I put mine down last week (cascare, chinook, golding and mt hood.
> 
> Hopefully something will happen
> 
> View attachment 40700



Mate, are they different varieties you have lined up there? If so, the roots and rhizomes are going to grow into one another, making identification when digging up very confusing. Keep in mind they can throw their side roots out several _metres._
Cheers, John.


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## batemanbrewer (11/9/10)

batemanbrewer said:


> My chinook has broken through sometime in the last 2 days, still waiting on my POR...



Scratch that, the POR came up today and the chinnok is doubling in size daily !!!


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## Wolfy (11/9/10)

batemanbrewer said:


> guys, just a heads up. Fresh manure can burn the roots of your plants and contain parasites that will harm your hops. It's recommended to age manure for at least 6 months before using it on your garden (though I'm sure that long isn't necessary).


According to the compost-wisdom that my father shared while planting my hops last weekend:
If you throw a few worms into the aging manure in the compost/pile and the worms die, its not good for your plants yet, when the worms survive you can use it on your plants.


----------



## Nick JD (11/9/10)

Wolfy said:


> According to the compost-wisdom that my father shared while planting my hops last weekend:
> If you throw a few worms into the aging manure in the compost/pile and the worms die, its not good for your plants yet, when the worms survive you can use it on your plants.



The worms survive in my fresh manure, Wolfy. 

But they make my bum itchy.


----------



## Wolfy (11/9/10)

Nick JD said:


> The worms survive in my fresh manure, Wolfy.
> 
> But they make my bum itchy.


I don't think they are the same ones found in the garden.


----------



## Whiteferret (11/9/10)

Wolfy said:


> According to the compost-wisdom that my father shared while planting my hops last weekend:
> If you throw a few worms into the aging manure in the compost/pile and the worms die, its not good for your plants yet, when the worms survive you can use it on your plants.




poor wormys  
what did they do wrong lol


----------



## Whiteferret (11/9/10)

Here is my POR about 2 weeks out of the ground about 7 shoots in all. my hallertau and fuggles arent far behind and the others only went in the pots this week.


----------



## geoffi (11/9/10)

I planted my Goldings x 2, Tett x 2 and Chinook x 1 a couple of days ago. The Goldings were already sprouting leaves and have now broken the surface. Very encouraging. I anticipate another bumper POR harvest.

Sounds like the home hop-growing scene is exploding. So many planting.

I just learned that there was an attempt at establishing a hop industry right here in Curramore (just north of Jamberoo) about 100 years ago. Obviously didn't flourish, but I've certainly had good results so far. I have a few acres to play with...


----------



## pk.sax (11/9/10)

Just noticed today that one of the two hallertau I planted has shot a second shoot, right next to the first one it had.

Might be because of planting the rhizome vertical. Well, Darkman suggested to do it this way (plant the rhizome vertical with the shoot pointing up) and very glad about it, might make it easier to manage and train up the same support rather than bring down another string for it.


----------



## mxd (11/9/10)

jyo said:


> Mate, are they different varieties you have lined up there? If so, the roots and rhizomes are going to grow into one another, making identification when digging up very confusing. Keep in mind they can throw their side roots out several _metres._
> Cheers, John.




yep, there the 4 different varieties about 1 meter apart. Should I put a "root" barrier between them ?


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## jyo (11/9/10)

mxd said:


> yep, there the 4 different varieties about 1 meter apart. Should I put a "root" barrier between them ?



Definitely, mate. I found one of my Cascades about 2 metres away from where it was supposed to be 2 seasons ago.
Cheers, John.


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## arogers (11/9/10)

jyo said:


> I found one of my Cascades about 2 metres away from where it was supposed to be 2 seasons ago.



 

WOW


----------



## kelbygreen (11/9/10)

yeah i always thought 1m was heaps well looks like my garden beds to small lol


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## Wolfy (12/9/10)

kelbygreen said:


> yeah i always thought 1m was heaps well looks like my garden beds to small lol


Most rhizomes grow close to the soil surface - which is why mechanical tilling works in commercial hop-yards in order to keep the 'rows' neat and tidy.
While the root-ball will grow quite big (up to 2.5m down) it's not that hard to keep each hop plant growing in it's allocated space, just dig/till/turn over the soil around the plant each year, and remove/replant any rhizomes that spread outside the designated area.
The bigger issue is that since they grow for 25 years and put down an extensive root-system, if the plants are close to each other they will be competing for nutrients as they grow.


----------



## newguy (12/9/10)

regulator said:


> WOW



A guy in my club has been growing hops for over 15 years. Just this summer he removed a concrete driveway and discovered that the hop next to it had sent roots under the driveway and they had almost reached the other side - a distance about about 4-5m. He said the roots were about the size of two thumbs, side by side.


----------



## technoicon (12/9/10)

My first yr hop plants are still just dirt! cant wait to see the first shoots come through


----------



## blekk (12/9/10)

Mt Hoods going strong after about 6-8 weeks being in soil :super: Might need to put them in a bigger pot soon!


----------



## MarkBastard (12/9/10)

Guys I have the hop story to end all hop stories. I am covered in green ant bites, probably about 15 bites in total on my hands, feet and knees. I just realised my *first year* hope had somehow busted through the bottom of my wooden pot, then somehow travelled sidways across concrete and into my garden and then has travelled about 1.5 metres sideways under the dirt and god knows how far down. The massive root system is up to about 1.5 to 2 inches thick in parts, especially where it's busted through the pot. This is one year after planting a rhizome about 1.5 inches in diametre and about 3 inches long in a god damn pot! I have taken photos and will post them once I've "recovered".

I'm wondering if green ants and hops have some sort of synergy or something, where the hop roots grow into the green ant tunnels or something.

A related question, if I wanted to kill the remaining rhizome that's still in the ground is there a sure-fire way to do this? I don't want hops growing in my garden. It's too small and I'll probably sell this place in a few years!


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## jakub76 (12/9/10)

blair said:


> Mt Hoods going strong after about 6-8 weeks being in soil :super: Might need to put them in a bigger pot soon!


Looking awesome!


----------



## brewmasterz (12/9/10)

Hi all,

Finaly got around to build my hop growing wires today. I think it looks pretty awesome :beerbang: - haven't quite finished yet, still got to add half a doz more wires then shes done!!!!

Feedback welcome....


----------



## Wolfy (12/9/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> A related question, if I wanted to kill the remaining rhizome that's still in the ground is there a sure-fire way to do this? I don't want hops growing in my garden. It's too small and I'll probably sell this place in a few years!


Rhizomes are fairly thick fleshy root-like-bits with lots of buds all along them, which are different from the normal root-system of the plant.
If you simply dig up/pull out what I assume are roots that have grown into the ground under the pot, I don't think you'll have any problem since they'll just die.
If it is a spreading rhizome, just pull it out - it should be a long 'runner' - and split it up and give/sell it to others.


----------



## wakkatoo (12/9/10)

brewmasterz said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Finaly got around to build my hop growing wires today. I think it looks pretty awesome :beerbang: - haven't quite finished yet, still got to add half a doz more wires then shes done!!!!
> 
> Feedback welcome....



Why 6 more wires? I've got the same setup, but run 2 wires (one each end of the cross bar). Hops will be trained up in a 'V' formation.


----------



## brewmasterz (12/9/10)

wakkatoo said:


> Why 6 more wires? I've got the same setup, but run 2 wires (one each end of the cross bar). Hops will be trained up in a 'V' formation.




Wakkatoo,

I was going to grow the hops up and along the wire, rather than the V formation. This is my first time growing hops - do you rackon it is better to grow in V??


----------



## Wolfy (12/9/10)

brewmasterz said:


> I was going to grow the hops up and along the wire, rather than the V formation. This is my first time growing hops - do you rackon it is better to grow in V??


I think you'll find that come summer the vast majority of the growth will be along the top wires, since hops like to grow up to 4-5m, and I'm guessing your poles are about 2m, it will be a big mass of growth up along the top (no matter how many wires you have there).

Most anything will work, once they start growing they'll just take over whatever you let them grow on, and most likely climb all the way to the top of whatever structure you give them.
Looking at how you have it setup, one way to maximize the amount of room they have to grow 'up' is to add another 2 rows of wire along the top at the outside of the T piece.
Then run 3 guide wires (or string) from the top of the next pole (the one near the shed) back to the base of the pole where the plant is, the plants will grow up along these, then you can forcibly train them back along the top wires (like a Z shape with the bottom of the z being the ground), that way the hops are essentially growing 'up' for twice the distance you have between the poles.

One advantage of a V shape is that you can easily remove the hops and guide strings and clean things up for next year, by using permanent wire it's a little harder to untangle the hops once they die back.


----------



## brewmasterz (12/9/10)

Wolfy said:


> I think you'll find that come summer the vast majority of the growth will be along the top wires, since hops like to grow up to 4-5m, and I'm guessing your poles are about 2m, it will be a big mass of growth up along the top (no matter how many wires you have there).
> 
> Most anything will work, once they start growing they'll just take over whatever you let them grow on, and most likely climb all the way to the top of whatever structure you give them.
> Looking at how you have it setup, one way to maximize the amount of room they have to grow 'up' is to add another 2 rows of wire along the top at the outside of the T piece.
> ...




Cheers, Wolfy 
Thanks for the advise.


----------



## lastdrinks (12/9/10)

Just planted my chinook, goldings, Hallertau and tettnang in 4 half wine barrels, would have liked something bigger like directly in the ground but i live in the suburbs. Filled them with a good quarter m3 of soil delivered then topped up with 3 bags of cow manure. Need to do some more reading on wiring techniques. Anyway thanks to all the guys who helped out with the hop rhizomes.


----------



## rendo (12/9/10)

pics...PICS.....we want PICS!!!




Mark^Bastard said:


> Guys I have the hop story to end all hop stories. I am covered in green ant bites, probably about 15 bites in total on my hands, feet and knees. I just realised my *first year* hope had somehow busted through the bottom of my wooden pot, then somehow travelled sidways across concrete and into my garden and then has travelled about 1.5 metres sideways under the dirt and god knows how far down. The massive root system is up to about 1.5 to 2 inches thick in parts, especially where it's busted through the pot. This is one year after planting a rhizome about 1.5 inches in diametre and about 3 inches long in a god damn pot! I have taken photos and will post them once I've "recovered".
> 
> I'm wondering if green ants and hops have some sort of synergy or something, where the hop roots grow into the green ant tunnels or something.
> 
> A related question, if I wanted to kill the remaining rhizome that's still in the ground is there a sure-fire way to do this? I don't want hops growing in my garden. It's too small and I'll probably sell this place in a few years!


----------



## MarkBastard (12/9/10)

Wolfy said:


> Rhizomes are fairly thick fleshy root-like-bits with lots of buds all along them, which are different from the normal root-system of the plant.
> If you simply dig up/pull out what I assume are roots that have grown into the ground under the pot, I don't think you'll have any problem since they'll just die.
> If it is a spreading rhizome, just pull it out - it should be a long 'runner' - and split it up and give/sell it to others.



Oh good. There was only one crazy laterally growing one but there was another one that was going down too far to dig. I dug down about a foot and then hit clay soil and the bugger was still thick at that point (bout an inch) and was right next to a concrete slab so I couldn't use a shovel very well and after several green ant bites gave up digging by hand. Hopefully it has no chance.

I've repotted it in a much bigger pot well away from the garden so the bastard won't be able to try that again! Sorry guys didn't cut up the lateral root. The main rhizome has about 10 or so white tip shoots about to take off by the look of it.


----------



## wakkatoo (12/9/10)

brewmasterz said:


> Wakkatoo,
> 
> I was going to grow the hops up and along the wire, rather than the V formation. This is my first time growing hops - do you rackon it is better to grow in V??



I've got no idea to be honest. Mine are about 3m high which was a compromise between giving the hops all the height they need and still keeping the wires at a workable height. As its my first year also, maybe we need to do a comparison over summer to see which design works best?  

I'm just glad 4 of my 5 have sent out shoots given the huge amount of water we've had in the last 6 weeks, which coincidently is the same amount of time they've been planted <_< 

Mt hood is the most advanced with a few little but _very_ dodgy looking leaves. Can't wait till my next door neighbour spots them :lol:


----------



## newguy (13/9/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> A related question, if I wanted to kill the remaining rhizome that's still in the ground is there a sure-fire way to do this? I don't want hops growing in my garden. It's too small and I'll probably sell this place in a few years!



Roundup will take care of it. Just don't use it on a windy day as even a very small droplet carried on the wind is enough to kill a plant.

I used to use it every summer to kill the thistles that invade from my neighbour's yard. After 4 years of spraying, this year there weren't any thistles left. I hate lazy bastards that don't take care of their yards. :angry:


----------



## MarkBastard (13/9/10)

Here's some pics as promised.

Below is a close up shot of the root that I saw when I moved the pot slightly. As you can see the pot was about two inches from the edge of the paving. Not sure where all that soil came from! Maybe the ants did help the hops out by bringing all that soil up to the side like that.



Below is a zoomed out photo of the same. Notice the root just at the top of the pot handle.



This shot below shows where I've started digging to investigate where the root leads to. I was pissing myself laughing at this point that it even found its way to the garden, little did I know just how far into the garden the bastard got!



After I'd cut off some of the rhizome and tipped the pot over this is what the underside looked like.



This is the hole where the main downwards travelling root went into. It was growing literally against the concrete and kept on going. Hopefully it won't survive as I couldn't dig it all up. I had to remove two of my border plants to dig this far down.



This is the money shot. Can you see that trunk in the back ground? And sort of a trench running up to it? Well that trench has the main lateral. It split into two just before the tree with the smaller split going to the left of the trunk and the bigger one going to the right. I'm guessing rhizomes in the wild can't grow up twine so they travel themselves to the nearest and biggest tree they can find to grow up? This is a good 2 metres or so from the pot!



All this one year after planting a tiny rhizome...


----------



## AussieJosh (13/9/10)

THATS CRAZY! now im thinking maybe i should not have planted six!?


----------



## kenworthy (13/9/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> Here's some pics as promised.
> 
> Below is a close up shot of the root that I saw when I moved the pot slightly. As you can see the pot was about two inches from the edge of the paving. Not sure where all that soil came from! Maybe the ants did help the hops out by bringing all that soil up to the side like that.
> View attachment 40730
> ...


What the Baby!


----------



## Malted (13/9/10)

brewmasterz said:


> Wakkatoo,
> 
> I was going to grow the hops up and along the wire, rather than the V formation. This is my first time growing hops - do you rackon it is better to grow in V??



Feedback:

(1) Looks like you are using (not sure of proper name) screw with a hook into timber and then turnbuckles to cable. 
Might be cheaper to just use an eye bolt to secure AND tension the cables (if putting up more cables), and also saves on eyelets. An eye bolt is a long threaded rod with a hook on the end (you can see on mine below that running the nut up pulls the bolt through the hole and tensions the cable). 
# I also just noticed a fault with mine: the top horizontal line pressure is on the centre bolt; I should have put the horizontal arm behind the upright (i.e. to the left) so that the tension is on the upright and not just the center bolt. #







(2) I am planning on growing mine in a V pattern for reasons that others have pointed out: easier to pick, easier to remove if on strings going up, but I figure it is also for hygiene reasons too. 
What's that you ask? I am hoping that *air flow and air circulation* will be better in a V formation. This is my first time growing hops but I am thinking about general horticulture principles. Where air flow is low, dust accumulates on plants (not good for them) and this is also where you'll get the greatest concentration of pest bugs. Good airflow usually means fewer pest bugs. 

(3) doesn't look like your backyard has too many height restrictions, a bit more height may have been better but I get your idea of them growing horizontally. Why not make it into a bit of a green gazebo: maybe go wider, another row of poles beside it with conecting cables and you can then sit under it in summer drinking beer and admiring your hops? Plenty of people do this with grape vines.


----------



## batemanbrewer (13/9/10)

Malted said:


> Why not make it into a bit of a green gazebo: maybe go wider, another row of poles beside it with conecting cables and you can then sit under it in summer drinking beer and admiring your hops? Plenty of people do this with grape vines.




The "Hoparium"  

sounds glorious, if only i had the space. Might be time for a move!!

p.s.- mark your plant's gone ballistic. Glad I have my plants potted with solid guards underneath, looks like you lost a day or 2 there


----------



## Wolfy (13/9/10)

Due to issues with the camera this is the only photo I took when I finished planting all the hops weekend before last.
All were 1st year plants, on the right is the POR that grew poorly in a pot in my back yard, the mutant at the back is last year's Chinook plant.
3 months ago they were dug up, wrapped in newspaper packed with some compost, watered, wrapped in a shopping bag or two and put in the bottom of the fridge.
I think they even got frozen once or twice, but as you can see even that rough treatment did not stop them.





After another day digging holes and planting, all the rhizomes and companion plants are now in the ground, each plant was mulched with the remaining mushroom compost and given a dose of either blood and bone or Brunnings complete fertilizer (fertilized now so that the nutrients are available when the plant will be growing, if you fertilize when they are in full growth the nutrietns cannot be taken into the soil and then the plant in time to be useful) and had snail-pellets scattered around.
Its been raining most every day since so that should help them get established I hope.

Since the planting is are aligned north-to-south, I tried to plant the less vigorous ones to the North (with the expectation they'll get ample sunlight):
North
----------
2x	Golding
~	Saaz
~	Halleratu
~	Fuggle
~	Perle
2x	Tettnang
-	-
-	Challenger
-	Liberty
-	Unknown
2x	Hersbrucker
2x	Mt Hood
Williamette
~	Target
Cluster	Nugget
2x	Cascade
2x	Columbus
2x	POR
Chinook	Victoria
----------
South

There are enough 'poles' to bill 5 or 6 uprights, and they're off getting welded together, right now they are 2.8m lengths of galvanized pipe (stuff that flag poles or goal post/uprights are made from).


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## DKS (13/9/10)

Awesome Fury said:


> My first yr hop plants are still just dirt! cant wait to see the first shoots come through



Arrrh.....My first baby Chinooks have just poked their heads out. I'm a proud father too.

NOW GROW YOU BASTARDS, GROW!  
Daz
(Thanks Mantis :icon_cheers: )


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## Bribie G (13/9/10)

I'm going to espalier mine along a long 2m high timber fence using wires. Any recommendations about going 2, 3 or even 4 wires?


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## brewmasterz (14/9/10)

wakkatoo said:


> I've got no idea to be honest. Mine are about 3m high which was a compromise between giving the hops all the height they need and still keeping the wires at a workable height. As its my first year also, maybe we need to do a comparison over summer to see which design works best?
> 
> I'm just glad 4 of my 5 have sent out shoots given the huge amount of water we've had in the last 6 weeks, which coincidently is the same amount of time they've been planted <_<
> 
> Mt hood is the most advanced with a few little but _very_ dodgy looking leaves. Can't wait till my next door neighbour spots them :lol:




I think a comparrison would be good, anyone else who has anything different, please share... 

I spoke with Mr John Cozens Last night - who is the mastermind behind Crown Ambassador - at a masterclass held at the RACV Club, he and 3 other blokes picked the hops for the beer - Galaxy, 25 kgs in one day from the hop gardens in Mrytleford - within hours they were turned into pellets and driven to melbourne & into the beer at Dandenong, Vic. I did not know this, but the window of opportunity to get the freshest hops is only 1 day a year- this year it was on the 9th of March. The reason for this is that the plant cuts off the water supply to the cone, and at this stage, that is where it is at its strongest aroma & Flavour. 

I also bought a bottle of the Ambassador :beerbang:


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## MarkBastard (14/9/10)

That's strange, I was led to believe hops should 'ripen' on the vine before picking.


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## Fents (14/9/10)

brewmasterz said:


> I also bought a bottle of the Ambassador :beerbang:



lol. how much? you have read the review of it yes?


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## brewmasterz (14/9/10)

Fents said:


> lol. how much? you have read the review of it yes?



$87.00 a bottle. The aroma was very much resemblance of hay, however - I would expect that to change over the next 12 months, as its only been in the bottle since June!!
Yeah, a lot of mixed reactions about it!! I also tried the 2009 vintage last night, it was like rich caramel stout!! 

Hops are better if you pick them just before they ripe and dry them, then you will get more out of them in terms of flavour and amora!


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## MarkBastard (14/9/10)

brewmasterz said:


> Hops are better if you pick them just before they ripe and dry them, then you will get more out of them in terms of flavour and amora!



did they give you any tips as to when to know when they are exactly right?


----------



## drsmurto (14/9/10)

brewmasterz said:


> $87.00 a bottle. The aroma was very much resemblance of hay, however - I would expect that to change over the next 12 months, as its only been in the bottle since June!!
> Yeah, a lot of mixed reactions about it!! I also tried the 2009 vintage last night, it was like rich caramel stout!!
> 
> Hops are better if you pick them just before they ripe and dry them, then you will get more out of them in terms of flavour and amora!



You can never have too much amora in beer.....


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## brewmasterz (14/9/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> did they give you any tips as to when to know when they are exactly right?




The guy did say that as they grow you can physically see them growing!! - By measuring the hop cones are starting to dry out slightly, its time to pick them. they also should "rebound" to it's basic shape. Another way to tell is when they pollinate - the aroma becomes strong - when you notice the amora they should be picked within 24 hours. Hope this helps... Explained it to the best of my ablity!!


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## praxis178 (14/9/10)

brewmasterz said:


> The guy did say that as they grow you can physically see them growing!! - By measuring the hop cones are starting to dry out slightly, its time to pick them. they also should "rebound" to it's basic shape. Another way to tell is when they pollinate - the aroma becomes strong - when you notice the amora they should be picked within 24 hours. Hope this helps... Explained it to the best of my ablity!!



But only the male flowers have pollen and these are useless in brewing anyway, and definite no-no in the hop yard if you want to get any cones for your brewing. Me thinks this might be a bit of red-herring..... But then I wasn't there so just my $0.02.


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## cdbrown (14/9/10)

Repotted my plants from small tree bags into the wooden pots just like Marks. Unfortunately have no idea which is which. 

Before


 cluster or tettnanger



 cluster or tettnanger



what came out of the last tree bag



POR



Goldings

Thought I'd taken the photos of them in the new pots, but apparently not. Need to put the twine in place and will take some photos and post the transformation. Hopefully they look good when growing otherwise there will be significant pressure from SWMBO to relocate them.


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## Wolfy (14/9/10)

brewmasterz said:


> I did not know this, but the window of opportunity to get the freshest hops is only 1 day a year- this year it was on the 9th of March.


The 'best' day/time to pick the hops depends on many factors, including the plant, location, growing conditions etc etc.
It seems that the plants in question were closely and carefully monitored, and so while the 9th of March would have been the 'ideal' time for them, it does not mean is true for any other hop-plants.
Also that kind of close monitoring is only possible for that kind of 'lab' situation (if for example you are going to charge $90/bottle).
With most growers (home and commercial) and most plants, the cones ripen over time, the top ones maturing first and then the ones further down later, commercial growers usually trim the bines earlier in the season to get most of the plant mostly cropping at all of the same time, but then there is always a compromise between when it's 'best' to pick.
The 'best' way is to do what many home-brewers do, and to pick individual cone as they get ripe, however this is labor and time intensive and not possible for a commercial setup or even for most home growers.


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## newguy (14/9/10)

Wolfy said:


> The 'best' day/time to pick the hops depends on many factors, including the plant, location, growing conditions etc etc.
> [snip]
> The 'best' way is to do what many home-brewers do, and to pick individual cone as they get ripe, however this is labor and time intensive and not possible for a commercial setup or even for most home growers.



+1

I picked my hops last year at the "best" time but that was their 1st year and the yield was low (and manageable). This year? I picked (and will pick) when it's convenient for me.

My Hallertauer, which yielded 140g last year (the highest), produced 705g this year. Dry weight, of course. The Willamette was just harvested yesterday and produced approx 5-6kg wet. There's just way too many cones for me to 'cherry pick' the ripest ones here & there.


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## Nick JD (15/9/10)

Chinook cranking.


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## jakub76 (15/9/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> All this one year after planting a tiny rhizome...



Lucky you got to it now...imagine if it had gone another year...


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## MarkBastard (15/9/10)

so delicate and innocent. I remember when mine was like that hehehe.


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## Florian (15/9/10)

Have changed my 'trellis' from 3m wooden sticks to about 8m 'string' all the way up the house. POR going strong, and chinook following in the background. That side of the house is east facing, meaning they only get the morning sun. I guess that's why they're shooting up so quickly without being really bushy.


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## Bribie G (15/9/10)

Wow they are looking totally hoppy, Florian :icon_cheers: 

Buddy and I wired up the fence yesterday, I'm espaliering mine with three leaders left and three leaders right.


----------



## whitegoose (20/9/10)

Here's my Cascade, going mental after planting about 4 weeks ago... now I just need to hook up something for it to climb in a hurry!


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## felten (21/9/10)

I planted my Willamette rhizome a month or 2 ago, it hasn't put many leaves out yet like the above, but i have 11 shoots appear so far @[email protected]


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## mje1980 (24/9/10)

I just planted my chinook!!!. Filled the pot with potting mix, planted 6" deep, and hit it with some liquid fertiliser. Can't wait, hope it grows!!

You can see where its headed too!


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## matt white (24/9/10)

I'd probably plant it 1-2 inches deep or you may never see it again!


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## mje1980 (24/9/10)

Ah, too deep, cheers. I might move some soil away from the top of it.


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## mje1980 (24/9/10)

Brought it up a bit, cheers


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## DKS (24/9/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> so delicate and innocent. I remember when mine was like that hehehe.


 So how big would they get here in Brisbane, in a pot similar to yours,(from previous posts) , in the first season?
They don't seem to do so well here it seems as they do farther South.
Daz


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## Siborg (24/9/10)

DKS said:


> So how big would they get here in Brisbane, in a pot similar to yours,(from previous posts) , in the first season?
> They don't seem to do so well here it seems as they do farther South.
> Daz




Mine aren't doing anything yet. Had them planted for a few weeks now. Maybe gotta find a more sunny spot.


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## Nick JD (24/9/10)

I just measured my fastest bine - it's doing 9mm per hour. These things are nuts.


----------



## MarkBastard (24/9/10)

DKS said:


> So how big would they get here in Brisbane, in a pot similar to yours,(from previous posts) , in the first season?
> They don't seem to do so well here it seems as they do farther South.
> Daz



Umm did you see my post??? The answer is don't under estimate the growth these guys can put on...


----------



## The_Duck (24/9/10)

Anyone know if "Worm Juice" and or "Worm Castings" are a viable substitute for blood and bone ?

I know they are good fertilisers... but not sure what their usual make up is.


Duck


----------



## technoicon (24/9/10)

think i planted mine a bit deep. I put them in a pot about 3 weeks ago and still have not seen a thing. there probably like 6" deep.

will they eventually come through? or should i take some soil off them?


----------



## jakub76 (24/9/10)

CRITTERS!!!
My POR is being eaten by something. Has anyone seens this before?


Looking under the leaf there were some odd little white bugs which I brushed off. An hour later one had returned.


What are these little f**kers and how do I get rid of them?

Everything I had read suggested training bines onto lines clockwise. Since most texts on the subject are written in the northern hemisphere, I was wondering if down here they'd twirl anti-clockwise...


...I'm wondering no more.


----------



## outbreak (24/9/10)

jakub76 said:


> CRITTERS!!!
> My POR is being eaten by something. Has anyone seens this before?
> View attachment 41026
> 
> ...



Is it white cabbage moth larvae?


----------



## Wolfy (24/9/10)

The_Duck said:


> Anyone know if "Worm Juice" and or "Worm Castings" are a viable substitute for blood and bone ?
> 
> I know they are good fertilisers... but not sure what their usual make up is.


Worms do not actually produce any nutrients themselves, they just 'recycle' and convert whatever you feed them (household vegie scraps I guess) into a format that is more easily used by your plants.
So I'd suggest using them in addition to blood and bone (my local Coles has all gardening fertilizer stuff at 1/2 price just now).


Awesome Fury said:


> think i planted mine a bit deep. I put them in a pot about 3 weeks ago and still have not seen a thing. there probably like 6" deep.
> 
> will they eventually come through? or should i take some soil off them?


They should come through, but usually you'd plant them about 1-2inches deep, so it would not hurt to carefully scrape some dirt off the top (just don't damage the shoots that are probably coming up).


----------



## DKS (24/9/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> Umm did you see my post??? The answer is don't under estimate the growth these guys can put on...



Arr... Hope so, my interest was mainly with such a vigorous growth, can a pot supply the food for them for a full season and what to expect given the small amount of soil. 
Mine were/are at a small leaf stage like a ground cover plant. Not much happening for a few weeks now. 
Came home this arvo. Tendril like growth reaching up about two inches and another shoot popping out of the soil. 
Ooh.. I'm getting excited now. 
Daz


----------



## wakkatoo (24/9/10)

Took this yesterday. My Mt Hood rhizome that's been in the longest. There are 4 others of which 3 have got shoots. One is yet to come up and say hello. I can't get over just how dodgy they look h34r:


----------



## Wolfy (24/9/10)

wakkatoo said:


> I can't get over just how dodgy they look h34r:


They only _look _dodgy if you have experience growing something _else _more dodgy to compare them to!


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## wakkatoo (24/9/10)

Wolfy said:


> They only _look _dodgy if you have experience growing something _else _more dodgy to compare them to!



Ha ha. No, no experience growing and very limited in other areas. I did however attend boarding school for 2 years and was good mates with a guy who did a lot of "work" in the greenhouses in a relatively remote part of the school grounds.


----------



## rendo (24/9/10)

Hey Siborg,

How's it going mate!! My hops are going well...probably 20cm high. I have a trellis on the fence just waiting for them to proliferate and fornicate on...  I cant wait....Cant believe I am growing my own hops. How cool...and sad...and beer geeky...but fcuk it, I love it. Always been a green thumb and grown lotsa chillies to satisfy my chilli cravings, so growing my own hops is just a natural progression.

What hops do u have mate? I have POR and Chinook, we might have to do a swap in a half year/years time when our rhizomes have grown.

Rendo






Siborg said:


> Mine aren't doing anything yet. Had them planted for a few weeks now. Maybe gotta find a more sunny spot.


----------



## Wolfy (25/9/10)

rendo said:


> I have a trellis on the fence just waiting for them to proliferate and fornicate on...  I cant wait....


Sorry but there are no male hop plants around for all our girls to fornicate with, all their reproduction is done asexually.


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## rendo (25/9/10)

Why the  ????

If I am reading ur post right, then that means our hop vines are all a big bunch of rampant lesbians happily fornicating on our trellises and fences etc...

THATS HOT...

even more so is that we put the fruit of these crazy lesbians in our beer and it makes it taste good....

The more I learn about beer, the better it gets. Beer.... golden nectar.... on so many levels

Cheers to LESBIAN HOPS :icon_drool2: 



Wolfy said:


> Sorry but there are no male hop plants around for all our girls to fornicate with, all their reproduction is done asexually.


----------



## Bribie G (25/9/10)

Quick question for anyone wot knows, I was talking to a grapevine guy and he says that if you pinch out the end of a vine it throws two new vines off the end and he wonders if hops do the same.

I'm espaliering mine along fence wires with 3 leaders left and 3 leaders right. I've got the 3 right ones well under way but only 2 for the left so far. If I pinch one out do I just lose that bine or would it chuck 2 new ones?


----------



## Bongchitis (25/9/10)

BribieG said:


> Quick question for anyone wot knows, I was talking to a grapevine guy and he says that if you pinch out the end of a vine it throws two new vines off the end and he wonders if hops do the same.
> 
> I'm espaliering mine along fence wires with 3 leaders left and 3 leaders right. I've got the 3 right ones well under way but only 2 for the left so far. If I pinch one out do I just lose that bine or would it chuck 2 new ones?




Yeah they do. I did a bit of experimenting last year 'tipping hop bines thread' to reduce the hieght of the plant and possibly increase yield. hops got cooked whilst on summer hollidays but was looking promissing until then. What did happen though was that laterals started to form even 3-4 nodes down and I got 6-8 spindly leaders. I should have trimmed all but the top 2 or 4 laterals and only tipped the strongest leaders to begin with.

My cascade and goldings have just broke the surface so here we go again.


----------



## clarkey7 (25/9/10)

BribieG said:


> Quick question for anyone wot knows, I was talking to a grapevine guy and he says that if you pinch out the end of a vine it throws two new vines off the end and he wonders if hops do the same.
> 
> I'm espaliering mine along fence wires with 3 leaders left and 3 leaders right. I've got the 3 right ones well under way but only 2 for the left so far. If I pinch one out do I just lose that bine or would it chuck 2 new ones?


Bribie,

Last year (my first as a hop farmer), one of the Chinook bines got snapped of by an unfortunate cricket ball incident after a couple of months (+ feet of growth).

The bine that go snipped by the tight string, threw out 3 laterals...they were a bit behind for a few months, but by February were pumping.....So to answer YES....but I'm no hop guru yet.

I'd be interested to know what the effect is if you snip them really early or really late....possibly just before flowering.......

Planted 6 varieties this year....will post pickies soon of digging day, day 7, day 20 (today).

PB


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## Bribie G (25/9/10)

Sounds good. I'll wait till I've got one of the left bines about chest height and snip it then and see if it gives me 2 to run along the top and middle wires :icon_cheers:


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## Wolfy (25/9/10)

BribieG said:


> Quick question for anyone wot knows, I was talking to a grapevine guy and he says that if you pinch out the end of a vine it throws two new vines off the end and he wonders if hops do the same.
> 
> I'm espaliering mine along fence wires with 3 leaders left and 3 leaders right. I've got the 3 right ones well under way but only 2 for the left so far. If I pinch one out do I just lose that bine or would it chuck 2 new ones?


Hops are almost like weeds once they get established, if you pinch/break/cut off the growing tips it will just sprout more and keep growing. (_My unscientific observations:_) It seems that there is some sort of 'foliage mass' that the hop plant likes to develop before they produce cones. Their preference is to grow straight up, but if they can't (cut, damaged, pinched) they will make up that 'foliage mass' by producing more leaders, stems and growing shoots. So you'll end up with plants that are shorter and more bushy as a result.

How - or if - that helps is debatable. If you were growing your hops in a traditional way (straight up) the vast majority of all the cones would be in the top section of the plant. But many home-growers pinch the tips out to encourage the plants to be more 'bushy' rather than continuing to grow upward - the theory being that since cones develop on the laterals - the more laterals the more cones. However, if that was true then commercial hop growers would no doubt pinch the tops to give a more abundant crop and make harvesting more easy since the plants would be short and bushy and easier to harvest, so I think it's mostly done for home-growing convenience rather than anything else.


----------



## Bribie G (25/9/10)

Maybe to stop home brewers raiding the hop yards after dusk :lol: 

I'd imagine that tall and thin enables more plants to the hectare.


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## proudscum (25/9/10)

BribieG said:


> Quick question for anyone wot knows, I was talking to a grapevine guy and he says that if you pinch out the end of a vine it throws two new vines off the end and he wonders if hops do the same.
> 
> I'm espaliering mine along fence wires with 3 leaders left and 3 leaders right. I've got the 3 right ones well under way but only 2 for the left so far. If I pinch one out do I just lose that bine or would it chuck 2 new ones?





In the past i have broken the growing shoots off by mistake and the next thing they are throwing 2 shoots from where the leaves are(next set of leaves down).As with all growing tips the higher that it is on the plant the quicker it will grow.....funny that.Just make sure that it is a clean cut close to the leaves. Good luck


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## MarkBastard (25/9/10)

BribieG said:


> Quick question for anyone wot knows, I was talking to a grapevine guy and he says that if you pinch out the end of a vine it throws two new vines off the end and he wonders if hops do the same.
> 
> I'm espaliering mine along fence wires with 3 leaders left and 3 leaders right. I've got the 3 right ones well under way but only 2 for the left so far. If I pinch one out do I just lose that bine or would it chuck 2 new ones?



If you break a hop bine the part above where it's broken will obviously die, but the part underneath will stay alive. Laterals will grow (usually from near the bottom of the bine) and they will climb up the existing bine and make their way up as if they were a bine growing from the actual rhizome.

Laterals like these grow regardless by the way, so don't both manually breaking bines or anything. I don't reckon there is any benefit to doing that.


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## MarkBastard (25/9/10)

Wolfy said:


> the theory being that since cones develop on the laterals - the more laterals the more cones.



The flowers do grow on laterals, but they are different laterals to the ones you get from 'tipping'.

The laterals you get from tipping are affectively exactly the same as a regular bine.

The ones that flowers grow on are short and grow near the top of regular bines, not the bottom.


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## Frank (25/9/10)

If anyone is after some rhizomes, it is not too late, have a look here.


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## Wolfy (25/9/10)

Boston said:


> If anyone is after some rhizomes, it is not too late


Yeah it is too late, I've dug enough holes for this year, any more will have to wait 'til next year.


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## MitchDudarko (26/9/10)

Saaz








PoR






I've got some chinook and cascade that haven't come through yet. :/


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## rendo (26/9/10)

Sounds like you need to do a picture story BribieG. Take a before, after and month or two after photos and post your findings. 

My hops are growing (first year), about 20cm at the moment, got the spot ready....5m of trellis on the fence...I cant wait....

rendo



BribieG said:


> Sounds good. I'll wait till I've got one of the left bines about chest height and snip it then and see if it gives me 2 to run along the top and middle wires :icon_cheers:


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## Lecterfan (26/9/10)

Hello all, 
Is it too late for me to be sticking a rhizome in the ground now? I am in Ballarat, Vic. We have only just had our first taste of spring today but will guarantee a return to cold and horrid conditions for another month or so.

There are some available on ebay, I have a couple of good spots ready but only kind of prepared them off the top of my head after a big day in the vegie patches. (the snow peas made me think of it).

I don't mind sticking it in the ground now knowing that it will grow but won't significantly produce anything for another few seasons...or should I hold off until mid winter '11?

Advice from actual growers would be appreciated as I have already googled the pants off this one.

Off topic: anyone prepared to sell me some cuttings? I will drive as far as western suburbs of Melbourne or Geelong for them... 

Back on topic: Anyway, advice from growers would be appreciated.

Thanks.


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## Whiteferret (26/9/10)

Lecterfan said:


> Hello all,
> Is it too late for me to be sticking a rhizome in the ground now? I am in Ballarat, Vic. We have only just had our first taste of spring today but will guarantee a return to cold and horrid conditions for another month or so.
> 
> There are some available on ebay, I have a couple of good spots ready but only kind of prepared them off the top of my head after a big day in the vegie patches. (the snow peas made me think of it).
> ...



My POR, Hallertau and Fuggles have been out in the open for about a month now and have survived 2 quite frosty nights and are going strong. the others about 2 weeks should have got them out sooner then they would be as big :huh: . The sooner you get them planted the quicker they give you flowers  .
I think it was newguy's that got snowed on and were still going.


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## proudscum (26/9/10)

Lecterfan said:


> Hello all,
> Is it too late for me to be sticking a rhizome in the ground now? I am in Ballarat, Vic. We have only just had our first taste of spring today but will guarantee a return to cold and horrid conditions for another month or so.
> 
> There are some available on ebay, I have a couple of good spots ready but only kind of prepared them off the top of my head after a big day in the vegie patches. (the snow peas made me think of it).
> ...



If i am lucky enough and get some from Boston i will be putting them in,i live in the West(Melbourne)and my prides started to shoot in July but where under 20cm of mulch/straw on a protected Nth facing wall.Could go and have a root around and see if there is anything that i could cut for you?Just pm me as i am home bound today.


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## Lecterfan (26/9/10)

whiteferret said:


> The sooner you get them planted the quicker they give you flowers  .
> I think it was newguy's that got snowed on and were still going.



...so just buy them, stick them in and be optimistic? $40 is a lot of money unless you are spending it on your hobby hee hee.... OK , I might just buy them, stick them in and see what happens...


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## Frank (26/9/10)

Check post #255. If you are still keen send me a PM.



Lecterfan said:


> Hello all,
> Is it too late for me to be sticking a rhizome in the ground now? I am in Ballarat, Vic. We have only just had our first taste of spring today but will guarantee a return to cold and horrid conditions for another month or so.
> 
> There are some available on ebay, I have a couple of good spots ready but only kind of prepared them off the top of my head after a big day in the vegie patches. (the snow peas made me think of it).
> ...


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## pk.sax (27/9/10)

Really slow growing hallertau hops. THe pic on the left has sprouted two shoots, the new one is the taller thing. The pic on the right was much slower to get started but is shooting up very fast.


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## Siborg (27/9/10)

Siborg said:


> Mine aren't doing anything yet. Had them planted for a few weeks now. Maybe gotta find a more sunny spot.



Finally have my cascade and chinook ones peeking through for a look. The hallertau one is still not doing anything.


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## unrealeous (27/9/10)

Nick JD said:


> I just measured my fastest bine - it's doing 9mm per hour. These things are nuts.


21.6 centimeters per day? I bet you also claim to have an 18 inch penis h34r:


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## MaltyHops (27/9/10)

Lecterfan said:


> ...so just buy them, stick them in and be optimistic? $40 is a lot of money unless you are spending it on your hobby hee hee.... OK , I might just buy them, stick them in and see what happens...


I received some zomes about 20 days ago, planted in pots with organic mix
and the longest shoot is nearly up to a foot now.

If you don't do it now, you'll have to wait till next season - from the brief amount
of reading I've done, it sounds zomes will send up shoots for some while during
the start of a season so it's probably not too late yet to do something asap.

Might cost but more but growing in pots and good soil might be a good idea to
give them a good chance to grow healthily and get established. Could move them
around to best/handy spot - don't forget to water (but don't over-water).

Tom.

View attachment 41086


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## Nick JD (27/9/10)

unrealeous said:


> 21.6 centimeters per day? I bet you also claim to have an 18 inch penis h34r:



17.5" - I'm not one to blow my own horn though. 

Actually I have seen somewhere that "a foot a day" hop growth has been thrown around - but multiplying by 24 isn't really logical since they grow slower at night, especially if cold.


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## felten (27/9/10)

Coming up strong, 11 shoots on top and 3 coming out horizontally just poked out the side of the mound. ^_^


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## Wolfy (27/9/10)

Some (Chinook, the weed that it is)




(and Golding)




but not all (Nugget)




of my hops have sprouted nicely.
Luckily it started raining today, because I was surprised how dry the ground was, but most of the companion plants have also survived the first few weeks.

However the grass is also growing so it's hard to tell the hops are even there:





The 2.8m long gal-pipes had an insert welded that so that we can slide another pole over the top, then they'll make the uprights for the trellis:




I dug a few post-holes today, but if hopefully we'll get the mechanical-digger to do the rest.


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## ekul (27/9/10)

I have planted a hallertau, cascade, cluster, por and chinook.
Originally the hallertau, cascade and por took off but they stopped at around 30cm tall.
The chinook however is about 2m tall and i just discovered another 1m shoot about a metre from where i planted it. Looks like i'll be making alot of lcpa in a few months!!!
I don't know why the chinook is going so well and the other aren't, the soil is all the same. The only difference that i can think of is that the chinook got a few weeks in the fridge whereas the others didn't. Originally the chinook rhizome looked terrible, i didn't thin it was going to live at all. I found another two chinooks in the fridge that i had forgotten about and planted them in some potting mix, one has shot and the other hasn't. Maybe chinook can deal with subtropical climates?

I'm getting the soil tested (for freeeee) because i think the soil i used has pH problems. Might add some dolomite tmo to try and correct it. Would be so awesome to have free hops!

Will try put some photos up in the next few days


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## JestersDarts (28/9/10)

ekul said:


> I have planted a hallertau, cascade, cluster, por and chinook.



Same situation here ekul - 
my cascade shot about a month ago to around 50 cms - but then no action since!

where abouts in the world are you?!


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## BoilerBoy (28/9/10)

Keep in mind that each variety will differ in growth behaviour, every year my Tardiff de bourgogne starts early (more shoots than I can count currently!) while the Hersbrucker 2m away hardly moves, then it suddenly takes off and out grows the Tardif.

A Chinook I planted last year has also hardly crept above ground which doesn't surprise me as most people I have read say that they are a late starter but a vigorous grower when they get going.

If your planting rhizomes for the first time alot will depend on when you planted them and that root growth is likely to be far more important early on. 

Our spring here in Adelaide has been quite cool as well compared to recent years so they tend to grow in fits and starts until the consistent warm weather arrives.

Cheers,
BB


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## Malted (28/9/10)

I am like a mother hen, checking the hops every morning and evening... (and probably everytime I walk past them)

Seems like there can be growth variability amongst shoots on the same zome.

SWMBO did not believe me that the POR was growing quickly so I measured it and wrote the number on the fence post. Maybe she was just giving me shit because I Check them, I had better make that -stand around admiring them, so often. 5cm yesterday and 2cm last night and it was only 17 degrees yesterday and down to bloody 10 degrees last night! Funny thing is that it is only the one POR shoot that is taking off, the other POR shoots are just standing around.


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## Hutch (28/9/10)

Lecterfan said:


> Hello all,
> Is it too late for me to be sticking a rhizome in the ground now?



Ideally they should be in the ground by late winter, however IMHO it's never too late to plant rhizomes (within reason), as the first year is really about establishing its root system. Almost as much growth happens under-ground as above (you should see the root-ball after just one year!). 

So, if you plant now (or even into later Spring) you may not get much of a crop in your first year, however you are still giving them most of the growing season to establish their roots, so that the following year you can expect a decent crop, or divide your rhizomes for a bigger farm.

Also, my advise is to get them in the ground if you can - they outgrow even the largest pots very quickly. 
Most of mine had root-balls that filled 50Ltr pots, and 1-inch tap roots out the drain hole - and they were all first-year plants!

Great fun growing hops.
SWMBO rolls her eyes with all the time I spent "nurturing" my precious...


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## sam (28/9/10)

2nd year Goldings getting freaky.


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## Bribie G (28/9/10)

Sam what strings are you using there, and do they last the whole season without perishing or rotting? Ive set up a system of galavanised wiring but I may duplicate it with string as well, as the bines apparently prefer string according to the Peterbaugh Farms video.


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## Nick JD (28/9/10)

BribieG said:


> Sam what strings are you using there, and do they last the whole season without perishing or rotting? Ive set up a system of galavanised wiring but I may duplicate it with string as well, as the bines apparently prefer string according to the Peterbaugh Farms video.



We har uuze da cookanut twaaaaain in dat dere Waaaaahshintin! BOY, Ah Says BOY - go git Pa's gun, boy! 

Did you see the harvest videos? I can only imagine what that Cascade drying warehouse smelt like... :icon_drool2: :icon_drool2:


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## sam (28/9/10)

It's sisal twine. Picked it up from the hardware store.

This is its second season, I just applied a bit more tension, the twine still seems good. Hope so anyway!

It's nice and rough, plenty of texture for the bines to grab.


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## barls (28/9/10)

im using nylon 3 mm twine that i acquired, its like the blind cord. works fine for my.


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## Bribie G (28/9/10)

I'll grab some sisal twine today and just intertwine it along the wires. :icon_cheers: 





Nick JD said:


> We har uuze da cookanut twaaaaain in dat dere Waaaaahshintin! BOY, Ah Says BOY - go git Pa's gun, boy!
> 
> Did you see the harvest videos? I can only imagine what that Cascade drying warehouse smelt like... :icon_drool2:



Does that Peterbaugh farms guy remind you of Ivan Milat or what   
Most of the staff there look about my age, how do you get a green card?


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## Lecterfan (28/9/10)

Thanks to all those who replied, I'm pretty handy in the garden - seemed to inherit it from my old man, got a regular supply of horse and cow shit and I usually pinch a barrowload of the bew-di-ful red Bullarook dirt while I'm out there gathering up animal crap.

I just dug a new veg bed this morning and while I was at it I have prepared a nice mound full of a mix of sand, loam, horse and cow muck plus a heap of compost from the pile. I have ordered one rhizome from Boston (post #255) as an experiment.

Seriously, Ballarat weather will keep even the hardiest of things a bit under control for another week or two. We had snow in November a few years ago haha.

Anyway, I figure if I can keep strawberries producing until July and keep myself rolling in greens through winter then I can have a crack at a bloody vine...errr bine!!!

Like a rhizome cowboooooyyyy


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## JestersDarts (28/9/10)

Lecterfan said:


> Like a rhizome cowboooooyyyy



:lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Lecterfan (28/9/10)

...bloody hell. A few days ago I put up an inoffensive little post about contacting other Ballarat brewers...about 2.5 hours ago I ordered a hop rhizome from Adelaide as an experiment...and then 1.5 hours ago I am contacted by a Ballarat brewer who in his infinite grace and generosity gave me THREE count 'em THREE hop plants with pretty well established runners and minimum 6 inch-ish rhizomes/main inch thick roots under them.

They were only out of the ground about 12 mins and are now nestled comfortably along my fence line...from North to South they are Hersbrucker, Cascade and Chinook.

I am as happy as a man who thought a cat had done its business on his muffin, when it turned out to be an extra large blueberry (apologies to Blackadder).

They have plenty of drainage (the fence line is on a slope), they have been planted so the main root and white runners are all a few inches under the ground and all the young bines are above ground. The dirt is a mix of compost, horse, cow and alpaca manure, a grey loam, some sand and a pinch of red volcanic spud dirt. I just need to grab some mild slow release fertiliser tomorrow and I'm off and running!!!

I am f*cking stoked.

Then there is still the one from Boston to come, sheesh.

Edit: sorry for hijacking the thread, I thought it would be stupid to start my own just for that little burst of excitement.


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## proudscum (29/9/10)

Lecterfan said:


> ...bloody hell. A few days ago I put up an inoffensive little post about contacting other Ballarat brewers...about 2.5 hours ago I ordered a hop rhizome from Adelaide as an experiment...and then 1.5 hours ago I am contacted by a Ballarat brewer who in his infinite grace and generosity gave me THREE count 'em THREE hop plants with pretty well established runners and minimum 6 inch-ish rhizomes/main inch thick roots under them.
> 
> They were only out of the ground about 12 mins and are now nestled comfortably along my fence line...from North to South they are Hersbrucker, Cascade and Chinook.
> 
> ...


Glad i waited all day for a call.m8


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## AussieJosh (30/9/10)

My very suss looking chinook cascade hersbrucker hops in order.
Planted about 3 weeks sgo.










Uploaded with ImageShack.us


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## drsmurto (1/10/10)

Got home from a week camping to see the goldings going crazy.

The brick is just to the right of where the original rhizome was planted.







The cascade looks nice and healthy






Victoria looks similar to the Cascade in size, POR is still spreading out despite me hacking at it at the beginning of winter and the chinook is just breaking the surface now. 

I have all the posts/planks to build the trellis, i just need to pull the finger out and do it. Any volunteers?


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## MarkBastard (1/10/10)

Those bines are hardcore. Is that what they look like after a few years? They're really thick and supporting their own weight very well.


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## ~MikE (1/10/10)

DrSmurto said:


> Got home from a week camping to see the goldings going crazy.


jesus, is that all goldings in the first pic?

i'v got my rhozomes in pots still, but have buried them a few inches with the idea that the roots will dive and be free, but the pot should still keep them all from becoming one big tangled mess.


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## Wolfy (1/10/10)

~MikE said:


> i'v got my rhozomes in pots still, but have buried them a few inches with the idea that the roots will dive and be free, but the pot should still keep them all from becoming one big tangled mess.


Good luck with that idea once they are established.


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## mje1980 (1/10/10)

Mine havent popped out of the ground yet. Im a little worried


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## drsmurto (1/10/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> Those bines are hardcore. Is that what they look like after a few years? They're really thick and supporting their own weight very well.






~MikE said:


> jesus, is that all goldings in the first pic?
> 
> i'v got my rhozomes in pots still, but have buried them a few inches with the idea that the roots will dive and be free, but the pot should still keep them all from becoming one big tangled mess.



Yes, that is just 1 rhizome that is in its 3rd year. 

Got ~100g dry off it last year but lost at least 3 times that as i went away for holidays and should have picked them before i left. It's looking like a bumper crop for all of my plants this year  

I think i will be doing a lot of homegrown 10 min IPAs next year.......


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## ~MikE (1/10/10)

Wolfy said:


> Good luck with that idea once they are established.


well, if nothing else, i'll just know what shoots to go at with the shovel when they start popping up outside of the pots...


DrSmurto said:


> Yes, that is just 1 rhizome that is in its 3rd year.


that is awesome.


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## Nick JD (1/10/10)

That Chinook you sold me Doc thinks it's the Space Shuttle. It's loving the Queensland sun. :icon_cheers:


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## MarkBastard (1/10/10)

mje1980 said:


> Mine havent popped out of the ground yet. Im a little worried



Me too. Has a lot of shoots there just popping out of the rhizome. I reckon it'll know when the time is right. I probably haven't been watering it enough to be honest.


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## beerbrewer76543 (1/10/10)

Are they seeing lots of sunshine?

I moved mine off the back fence (shady) into full sun all day two weeks ago. Combined with watering every few days and they have shot up from nothing at all. One of them has thick bines about 15cm long free standing! Time to make a trellis me thinks...

All are second year plants and I will be pruning this year for some nice thick bines instead of the spindly ones I got last year


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## white.grant (1/10/10)

mje1980 said:


> Mine havent popped out of the ground yet. Im a little worried



Don't worry, you only planted them last week.


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## mje1980 (2/10/10)

Thanks grant, im pretty impatient haha. You drinking that biscuit bitter yet? I think my keg is almost done hehe


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## white.grant (2/10/10)

mje1980 said:


> Thanks grant, im pretty impatient haha. You drinking that biscuit bitter yet? I think my keg is almost done hehe



Just tasted the keg last night as it happens, and it's not too bad at all.


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## arogers (3/10/10)

Well, the rumours are true....

Chinook was last to shoot and has already overtaken the other 8 in height.


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## arogers (3/10/10)

got some issues with the tett and goldings... maybe nutrient deficiencies? ive been o/s for two weeks to maybe.


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## pk.sax (3/10/10)

The hallertau are loving the sun we've been getting for the last 2-3 days, 5-6 cm growth since I checked middle of the week gone by. They are even starting to curl around the sticks I planted there


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## kelbygreen (3/10/10)

planted mine yesterday out of the pots and they seemed to have grown already. so do we train them to grow anticlockwise down here?? I have been wondering this for a while but looks like everyones doing it that way


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## Wolfy (3/10/10)

kelbygreen said:


> planted mine yesterday out of the pots and they seemed to have grown already. so do we train them to grow anticlockwise down here?? I have been wondering this for a while but looks like everyones doing it that way


I think you should look a little more closely at the pictures on the last 4 pages of this thread.


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## kelbygreen (3/10/10)

well depends if you look from the top or bottom doesnt it lol


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## proudscum (3/10/10)

Wolfy said:


> I think you should look a little more closely at the pictures on the last 4 pages of this thread.





Its good to see the sun rises in the west and sets in the east in the land down under????

The Bines actually follow the sun so it is all clock wise action no matter which side of the equator you live.


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## bradsbrew (3/10/10)

Both my cascade and vienna gold started off well then stopped growing about 100mm high  Thinking too much water. Might hit it with some seaweed once the rain fucks off.


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## matho (3/10/10)

Regulator, good to see that your hops are growing well
my goldings did the something last year but continued to grow just keep an eye on it. By the way how's the cascade going 

Cheers matho


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## drsmurto (3/10/10)

Yet to water my hops yet, all that growth is due to the wet winter/spring we've had to date. :icon_cheers: 

Hop trellis stage 1 complete. Extra 2 posts cemented in. Next weekend will see the building of the actual structure.


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## under (3/10/10)

Mine has sprouted its little cock through the surface. Theres 4 shoots Woooooooooot


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## Wolfy (3/10/10)

kelbygreen said:


> well depends if you look from the top or bottom doesnt it lol


True - I had not thought of that. I simply looked up from the bottom - since that's the way the plant grows, I didn't consider otherwise.


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## arogers (3/10/10)

matho said:


> Regulator, good to see that your hops are growing well
> my goldings did the something last year but continued to grow just keep an eye on it. By the way how's the cascade going



hey mate,

the cascade has basically stayed fairly dormant until the last fortnight, i went to the US and china for 2 weeks and today when i checked it had finally kicked off 

i repotted it a month or so back, it has one hell of a root system :beerbang: 

ie more root than dirt in the pot lol


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## kelbygreen (3/10/10)

hehe you must be a short bastard then  i tend to stand over the plant and look not lay under it  but yes they do grow up not down so you got me there


----------



## proudscum (3/10/10)

The girls 2 weeks ago. P.O.R.


----------



## proudscum (3/10/10)

proudscum said:


> The girls today. P.O.R.


----------



## Malted (3/10/10)

I am thinking my hops are gunna power away now that daylight savings has started and we have an hour more sun in the evening... Rdrr!!!


----------



## jakub76 (3/10/10)

Wolfy said:


> I simply looked up from the bottom - since that's the way the plant grows


Then your plants grow anti-clockwise, they must look down at their hops in Europe and the US


----------



## Wolfy (3/10/10)

kelbygreen said:


> hehe you must be a short bastard then tongue.gif i tend to stand over the plant and look not lay under it tongue.gif but yes they do grow up not down so you got me there biggrin.gif


Well yes, but to be honest I just put the hop bines _near _the string and let them do their own thing. If they don't like the way you do it, they'll just fall off and grow up their own way, don't stress about it, they are weeds once they get established. 


Malted said:


> I am thinking my hops are gunna power away now that daylight savings has started and we have an hour more sun in the evening... Rdrr!!!


That'd also explain why hops don't grow as well up in QLD then?


----------



## outbreak (3/10/10)

Saaz B is going crazy, first year and I have 8 bines and 2 of those are 1.5m long. Cascade is trailing behind but is starting to get a move on.


----------



## matho (3/10/10)

regulator said:


> hey mate,
> 
> the cascade has basically stayed fairly dormant until the last fortnight, i went to the US and china for 2 weeks and today when i checked it had finally kicked off
> 
> ...



i tell ya i make good cuttings


----------



## rendo (3/10/10)

Holy Shit....my chinook looks NOTHING LIKE that....I will have to take a photo and post it up here, maybe you guys can help me identify what it might be...the leaves look like totally different...almost like choko or something.

My POR looks like everyone elses POR though.....

Rendo




regulator said:


> Well, the rumours are true....
> 
> Chinook was last to shoot and has already overtaken the other 8 in height.


----------



## stanko (4/10/10)

Malted said:


> I am thinking my hops are gunna power away now that daylight savings has started and we have an hour more sun in the evening... Rdrr!!!




So glad we dont have day lite savin here in the west .


----------



## beerDingo (4/10/10)

stanko said:


> So glad we dont have day lite savin here in the west .


You obvioulsy don't know what your missing!


----------



## bill_gill85 (4/10/10)

beerDingo said:


> You obvioulsy don't know what your missing!



No, we just don't need it.  The Sun setting over the WA coast gives us an extra 30 mins of daylight. We've tried daylight savings & the vote was we didn't want it.

Back OT, could anyone quantify how much water a hop plant needs each day? I've been trying to give mine a good start, but think they might be getting too much water. 

Cheers,
Ben


----------



## outbreak (4/10/10)

Stick your thumb in the soil, if its dry water, if not don't water.


----------



## beerDingo (4/10/10)

Unfortunatly I cannot remember exactly what all of my hops are! A tip for others, make sure that the labels that you put with your hops don't wash off!

This one has gone off the most(not sure what it is):






This is a Tetnang, that is in it's 3rd year. Got a cutting off Fents about 2 years ago. This gave me the most hops last year.





Here is a victoria:





Here is a pic of the size pots I've got em in. Closest to farthest - Cluster, Tetnang, ???, ???, ???, then to the left of the compost a hesbrucker, that has not taken off yet. (I think the unknowns are a tetnang, chinook, and something else):


----------



## raven19 (4/10/10)

Mt Hood creeping up nicely, only small amounts of growth on my other plants.


----------



## kenworthy (4/10/10)

raven19 said:


> Mt Hood creeping up nicely, only small amounts of growth on my other plants.
> 
> View attachment 41218




Need bigger pots guys


----------



## rendo (4/10/10)

Guys, check out my Hop Vine pics in this new thread I created...is this a hop vine? Meant to be Chinook.....it looks odd hey!...

Let me know...please 

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=48462

Rendo




rendo said:


> Holy Shit....my chinook looks NOTHING LIKE that....I will have to take a photo and post it up here, maybe you guys can help me identify what it might be...the leaves look like totally different...almost like choko or something.
> 
> My POR looks like everyone elses POR though.....
> 
> Rendo


----------



## lastdrinks (4/10/10)

My 4 hop plants have been in their half wine barrels for three weeks now and no signs of them sprouting. planted them two inches deep. Getting very worried, thinking i might need move some soil and check them out. Any advice on how long they should take to break the surface?

Thanks


----------



## Nick JD (4/10/10)

billgill said:


> The Sun setting over the WA coast gives us an extra 30 mins of daylight.



The sun rising here gives us an extra 30 minutes too. Pity my curtains are fading so quick :huh: . 

I could mention the obvious pythagorean geometry and copernicus, but I'll just adjust my watch instead.


----------



## bill_gill85 (4/10/10)

:icon_offtopic: 


Nick JD said:


> The sun rising here gives us an extra 30 minutes too. Pity my curtains are fading so quick :huh: .
> 
> I could mention the obvious pythagorean geometry and copernicus, but I'll just adjust my watch instead.



I won't deny that you get an earlier sunrise, but that's it... sunrise. It seems that the whole point of daylight savings is to shift that extra bit of sunlight to later in the day. My point is, in WA, you don't have to shift it, we get the extra in the arvo anyway.

Well that's me done dragging this thread off topic... if I do it again, may the next beer I brew turn into a clambic!


----------



## Frank (4/10/10)

lastdrinks said:


> My 4 hop plants have been in their half wine barrels for three weeks now and no signs of them sprouting. planted them two inches deep. Getting very worried, thinking i might need move some soil and check them out. Any advice on how long they should take to break the surface?



I planted some new rhizomes last weekend and they are already pushing the surface. 
Where dd you get them from and how had they been handled?
4 different rhizomes in one barrel is too much. It would be ok for the first year, but after that you will have crossed rhizomes everywhere and you wont know which is which.


----------



## MaltyHops (4/10/10)

lastdrinks said:


> My 4 hop plants have been in their half wine barrels for three weeks now and no signs of them sprouting. planted them two inches deep. Getting very worried, thinking i might need move some soil and check them out. Any advice on how long they should take to break the surface?
> 
> Thanks


Could use an old butter knife to gently move dirt around little by little until you
come across some growing shoots or the rhizomes. I re-potted some Chinook
zomes today by doing this to reveal all the shoots and uncovering them before
relocating the entire plants into a larger pot. I planted my zomes about 4/5 weeks
ago and they're going gang busters now.

T.


----------



## Wolfy (4/10/10)

billgill said:


> Back OT, could anyone quantify how much water a hop plant needs each day? I've been trying to give mine a good start, but think they might be getting too much water.


Small-scale commercial hop growers in the USA (via the Hop-growing Yahoo group discussions) suggest 5-10 US gallons per week per plant via drip watering systems. That equates to about 20-40L per plant week. If you are growing in pots you will most likely need more water, and when it's hot and they are growing/cropping strongly increase the water too, but at least you have a starting point to think about now. 


beerDingo said:


> Unfortunatly I cannot remember exactly what all of my hops are! A tip for others, make sure that the labels that you put with your hops don't wash off!


Exactly the same problem I had last year, hence saying exactly the same thing about permanent labels earlier in this thread, the aluminum ones are about the only ones that really work long-term.


----------



## pk.sax (4/10/10)

you can just tie different coloured string to each plant and keep a record of which is which...

just something annoying that mums tend to do to luggage but works anyway!


----------



## MaltyHops (4/10/10)

G'day All,

My plants are starting to really take off and are planted in 40cm pots
as I'm a home renter and want them to be fairly mobile.

Having been trying to think of the best mobile solution to putting up a
trellis, my current best solution is to get two outdoor umbrella stands,
pvc piping of two sizes to make a telescopic sliding set up as shown in the
pix below, some pvc T-pieces to then provide support to a horizontal pvc
bar to which rope can hang off for the hops to climb up. The horiz pipe
could be pushed up anywhere up to 3m high.

My concern/unknown is how much the hops are going to weigh down and
how stable the setup is going to be. The umbrella stands are designed for
pretty large umbrellas and will be weighted down by decent amounts of
cement blocks/bricks so ought to be able to handle quite a bit of hanging
weight ... unless I'm underestimating how much the hops can end up
weighing. Comments?

T.

View attachment 41230
​Left to right are pots containing saaz, goldings, mt.hood and I also added
another pot of the same type today with just peeking chinook rhizomes.


----------



## Wolfy (4/10/10)

Spent the day putting the poles up for my hops.

Last week we had someone come out and dig 14 holes (for 12 posts, somebody (not me) mis-calculated):





Seems my old-man is as prone to over doing things as I am. The poles are not going to go anywhere in a hurry with 1.5bags of concrete per hole:





We did plan to put in two poles with a cross-piece on the top to run the wires along - we found 2 rolls of wire in the shed, seems to be the same stuff used at the top of electricity poles.
However, assembling and lifting 2x6m steel poles with a cross-piece on it, getting it into an 80cm hole and then ensuring everything was correctly aligned before filling the holes with cement ... proved to be a little more difficult for two people to do than we'd hoped.
So we ended up running the wire through a bracket at the top of each pole, and after the concrete has fully set in a few days, we'll put the cross-piece a little further down.

This was half of them in the ground:





And just before sunset we got them all done:





And a few photos of the hops, even if they are still a bit small compared to others posted in this thread. 
Golding





POR





Chinook





All the plants have shoots, but a few are still just below the surface, it seems that they're growing downward more than upward just now (I carefully moved the dirt from over the few remaining plants without visible shoots to check they were still alive.)


----------



## Wolfy (5/10/10)

MaltyHops said:


> Comments?


The full grown hops will grow up to 5-6m high (if you let them) and will weight quite a bit, especially since they are so tall and bushy at the top.

However, I've seen (on the HBT forums and via the Hop-growing-yahoo-group) that some American home-hop growers using telescopic-PVC hop frames.
They did work, but they do also sway quite a bit and are not very stable, the guy who did it also said he'll be replacing it with a more rigid system for next season - but check the HBT forums for his info.

One of the brewing video/podcast places has a show about growing hops in pots, one trick he used was to use a tall pole with the growing-string looped through the top and then back down and tied off (with excess unused-string). As the hops grew taller he let the string out and essentially 'lowered' the growing hops, that way they could always keep growing 'upward' but the total height they reached was much more manageable, with much of the growth curled around at the bottom (not very useful for watering or disease/pest management, but since they were in pots they were more easily managed that way).


----------



## Hatchy (5/10/10)

My mt hood is being eaten by something. It's going climbing at a good rate but some of the leaves are being eaten. Is it to late to look into companion plants? I'm not keen on the idea of pesticide. A photo would probably help someone to help me but it's dark at the moment. I had a look on the effected leaves but couldn't see any bugs.


----------



## drsmurto (5/10/10)

Hatchy said:


> My mt hood is being eaten by something. It's going climbing at a good rate but some of the leaves are being eaten. Is it to late to look into companion plants? I'm not keen on the idea of pesticide. A photo would probably help someone to help me but it's dark at the moment. I had a look on the effected leaves but couldn't see any bugs.



Could be spider mites. Very hard to see and like to chew holes in the leaves.

You can buy organic sprays that use natural pyrethrums. I had a pyrethrum plant that i used to make a spray with chilli and garlic added. Now i just buy a pyrethrum concentrate and mix some chill/garlic into it. Its good for most bugs except earwigs/caterpillars and harlequin bugs. I swear the latter thinks i am spraying them with aftershave. 

Have a look for 'Beat-a-bug' next time you are at one of the big hardware stores. 

Or you could try white oil.


----------



## devo (5/10/10)

Lets hope that this year goes better for my Tettnang than the previous no thanks to spidermite madness!!! It's the 4th season now since planting and the early signs are good. I had to cut back about 10 shoots and plan to keep it at just the 2 dominant shoots this year.


----------



## cdbrown (6/10/10)

These two are either Cluster or Tettnang





I think the one on the left is EKG and the one on the right is POR


----------



## mckenry (6/10/10)

outbreak said:


> Saaz B is going crazy, first year and I have 8 bines and 2 of those are 1.5m long. Cascade is trailing behind but is starting to get a move on.



Hey outbreak,
Where did you get a saaz B from?


----------



## Nick JD (6/10/10)

Hatchy said:


> My mt hood is being eaten by something. It's going climbing at a good rate but some of the leaves are being eaten. Is it to late to look into companion plants? I'm not keen on the idea of pesticide. A photo would probably help someone to help me but it's dark at the moment. I had a look on the effected leaves but couldn't see any bugs.



Look closer. Small green caterpillars about 8mm long and exactly the same colour as the leaves.

Solution: squish.


----------



## MarkBastard (6/10/10)

cdbrown said:


> These two are either Cluster or Tettnang
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Good luck with that mate. Those pots won't stop the hops from rooting into that garden.


----------



## cdbrown (6/10/10)

They're going to be moved shortly into some more sunshine for a little while, when they go back I'll put some pavers or slabs under them. I'll keep my eye on the roots though so thanks for pointing it out.


----------



## MarkBastard (6/10/10)

No worries, just be careful, if you didn't see my prior post I used the same pots and had them on concrete and one certainly broke free.


----------



## Florian (6/10/10)

My POR has reached the 4m mark already, with Chinook following closely. If they continue like that I would have to either build another few levels or lower the plants a bit, so that they still can continue upwards.













The pots have been used in last years veggie and herb garden, so there are still plenty of seeds in the soil, making good companion plants. Mostly Thai basil, but also some lettuce, carrots and tomatoes.








I spoke to my Dad in Berlin the other day on skype. There is plenty of wild hops growing in and around the parks and sports grounds in the city. he has collected and dried 4 whole shopping bags of them. Thinking of a way to get some of them over here, might have to press them into pellets manually or something like that. No idea what they are, but them being from Germany I am keen to try them. Took a photo of the skype screen:




:icon_offtopic: How do I get my pictures displayed bigger?


----------



## Bribie G (6/10/10)

Florian said:


> :icon_offtopic: How do I get my pictures displayed bigger?



:icon_offtopic: Do you mean displayed on the post as full size to start off with, as opposed to having to click on it to display the full size image?

What most guys do is to open an account with Photobucket or one of the other photo sharing sites and upload your pics to that, and post the img code straight into your AHB post.

Example: uploaded to this post on AHB:




the same file on Photobucket 






I shrink my forum photos using a jpeg compressor proggie, several available, so they don't annoy by filling the entire screen


----------



## Florian (6/10/10)

:icon_offtopic: Thanks Michael, will do that in the future. Enough OT now, back to business...


----------



## Nick JD (6/10/10)

Here's my caterpillar damage.






And the solution :beerbang: .


----------



## Jaissy (6/10/10)

Hi Nick,

Put the caterpillar nest out of the trees or prune the affected areas,dropping the caterpillars into the bucket of soapy water.Start early in the spring,as soon as you begin to see evidence of caterpillars.They will be easier to remove and the damge will be less serves.
Spray the leaves with the BTK mixture,a natural biological control for caterpillars.


----------



## felten (6/10/10)

Do you have a source on good quality spiders nick? Maybe we can get a bulk buy going


----------



## wakkatoo (6/10/10)

felten said:


> Do you have a source on good quality spiders nick? Maybe we can get a bulk buy going



I've got on to a good supplier. Located over in China. I've been assured that these spiders are as good as the Aussie ones but a hell of a lot cheaper. In fact they are so good, some big-name hop growers are interested in purchasing some off me (but I can't tell you who they are).
That being said, if they don't work for you, don't blame me. You obviously planted the hops wrong so its all your fault.




h34r:


----------



## Nick JD (6/10/10)

felten said:


> Do you have a source on good quality spiders nick? Maybe we can get a bulk buy going



I've got some big black hairy ones. They live in cute little fluffy tunnels on the side of the trees. Shall I send you some?   

I thought they were trapdoors "coz funnelwebs live in Sydney" - then I looked 'em up on the Google...

...oh dear.  Northern Rivers Tree Funnelweb. If possible, nastier than the Sydney one. 

But my hop guard-spider doesn't seem aggressive.


----------



## felten (6/10/10)

wakkatoo said:


> I've got on to a good supplier. Located over in China. I've been assured that these spiders are as good as the Aussie ones but a hell of a lot cheaper. In fact they are so good, some big-name hop growers are interested in purchasing some off me (but I can't tell you who they are).
> That being said, if they don't work for you, don't blame me. You obviously planted the hops wrong so its all your fault.
> 
> 
> ...




What could possibly go wrong?


----------



## Wolfy (6/10/10)

Florian said:


> Thinking of a way to get some of them over here, might have to press them into pellets manually or something like that. No idea what they are, but them being from Germany I am keen to try them.


When they are dried and vacuum sealed they'll take a up a whole lot less room.
But a piece of small diameter PVC pipe with a wooden broom handle (or similar) makes a cheap and useful home-hop-plug maker. Just fill the pipe with about 20g of hops and compact/crush them down with the wooden handle.


----------



## Florian (6/10/10)

They are already dried, and I told my dad to compact them so they are less exposed to oxygen. I was more worried of Aqis, as I'm sure they would not like a parcel or suitcase full of hop flowers. Whereas if we could make them look like commercially manufactured pellets... Or are plugs not considered harmful?


----------



## drsmurto (9/10/10)

Yay, hop trellis built and I didn't hit myself with the hammer once! :beerbang: 

Just need to run some twine down to the fence and the hops will be on automatic pilot.


----------



## matho (9/10/10)

Florian said:


> They are already dried, and I told my dad to compact them so they are less exposed to oxygen. I was more worried of Aqis, as I'm sure they would not like a parcel or suitcase full of hop flowers. Whereas if we could make them look like commercially manufactured pellets... Or are plugs not considered harmful?



Im sorry but i have to say it we have quarantine laws for a reason there a things like hop aphids that dont exist in australia and we want to keep them out. Commercial growers in europe have to spray for them and the process of making pellets will kill them but what you have is wild hops that havent had anything done to them.
its your choice but i wouldn't if i was you.

:icon_cheers: 

cheers matho


----------



## manticle (9/10/10)

Nick JD said:


> I've got some big black hairy ones. They live in cute little fluffy tunnels on the side of the trees. Shall I send you some?
> 
> I thought they were trapdoors "coz funnelwebs live in Sydney" - then I looked 'em up on the Google...
> 
> ...


 Be careful climbing any trees. Indeed a nasty specimen that northern tree dwelling FW. If you find any dead ones and quarantine allows it, feel free to post to me in exchange for beer or some kind of desirable beer ingredient. (Quite serious - good for my drawings).


----------



## Bretto77 (9/10/10)

Hi Nick,
I noticed you are growing hops pretty close to where I am in Boonah SE Qld. I'm curious waht your tips are for a good yeild as my first try last year was terrible. I have go them in the ground this year. lasy year they seemed to whilt and get thrashed by the heat and humidity. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.


Cheers
Brett



Nick JD said:


> The sun rising here gives us an extra 30 minutes too. Pity my curtains are fading so quick :huh: .
> 
> I could mention the obvious pythagorean geometry and copernicus, but I'll just adjust my watch instead.


----------



## Nick JD (9/10/10)

Bretto77 said:


> Hi Nick,
> I noticed you are growing hops pretty close to where I am in Boonah SE Qld. I'm curious waht your tips are for a good yeild as my first try last year was terrible. I have go them in the ground this year. lasy year they seemed to whilt and get thrashed by the heat and humidity. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> 
> ...



This is my first try, Brett. I hear the first year is always pretty crap for yield as the rhizome is hell bent of establishing itself. I heard the trick is to fool the thing into thinking the suns setting at 10pm, so I'm going to wrap a cheapo length of those christmas lights up the string and put the timer to come on at 6pm and go off at 10pm - they're only a few watts. 

Yield is supposed to have a lot to do with photoperiod. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoperiodism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytochrome


----------



## Nick JD (9/10/10)

manticle said:


> Be careful climbing any trees. Indeed a nasty specimen that northern tree dwelling FW. If you find any dead ones and quarantine allows it, feel free to post to me in exchange for beer or some kind of desirable beer ingredient. (Quite serious - good for my drawings).



I've got one in a jar you're welcome to have but it's lost a few legs and it was never properly preserved so it's a bit shabby.


----------



## proudscum (9/10/10)

Had a lucky score today people up the street are doing a reno and where filling up the skip with goodies.Got 2 12ft veranda posts to replace the garage trellis as the garage will be demolished in the next few weeks.Funny how things workout sometimes as i was looking at it this morning going i need to do something about this.First post in already next one tomorrow
lucky the soil is nice and soft to dig.will try and post picture tomorrow


----------



## rendo (9/10/10)

HIGHLY OT...

OUCH...I have plenty of Sydney funnel webs mate...do u want me to get some for you from the backyard. Often I find them sitting on top of my fermenter, looking thru the glad wrap and drooling. Ive told them once, ive told them twice....STAY OUTTA MY BEER.

As far as your Northern Rivers Tree FW...keep em away from here, the last thing I want is both Syd FW and NTR FW here...Its going to be a life long warfare to keep them at bay. I use the mortein spray with the thin yellow extender tube. I make sure I get it down there hole in the ground as far as possible and GAS THE FCUKERS. Seal up the hole and presto. Dead FW. All this stuff about boiling water, petrol, etc is BS...doesnt work. Only gassing does. Unless u want to try digging them up, some 1+ foot down.

EDIT: I was thinking about a dutch oven down their hole sometime....but I'll prob get my balls bit by one of the buggers, so Mortein it is....

Lookie here, the last funnel web that tried touching my beer....






Nick JD said:


> I've got some big black hairy ones. They live in cute little fluffy tunnels on the side of the trees. Shall I send you some?
> 
> I thought they were trapdoors "coz funnelwebs live in Sydney" - then I looked 'em up on the Google...
> 
> ...


----------



## kelbygreen (9/10/10)

ether you got one tiny house or thats a massive spider  hahaha


----------



## manticle (10/10/10)

Nick JD said:


> I've got one in a jar you're welcome to have but it's lost a few legs and it was never properly preserved so it's a bit shabby.



I draw things in whatever state they are in. Dead things don't always preserve themselves perfectly and I don't like to pretend they have so a few legs missing is fine.

Yours too rendo. Post me spiders, I'll post you beer

Sorry for OT


----------



## rendo (10/10/10)

Manticle, I will do my best. I know if I go digging I will get plenty of live ones, occassionally I see a dead one laying around, as soon as I do, it is yours. The weather is warming up, so the chances are on their way up too.

Since my extermination methods have progressed to gassing them in their holes/homes then covering the hole shut, they no longer come out for air to escape the mortein, so everything remains in the hole, I like it better that way  no rampant funnel webs about gasping for their last breaths wanting to sink their fangs into one last prey, eg like...hmmm, my kids....hence why i try to keep them under control, otherwise I wouldnt bother them. They have been around for thousands of years, more probably, so I am not going to endanger them as a collective, i just want to minimise the amount in my backyard.

Anyway, back On Topic of my Off Topic post, yes...next dead one I see is yours.



manticle said:


> I draw things in whatever state they are in. Dead things don't always preserve themselves perfectly and I don't like to pretend they have so a few legs missing is fine.
> 
> Yours too rendo. Post me spiders, I'll post you beer
> 
> Sorry for OT


----------



## fcmcg (10/10/10)

Second Year Hallertau !


----------



## MCT (10/10/10)

:icon_offtopic: but plenty of the little buggers here too, this one crawled across my foot in the lounge room:





Hops are going mental too, pics soon!


----------



## thanme (11/10/10)

Hey guys,

Was training one of my cascade bines last night, and I managed to break the tip of it off. I guess I wasn't delicate enough :/ Is that effectively it for that bine, or will it bounce back?


----------



## Spoonta (11/10/10)

It will be fine mate


----------



## MarkBastard (11/10/10)

NME said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> Was training one of my cascade bines last night, and I managed to break the tip of it off. I guess I wasn't delicate enough :/ Is that effectively it for that bine, or will it bounce back?



It will be fine. It'll grow lateral bines from near the base of the existing bine, and they'll climb up the existing bine and just act as if they were regular bines coming from the dirt.


----------



## manticle (11/10/10)

MCT said:


> :icon_offtopic: but plenty of the little buggers here too, this one crawled across my foot in the lounge room:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Same offer goes for you too.

To be a little on topic - newly planted target is looking very healthy, last year's tett poking its head out of the surface. The others I was getting worried about but a bit of digging shows that all rhizomes have declared their interest in spring with nodules and green bits galore just above or just below the surface. I only hope that my memory of which is which is solid (chinook, goldings and hallertauer).

Last year I got 10g of wet tett flowers so hopefully this season with the new position in the garden gets a bit more exciting.


----------



## jyo (11/10/10)

Came home this afternoon to find most of my 15 cm Cascade shoots pruned back to about 5cm. Bloody red heeler!


----------



## dcx3 (11/10/10)

I think hops are bad for canines mate might want to keep an eye on him if he ate a gutfull


----------



## NickB (11/10/10)

My 4 plants (well technically 6) are still acting as ground cover, no serious sprouting as yet  Who knows what's gonna happen with all this rain, but it remains to see if I get anywhere this year. Last year in pots my biggest plant (Chinook) got to about 1m then died back, no hops at all from any plants. Fingers crossed I get something now they're in the ground....

Cheers


----------



## mxd (11/10/10)

fergthebrewer said:


> View attachment 41379
> View attachment 41378
> Second Year Hallertau !




just for my stupid Q time, My "trellis" is only around 2 mtrs high is this going to be ok ? What do the others do that are hanging off there fence ?


----------



## MaltyHops (11/10/10)

mxd said:


> just for my stupid Q time, My "trellis" is only around 2 mtrs high is this going to be ok ? What do the others do that are hanging off there fence ?


I think a lot of growers train their hops to grow horizontally when faced 
with this situation - a lot more manual maintenance I guess. I imagine 
picking a healthy bine on one side let it grow up a foot or two then
gently/slowly/persistently tie it to the trellis horizontally. When it has
grown far enough this way let it grow up a foot, then horizontally back
to the plant, and keep going till the trellis is fully used. Do same on other
side of of plant maybe.

T.


----------



## jyo (11/10/10)

dcx3 said:


> I think hops are bad for canines mate might want to keep an eye on him if he ate a gutfull



I'm pretty sure it's only the flowers that are harmful. Nonetheless, I need to cover them. The silly old bugger (14 this year red heeler cross) has never worried about them in the past.


----------



## newguy (14/10/10)

whiteferret said:


> I think it was newguy's that got snowed on and were still going.



Yup. Only my 2nd year growing hops, but both years they all sprouted, got maybe 30cm tall, then the weather turned. Both years it dropped to daytime highs of -10C for a week and it snowed. Not only weren't they hurt by this, but they didn't even change colour. Usually frost will turn a plant brown and make it wilt, but not hops. They just stopped growing while it was below 0C, and that's it.


----------



## Nick JD (14/10/10)

Going pretty good, but they got hammered by the driving wind and rain over the last week. 







And my coffee is flowering. The flowers smell like lemon. I reckon I'm gonna be able to get a cup of coffee and maybe a glass of beer from this year's harvest! Thinking BIG!


----------



## mje1980 (14/10/10)

No pics yet, but my one little shoot has popped up about an inch, and seems to be "spreading out" more every day. Sooo excited. I think i may have a second, but much slower shoot coming out also, we'll see in a week or two. 

They are a very cool looking plant.


----------



## MaltyHops (23/10/10)

_HAVE TRELLIS, WILL TRAVEL!_  

Finally got the bits and pieces yesterday and couple of hours of
sawing and design thinking on the fly, my mobile trellis is almost
ready, just need to glue some of the horizontal pieces. There's
actually more pipe to raise the horiz bar another 1.2m higher but
I just put the pieces together for show n tell.

T.


----------



## proudscum (23/10/10)

I like the idea of the PVC,has got me thinking of doing something similar next season when the backyard is redesigned.Would be good to sink gal into the ground and then slot pvc inside,so when the plant dies off you can take it away.Brilliant.Thanks for sharing.



MaltyHops said:


> _HAVE TRELLIS, WILL TRAVEL!_
> 
> Finally got the bits and pieces yesterday and couple of hours of
> sawing and design thinking on the fly, my mobile trellis is almost
> ...


----------



## beerdrinkingbob (23/10/10)

fergthebrewer said:


> View attachment 41379
> View attachment 41378
> Second Year Hallertau !




Gee that shot up in no time :beerbang:


----------



## Lecterfan (24/10/10)

Sorry, no digital camera. Very pleased to say my goldings has got 2 good green shoots coming up now that Ballarat is starting to thaw out (thanks Boston!). My Chinook is going mad, Cascade starting to move (since i snipped off an ailing leader) and hersbrucker starting to show serious signs of moving vertically (those 3 thanks to Shane!). Cheers.


----------



## Ronin (24/10/10)

Just thought I'd share something I found on the net. Sure it'll help somebody with growing their hops.

Cheers,

James 

View attachment hops_fertilisation.pdf


----------



## Nick JD (24/10/10)

Ronin said:


> Just thought I'd share something I found on the net. Sure it'll help somebody with growing their hops.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> James



Thanks, James. Just what I needed.


----------



## proudscum (24/10/10)

Thanks as well James.

Built a quick frame today for the Goldings and Hersbrucker out of some high hat steel that was lying around.Hopefully end up with a Chinook in the post in the next couple of days.That will take the # of varieties to 5 for this season.POR are already up to 2.7m and looking for somewhere to grow on to so may have to extend this to 3.5m.


----------



## shonks69 (25/10/10)

manticle said:


> I draw things in whatever state they are in. Dead things don't always preserve themselves perfectly and I don't like to pretend they have so a few legs missing is fine.
> 
> Yours too rendo. Post me spiders, I'll post you beer
> 
> Sorry for OT



Hey Manticle
Have you got any artwork on the web? (pardon the pun).

Cheers
Shonks


----------



## Frank (25/10/10)

shonks69 said:


> Hey Manticle
> Have you got any artwork on the web? (pardon the pun).
> 
> Cheers
> Shonks


Have a look here, very talented.


----------



## Florian (27/10/10)

Quick update on mine: 

The first POR has reached the top of the 2nd storey. Have installed new, stronger strings, in case the old ones can't deal with the weight. I won't bother extending them to the 3rd level, as the new strings also allow me to lower the plants back down, meaning they can grow longer than the 2nd storey is high. So basically the middle of the plant will be sitting on the platform above level one, and the top will keep growing up.






















Florian


----------



## MarkBastard (27/10/10)

My Chinook took a worrying about of time to get started but now one of the bines is almost at head height.


----------



## geoffi (27/10/10)

My hop family is growing nicely. The other day I also discovered something else growing on the same mounds as a couple of my hop plants that appears to be barley.

I assume some of the manure I worked into the soil contained some undigested barley grains which have now sprouted. Not exactly enough for a DIY malting, but that's what I call 'companion planting'.


----------



## MarkBastard (27/10/10)

cow turd harvest aye? you could make a VB cone


----------



## mje1980 (27/10/10)

Geoffi said:


> My hop family is growing nicely. The other day I also discovered something else growing on the same mounds as a couple of my hop plants that appears to be barley.
> 
> I assume some of the manure I worked into the soil contained some undigested barley grains which have now sprouted. Not exactly enough for a DIY malting, but that's what I call 'companion planting'.




Haha classic geoff. Keep feeding those cows, you never know. 

Even better idea. You could collect them and sell them as "organic" spec malts for 6 times the price haha.


----------



## manticle (27/10/10)

Boston said:


> Have a look here, very talented.



Cheers Boston.

Might need to update that soonish (when I say update I mean upload some more old stuff - only the mouse drawing is new).

My hops seem quite slow this season but they are definitely starting to make their presence known. I even think I've worked out which is which.


----------



## Nick JD (27/10/10)

manticle said:


> Cheers Boston.
> 
> Might need to update that soonish (when I say update I mean upload some more old stuff - only the mouse drawing is new).
> 
> My hops seem quite slow this season but they are definitely starting to make their presence known. I even think I've worked out which is which.



Still don't know where to send the dead Northern Rivers Funnelweb, mate - there's a Redback in the jar too now.


----------



## manticle (27/10/10)

I'll trade a PM'ed address with you.

Sorry I thought you'd forgotten and didn't want to be pushy.

ESB, IPA or APA?


----------



## dcx3 (27/10/10)

Quick question about the shoots are you meant to snip them and only leave one runner or do you just let them go and train them all.


----------



## felten (27/10/10)

Leave them all IMO. The more leaves, the more energy the plant can absorb.


----------



## MarkBastard (27/10/10)

dcx3 said:


> Quick question about the shoots are you meant to snip them and only leave one runner or do you just let them go and train them all.



Just let them grow and disregard anyone who says otherwise unless you know for sure they're an expert, and even then make sure they're specifically recommending it in your situation.


----------



## dcx3 (27/10/10)

O.K. thanks guys


----------



## mxd (28/10/10)

Here's mine

I have chinook, goldings and Mt Hood, my cascade didn't start (it didn't look good when I got it).

Now need to figure out what to do to raise it above the 2mtr height of the old swing.


----------



## pk.sax (28/10/10)

Mine were twirling up FAST around the two wooden sticks I set up for them but at ~70 cm height, they seem to have frozen in growth. Can't seem to see them grow any further. First year Hallertauer. The initial pest problem went away with the application of yeast trub and spent grain... Are they just building roots ATM?! hmnnn.. another pic time when I get a chance. And yes, I've been weeding around to keep the competition low. There is some basil, sage and coriander sharing the turf but except the basil bush those plants are tiny compared to the hops.


----------



## JestersDarts (28/10/10)

practicalfool said:


> Mine were twirling up FAST around the two wooden sticks I set up for them but at ~70 cm height, they seem to have frozen in growth. Can't seem to see them grow any further. First year Hallertauer. The initial pest problem went away with the application of yeast trub and spent grain... Are they just building roots ATM?! hmnnn.. another pic time when I get a chance. And yes, I've been weeding around to keep the competition low. There is some basil, sage and coriander sharing the turf but except the basil bush those plants are tiny compared to the hops.



Mine have done that. My cascade popped up early, had a growth spurt, and is now a moody teenager, refusing to grow. Loitering in my garden.

I just hope he doesnt get mixed up in the wrong crowd.


----------



## jbirbeck (28/10/10)

JestersDarts said:


> Mine have done that. My cascade popped up early, had a growth spurt, and is now a moody teenager, refusing to grow. Loitering in my garden.
> 
> I just hope he doesnt get mixed up in the wrong crowd.



I've had the same issue a few times. It tends to be first year plants that do it in my experience although my cascade, now in its third year, has done it every year. I have two first year plants this year and both have come up fast and slowed. leave them be and they'll be right. Last year I had the same issue with the first year plants and they ended up sending up shoots much later in the season (Feb) and gave me a good crop. I was picking in late may.

I don't have many pics bar this one from my parents place. I had run out of room at my place with Saaz, Goldings, Fuggles, Super Alpha, PoR, Columbus, Cluster, Chinook, Victoria, Cascade, and a couple of other varieties.


----------



## pk.sax (28/10/10)

not a worry then. I will give it some root building fertilizer to help it along. I chose a spot that will let the bines grow up and be able to get the sun all day long once they have grown and travelled horizontally on the beams connecting the fence to the house, which means, right now they don't get the sun throughout the day, half shaded by the fence and the house on either side.... I just wish they grew up into the right position quicker.


----------



## Florian (29/10/10)

Just a quick before and after: My POR is now gone above the "trellis" (string), so i have lowered it a bit so it can continue to grow towards the sky. Also, they are all starting to get really leafy, There are lateral bines growing out above each leaf on the main stem.

Before:














and after:







I can only recommend this method to anyone whose plants outgrow the trellis, just extend the line and let the lower parts of the plant sit close to the ground, maybe tie it to the trellis so that it doesn't rot.
I have only lowered it a little for now as I want it to attach better to the new string first as i presume that the old string will eventually rip apart. In a few days I will have to lower it again.


----------



## ampy (29/10/10)

Thought I'd add a few pics of my hop plantation.
First year Saaz and Cascade
Second year POR and Chinook

Saaz and Cascade







POR up front and Chinook at the back





I also had a crack at propagating my rhizomes this year no Luck with the POR but I just noticed today that the Chinook has 2 shoots that have just popped up. 

Free to a good home in the pot if someone want to come pick it up from Melton, 40 odd K's west of Melbourne. PM for details.


----------



## Cannabaceae (30/10/10)

Hi Guys,

I have enjoyed looking through your hop pictures 

Found some very early burrs yesterday on a 'red' hop I have bred, unnamed as yet, referred to as 'red' because of its young red cones ...they slowly go to green when full-sized. Plant is in its third season and these are the two leading bines which are growing vigorously, both are at just over two metres. Burrs are growing on both bines, they start at about one metre. 

Last year the burrs formed at around normal time, but plant continued to produce new cones right up to dieback.




Commercial hop breeders probably binned plants like this that showed extreme lack of uniformity.

I have had feedback that it makes a nice brew. :icon_cheers: 

Regards,

Rupert.


----------



## Fents (30/10/10)

new world irish red hop ale!


----------



## jimi (30/10/10)

I started wrapping my hops around baleing twine. I noticed some wearing on the hop where it was wrapping around the twine a bit to late and the top end of my bine snapped off. I'm assuming baling twine isn't an appropriate line to grow around (?) or could this have been caused by something else?


----------



## MaltyHops (30/10/10)

jimi said:


> I started wrapping my hops around baleing twine. I noticed some wearing on the hop where it was wrapping around the twine a bit to late and the top end of my bine snapped off. I'm assuming baling twine isn't an appropriate line to grow around (?) or could this have been caused by something else?


Were your hops bines already quite large when you wrapped them to the
twine? I've read that hops use little hairs to grab on to surfaces to get a
foothold and have found young bines to be quite grabby. What I'm getting
at is that if the bines were quite mature when wrapped, they haven't had a
change to get a grip on the twine so could do with extra support. I had
long blades of grass around the place and found that I can use them to tie
bines to supports.

Just thinking about what you said about the top end snapping off, could it
be the top (young) end established a good grip but because the sections
below aren't well secured are pulling down on the top end and causing the
break?

What's baling twine anyway? Is it made of some kind of plastic like nylon
or something and is really smooth? Twine with rough surfaces would 
probably be best to use. 

Perhaps you could make regularly spaced knots (e.g every 6 inches or so)
on the twine before wrapping the hops to it - maybe next time if too late
- to create extra places for the hop to get extra grip if the twine is quite
smooth.

T.


----------



## jimi (30/10/10)

MaltyHops said:


> Were your hops bines already quite large when you wrapped them to the
> twine? I've read that hops use little hairs to grab on to surfaces to get a
> foothold and have found young bines to be quite grabby. What I'm getting
> at is that if the bines were quite mature when wrapped, they haven't had a
> ...




The bine was about 40cms before I started to train it to the line. 'Baling twine' is the stuff used to tie bales of hay together (the small rectangle ones). It would be some sort of plastic. I've had a dig around now and the natural fibre materials seem to be recommended


----------



## MaltyHops (30/10/10)

jimi said:


> The bine was about 40cms before I started to train it to the line. 'Baling twine' is the stuff used to tie bales of hay together (the small rectangle ones). It would be some sort of plastic. I've had a dig around now and the natural fibre materials seem to be recommended


I've just wrapped one of the bines of my goldings (the tallest one right now)
with sisal - will post some pixes soon - natural, meant to last reasonably well
and about $20 for 140m from the big read & green place. Probably good to
stick with the uncoloured version as well.

T.


----------



## whitegoose (30/10/10)

So my Cascade have been going great guns, even survived a caterpillar attack, but can anyone diagnose what is hapenning now? (see attaced photo)

Spider mite? Bad soil pH? Bad soil? Not enough water?


----------



## aaronpetersen (30/10/10)

ampy said:


> Thought I'd add a few pics of my hop plantation.
> First year Saaz and Cascade
> Second year POR and Chinook
> 
> ...



PM sent


----------



## MaltyHops (30/10/10)

Well, my trellis is fully up and running now - have twined one goldings bine
at the moment. Used a bit of coat hanger bending to make frames to fit
around the pots under the rim and provide loops to attach sisal twine to.

I must recommend using safety glasses if anyone plan to do something
similar - lots of whipping coat hanger wire when I was doing the bending.

This exercise has been good to make use of a stash of PVC piping and wire
coat hangers one gets from the dry cleaners I had sitting around (had to buy
quite a bit of new material as well, of course).

For those interested in using PVC piping, I've had to reinforce the connection
to the umbrella stand bases even further and is now quite solid. The whole
thing seems reasonably solid though I'm not game to test it too much - a
bit wobbly overall, could strap additional larger diameter pipes to the vertical
poles to reinforce. Think it quite important to make sure the vertical pipes are
aligned vertically as any off angle will put weight on the pipes at an angle making
them bend even more, maybe eventually break.


----------



## Weatherby (30/10/10)

I got some Rhizomes from Boston, thanks mate  

Chinook












Goldings






As for winding around the strings, is it clockwise around the string if looking from the top?


----------



## felten (30/10/10)

Aye, mine are self wind themselves around clockwise from the top


----------



## ampy (31/10/10)

ampy said:


> Thought I'd add a few pics of my hop plantation.
> First year Saaz and Cascade
> Second year POR and Chinook
> 
> ...



Spare chinook has gone to aaronp
Cheers


----------



## pk.sax (31/10/10)

Been like this for 2-3 weeks now. Both Halleratu. The sage bush closeby is growing however


----------



## jimi (31/10/10)

It's hard not to be impatient with hops isn't it! 
My Mt Hood (I got from Andy) popped up after only a couple of weeks in the ground and the huge Chinook 'zomes I got from Mantis had done nothing for two months until I spotted it today - today five big thick bines that look like they've just erupted from the earth made my day.


----------



## HeavyNova (5/11/10)

This thread inspired me to give the home grown hops a try and so far so good! I have 2 plants; 1 Saaz and 1 Cascade that both went into the ground mid September.

The below photos are 1 week old now but at the time of taking the plants were about 5 weeks since breaking through the surface.

The Saaz rhizome was much bigger than the Cascade so I guess that helps explain the difference in size between the 2.

Cascade






Saaz





Can't wait to see how big these get over the summer!


----------



## proudscum (6/11/10)

Has anyone ever had their Hops tested for Alpha Acid levels?
Within the next 2-3 years i will be self-sufficient in US and European hops and would like to know what the levels may be.
So any ideas of who and the cost involved as well a lab in Victoria would be handy.


----------



## pk.sax (6/11/10)

I had te gardener/landscaper around and showed him the eaten up leaves on the mint, sage and hops and he identified I as aphids. There were a little on the rose bushes too but are preferring my herbs for some reason 

Is white oil insecticide OK to use with hops?


----------



## Malted (7/11/10)

practicalfool said:


> I had te gardener/landscaper around and showed him the eaten up leaves on the mint, sage and hops and he identified I as aphids. There were a little on the rose bushes too but are preferring my herbs for some reason
> 
> Is white oil insecticide OK to use with hops?




You have a gardener?!! His name is not 'Roger' by any chance? Roger the gardener...  

Seriously, I thought we didn't have hop aphids in Aus?
I too am interested in hop bugs in Aus, because some bastard bug is chewing holes in my hop leaves and I can't identify who or where the culprits are. I have looked under the leaves and can't find anyone. They don't chew the whole leaf, just a 5mm circle (between leaf ribs) or so in every other leaf. There are some little spiders on one plant and consequently it doesn't have any holes in the leaves; Go spidey!


----------



## manticle (7/11/10)

practicalfool said:


> I had te gardener/landscaper around and showed him the eaten up leaves on the mint, sage and hops and he identified I as aphids. There were a little on the rose bushes too but are preferring my herbs for some reason
> 
> Is white oil insecticide OK to use with hops?



Check elsewhere but my recent reading of white oil (been using on rose bush) is that it is on the low/no end of toxicity. Obviously you don't eat roses though so don't just take my word for it.

MSDS' abound for the stuff although how many are manufacturer specific I'm not sure.

Here's one that looks promising: http://amtecol.com/html/msds/MSDS%20White%20oil%2012037.htm


----------



## daemon (7/11/10)

White oil is just a bit of vegetable oil and detergent, very easy to make up yourself. It works by suffocating the bugs (ie by coating them in oil and stopping oxygen) so you have to spray it on when they're on the leaves and ensure that you spray under the leaves as well. It's completely harmless to plants and you can use it every two weeks if it's a bad infestation.


----------



## drsmurto (8/11/10)

proudscum said:


> Has anyone ever had their Hops tested for Alpha Acid levels?
> Within the next 2-3 years i will be self-sufficient in US and European hops and would like to know what the levels may be.
> So any ideas of who and the cost involved as well a lab in Victoria would be handy.



I will be self sufficient this year too but so far have had good success estimating the AA of the hops. 

First time use of a hop i use it for flavour and aroma where the IBU contribution is less and use a known bittering hop. If that seems ok then i ditch the bittering hop and use all homegrown. So far i have been close enough, within 1 AA%. As long as you aren't brewing IIPAs etc then you'll be fine. Just aim for the middle to lower end of the IBU range just in case you underestimate significantly.

Aphids and hops - whiteoil is fine to use but i would do so before it flowers. It's as non toxic as a petroleum based product can be. Organic gardener magazine recommends it so it must be reasonably benign. Pyrethrum based sprays should also work (Beat-a-bug etc)

I have harlequin bugs chomping away on my plants but given how fast the hops grow there aren't enough of them to cause more than minor damage so am leaving them this year. The local frog population seem to have developed a taste for the bugs too. Having the hops right next to the chook run probably also helps to keep the bug population in check.

No photos of my hops recently but both the goldings and chinook have reached the top of the newly erected trellis. 3m and still going strong. Will probably prune the lower leaves this weekend to get some airflow around the base which is supposed to reduce mildew issues (if you are somewhere humid) and make it less attractive to the bugs.


----------



## Kieren (8/11/10)

DrSmurto said:


> As long as you aren't brewing IIPAs etc then you'll be fine.



Most of my IIPA's have theoretical IBU's of way over 120. I don't worry too much about overall IBU's for these beers. Just use a low cohumulone hop for earlier addtions, then go nuts on the later additions. I would have thought using hops of unknown AA% in smaller IBU beers like a light lager could put out the bitterness a lot more if your estimated AA% is off by 1-2 AA%.

Interested in your thoughts on this. Do you use home grown hops in beers with smaller IBU?


----------



## drsmurto (8/11/10)

Kieren said:


> Most of my IIPA's have theoretical IBU's of way over 120. I don't worry too much about overall IBU's for these beers. Just use a low cohumulone hop for earlier addtions, then go nuts on the later additions. I would have thought using hops of unknown AA% in smaller IBU beers like a light lager could put out the bitterness a lot more if your estimated AA% is off by 1-2 AA%.
> 
> Interested in your thoughts on this. Do you use home grown hops in beers with smaller IBU?



The beer on the handpump at the swap was 32 IBU with the homegrown cascade contributing 12 IBU.

The swap beer is 32 IBU with 100% homegrown chinook.

I haven't used HG hops in a lower IBU beer.


----------



## pk.sax (8/11/10)

Pyrenthum eh.... OK, thnx for tip mate. I'll look out for specs on both When I visit the evil shed 

PS: no, his name is Matt, the landscaper. Mother dear hired him to mow the grass etc when I'm not around (or too lazy ) I promise to hire Roger when I move to toorak. Cheers! :beer:


----------



## raven19 (8/11/10)

Finally got up the new trellis. The timber crosses at the top can be lowered when required, and the vertical posts are just bolted to the fence posts, and will come down once hops are done for the season.

Chinook (left) 3m high, POR (right) 2m high:


Note: Guard dog bottom right.  

Goldings, Victoria and Mt Hood:


----------



## tommygun (8/11/10)

practicalfool said:


> I had te gardener/landscaper around and showed him the eaten up leaves on the mint, sage and hops and he identified I as aphids. There were a little on the rose bushes too but are preferring my herbs for some reason
> 
> Is white oil insecticide OK to use with hops?




Aphid damage is normally discoloration or leaf distortion, they normally only attack young new shoots too before they harden up. If the holes are fairly round it will be harlequin beetle which you'd see on hibiscus. They won't affect growth or flowering in small numbers. Agreed with the others about white oil just be careful as it heats up you can burn soft foliage on a hot day with oils. Use a pyrethrum for aphids and thrips and stuff.

Tom.


----------



## Adam Howard (8/11/10)

Cluster. Was the first rhizome I got and is going great guns.





Little Chinook. Most recent addition. I have the feeling it isn't going to take long to catch up to the Cluster though!





Sections from a greenhouse. Going to run wires from the hop plants up into the back arch at different points for the bines. Right next to my pumptrack!


My uncle has a Saaz and Hallertau starting up in his backyard now. Aiming to get hold of a Galaxy and Cascade rhizome next year.


----------



## drsmurto (9/11/10)

Update on my hops/weeds.....

Left to right - Goldings, Chinook, Cascade (POR and Victoria not in the picture)


----------



## Sydneybrewer (9/11/10)

I too have these holy leaves and cant see any signs of bugs at all, dam near killed my chinook, have sprayed with this oil, but the holes keep apearing. Am at wits end atm just about consigned to the plant dying, its growth is damwell stunted at 30cm high


----------



## Murcluf (9/11/10)

DrSmurto said:


> Update on my hops/weeds.....


Hey Mark,
See your hop plants are lookinf as sexy as ever. feeling a bit green with hop envy there mate. 
Wish you all the best for a bumper crop this season.

Cheers

Wayne


----------



## matho (9/11/10)

Sydney
It could be earwigs look at the 2009 hops thread to see how to make a trap
Im on my iPod otherwise I would find you the link. I think the trap was as simple as beer in a container 
They crawl in and drown

Cheers matho


----------



## mxd (9/11/10)

hey doc, how high is the trellis ? do you just leave them at that hight ? My "trellis" (old swing set) is about 2 mtrs tall I was just usure what to do to let them grow ?

thanks
Matt



DrSmurto said:


> Update on my hops/weeds.....
> 
> Left to right - Goldings, Chinook, Cascade (POR and Victoria not in the picture)


----------



## raven19 (9/11/10)

Smurt's trellis looks about 3m high. You can trim the top of the bines once they get to the top so you encourage side shoot growth - which is where most of your hop flowers will grow from.

Love the guard dog in the bottom right. 

Edit - speeling


----------



## drsmurto (10/11/10)

The best earwig trap i have used is newspaper that you wipe on the bbq to get some of the grease. Roll it up tight and tie it up. Chuck it somewhere near the hop plant. 

Each morning unroll it over a bucket of hot soapy water and drown the earwigs.

Trellis is 3m high, it's the first year i have had it. In the past the hops grew to the top of the existing fence (~1.8m) and then i ran string across to the other side of the chook run and manually wound the hops along. Royal PITA.

My plan is to just let them be. Odds are i will have more hops than i can use in a year so i wont be making any attempts to prune them, cut them back to x number of bines etc. 

Lazy arse hop growing 101.  

If all goes well i will be hosting a big brewday next year inviting brewers to pick fresh hops straight from the bine and chucking them into the kettle. It will save me having to pick tens of kgs of hops, dry and bag up! :icon_cheers:


----------



## MaltyHops (10/11/10)

raven19 said:


> ...
> Love the guard dog in the bottom right.
> ...


Er... that would be guard-puss (though its probably called Andrew )






T.


----------



## tommygun (11/11/10)

matho said:


> Sydney
> It could be earwigs look at the 2009 hops thread to see how to make a trap
> Im on my iPod otherwise I would find you the link. I think the trap was as simple as beer in a container
> They crawl in and drown
> ...






DrSmurto said:


> The best earwig trap i have used is newspaper that you wipe on the bbq to get some of the grease. Roll it up tight and tie it up. Chuck it somewhere near the hop plant.
> 
> Each morning unroll it over a bucket of hot soapy water and drown the earwigs.
> 
> ...



Agree with dr for controlling earwigs they like a cool place to rest and love vegetable oil but I'm pretty sure earwigs aren't so much of a problem as it warms up. Could be a type of caterpillar in which case you can try putting a heshian bag at the base of the plant they hide there in the heat of the day and then it's just a matter of putting in a bag a throwing away or spraying with Mortein if you have to.


----------



## jbirbeck (11/11/10)

I'll have to get a pic up but the update is...

cascade is a useless piece of junk that has been pulled out, Columbus has burrs and it at 2+m of growth :icon_cheers:, Cluster a bit wispy but growing well, Flinders 2+m with bines as thick as a baby's arm, Fuggles, Goldings, Super Alpha and Victoria have all stalled - lazy buggers  but they had some good growth before and all are at the 1.5-2.5m metre mark, Saaz is taking its time but starting to go crazy and the Chinook is growing like its late for an appointment on the moon...

If I remember to get that pic of the Columbus I will.


----------



## Sydneybrewer (11/11/10)

Thanks for tip guys going to have a dig at all sugestions to try and save this plant, cheers.


----------



## Pennywise (11/11/10)

I'm really chuffed that my Chinook that did bugger all last year is now steaming along, got about a metre of growth and 3 main bines growing, got another couple shooting off those but don't think I'll keep those as I don't have the space for much more than 3-4 bines. Will wack up some piccies tonight while getting starters ready for the weekend


----------



## Pennywise (11/11/10)

Well, here it is in all it's glory












Already it's looking very promising, hopefully it stays that way


----------



## Housecat (12/11/10)

Here is my new Cascade offering. A big thanks to Malty Hops for supplying them :icon_cheers: 







My next problem is to work out a good place for them to live and a trellis for them to grow on!!





reason for edit: forgot those pesky pics!!


----------



## jbirbeck (12/11/10)

early morning phone pcis so they look ordinary but...

Flinders



POR



Burrs on Columbus



Chinook


----------



## white.grant (12/11/10)

Just got a new digital camera so can at last reveal my hops. Left to right we have 2nd year Tettnang, 3rd Year hallertau and 2nd year POR. The recently went apeshit and grew a metre between tuesday and thursday this week.





cheers

grant


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## MaltyHops (13/11/10)

Housecat said:


> Here is my new Cascade offering. A big thanks to Malty Hops for supplying them :icon_cheers:
> ...


And thanks for helping to chip in with the buy from hopswest - and thanks hopswest
also, esp. for sending 6 rhizomes instead of the advertised 4 - so we (incl. widdley) all
got two each.

Did you end up separating the 'zomes or just planted the bunch as one? (could get
quite tangled if so, I imagine).

T.


----------



## Housecat (13/11/10)

I didn't split them up (ooops) but i also managed to snap one of the shoots, not realising how brittle they are :unsure: 
I have put them in a 100 litre pot so I hope that it's enough room for the ladies!


----------



## fraser_john (13/11/10)

Goldings, Tettnang, Cascade, Chinook and POR no particular order


----------



## Weatherby (14/11/10)

Goldings in the middle, other 2 are chinook. 

If I dry hop with these, do I need to sterilise them to kill any bacteria that might be on them? should I add them to the boil at 1 minute maybe?

Do the commercial growers kill beer spoiling nasties on theirs before sealing them in those silver packs?

EDIT: THIS THREAD ROCKS :super:


----------



## Fents (14/11/10)

no you dont need to sterilise your hops, all hops have anti bacterial qualities anyway.


----------



## Weatherby (14/11/10)

Fents said:


> no you dont need to sterilise your hops, all hops have anti bacterial qualities anyway.




sweet


----------



## Fents (14/11/10)

have a raed of this if you like - http://www.lfl.bayern.de/ipz/hopfen/10585/poster1_01.pdf


----------



## Bongchitis (14/11/10)

2nd year Cascade .... needed more string lines... ******* monster.


----------



## Bongchitis (14/11/10)

2nd year goldings just hitting her straps.


----------



## legham (14/11/10)

Weatherby said:


> Goldings in the middle, other 2 are chinook.
> 
> If I dry hop with these, do I need to sterilise them to kill any bacteria that might be on them? should I add them to the boil at 1 minute maybe?
> 
> ...



I think you are going to need some longer guide strings :huh:


----------



## Weatherby (14/11/10)

legham said:


> I think you are going to need some longer guide strings :huh:




I am waiting for the council to prune a big lily pily tree overhanging my place, so that I can move them and add longer strings.


----------



## Jono_w (14/11/10)

Hey Guys,
This is our 2010 hop plantation, there are 7 varieties and 3 of each plant. The plantation is at my brothers as I have enrolled my niece and nephew as plantation managers...


----------



## Malted (14/11/10)

Bongchitis said:


> 2nd year goldings just hitting her straps.
> 
> View attachment 42152



Hey Bong,
I have a similar setup to you. Can I ask some questions about how yours is going?
Soil & water: What type of soil did you put in your 1/2 wine barrels? I put in potting mix & some water crystals and about 6 x 25mm holes bored in the bottom (with some shadecloth in the bottom). Water seems to drain through the potting mix too quickly. If I put a dripper in one area it comes out the bottom before it wets up the whole pot (i.e. goes straight through instead of dispersing). Seems like mine dry out too quickly.
Position: I see some of yours are against the shade part of the house. Does this bother it? The photo shows your plants to be pretty healthy looking. I have four 1/2 barrels and the Chinook gets the least amount of shade and is only 30cm high versus the others that are 1 metre minimum. I am just not sure if it is the plant lagging/sick or the position it is in.


----------



## proudscum (14/11/10)

My Pride of Ringwoods @ the 3m mark and starting to budd up.


----------



## Malted (14/11/10)

Jonathon said:


> Hey Guys,
> This is our 2010 hop plantation, there are 7 varieties and 3 of each plant. The plantation is at my brothers as I have enrolled my niece and nephew as plantation managers...
> 
> View attachment 42161




Looks like you would have a good soil water moisture profile!
Looks like a fun garden.


----------



## Malted (14/11/10)

proudscum said:


> My Pride of Ringwoods @ the 3m mark and starting to budd up.




Looks like a beaut fig tree too!


----------



## proudscum (14/11/10)

proudscum said:


> My Pride of Ringwoods @ the 3m mark and starting to budd up.




First budds starting to form up.


----------



## Kieren (14/11/10)

My Mt Hood is looking a little sickly, I think it may be downy mildew but not to sure. Can anyone confirm? It is a first season from a smallish rhyzome.

The small shoots at the base have not grown for a couple of weeks.


----------



## raven19 (14/11/10)

The Mt Hood of mine has done bugger all too of late mate. About 1-2m growth then nothing! Warm weather should kick start it again. If that warm weather ever arrives....


----------



## MaltyHops (14/11/10)

Kieren said:


> My Mt Hood is looking a little sickly, I think it may be downy mildew but not to sure. Can anyone confirm? It is a first season from a smallish rhyzome.
> 
> The small shoots at the base have not grown for a couple of weeks.


G'day Kieren,

It's odd but my Mt.Hood has also stalled for the last month or so -
I had a fairly big rhizome and it shot up like a rocket and was growing
too tall for the temp location I had it so I had to trim the growing tips
and since then, the plant has hardly done anything. Maybe the stalling
is a characteristic of the variety?

Tom.


----------



## Kieren (14/11/10)

MaltyHops said:


> G'day Kieren,
> 
> It's odd but my Mt.Hood has also stalled for the last month or so -
> I had a fairly big rhizome and it shot up like a rocket and was growing
> ...



It's only the small shoots (not in photo) that have stalled, the main bine on the right of the first photo is has been growing very consitantly. The slightly smaller 2nd bine on the left of the photo never took off as quick as the right. It's more the discolouration on the leaves that concern me, they turn brown from the center then start to "dissolve" away but I can see no obvious grey fuzz or spore like areas on the under side of the leaves.


----------



## kelbygreen (14/11/10)

mine starting to go nuts. POR has 3 shoots (had 4 but the 1st looked sad, was first to show and was wilting and stuff so cut it) ever since then the 4th shoot is growing about 2cm a day it was 3cm tall before I found it lol didnt look for 3 days. also is thick as, the 2nd shoot is ether throwing a side shoot under the ground or its a new one a tiny leaf is poking out. 

the chinook is starting to grow only 1 shoot but very bushy and a thick stem. the victoria was just a root no shoots on it so hope its growing roots dont plan anything from that this year but long and the roots get in there will be fine. Dont plan anything great from them but if I get enough for half a brew this year i be happy


----------



## barls (14/11/10)

my mt hood is a monster once again this year and is really liking its new trellis as almost all its lines have at least one bine on it, also at least 5 of them are above the trellis
my wurtenburger is only just behind it with the chinnok bringing up the rear at about a meter or so.


----------



## raven19 (14/11/10)

Side shoots on my chinook have grown from nothing to 2+ feet in less than a week! These weeds are insane. B)


----------



## ekul (14/11/10)

I have figured out that my hops don't really like wind, and that is what is stunting them. Either that or chinook is the only variety that can deal with the weather up here. Although i'm pretty sure its the wind as the POR in the wind has done nothing yet the por in the greenhouse is powering away.

Is it too late to plant/transplant hops now?

I have found an area in a paddock that is surrounded by trees so it doesn't get any wind at all. However i will have to fence the area off from cattle and horses. So if they aren't going to grow much i'll wait till next year. Theres some big trees nearby so i'll be able to run some nice long strings from the top if that tree. I have cascade, chinook, por, cluster and hallertau to move over there.

The soil is beautiful over there, can't believe i didn't think of it earlier. A heifer got loose so i had to chase her through the scrub and i found the perfect spot, maybe its fate...


----------



## Malted (15/11/10)

Kieren said:


> It's more the discolouration on the leaves that concern me, they turn brown from the center then start to "dissolve" away but I can see no obvious grey fuzz or spore like areas on the under side of the leaves.




Kind of like this is it? 
I can't see what would be making this happen (in terms of spores etc) to mine but have a theory or two. 
In my case it could be *(1)* got too dry whilst I was away *(2)* burnt off from being over fertilised (slow release stuff and some blood and bone - watered in) when I got back *(3)* both 1 and 2, *(4)* something else.

*Any hop horticulturists got any ideas?*





Most of my Chinook is like this (small plant) but with others it seems to be the younger & smaller leaves which makes me think it was (2) burnt off.

Bloody inch worms of sorts have been giving them a good go over, anyone know *who these are and what to spray them with*? I have just been looking under leaves and pulling them off and squashing them but they are hard to find until they get big and they've done a lot of munching:









And this is what the bastards have been doing, chewed the entire left lobe off (bird shit on leaf centre; they seem to like sitting on the trellis horizontals ):







And this Chinook leaf is *sick AND chewed*: Most of the plant is like this but it was the first to poke out but has stalled and is no greater than 30cm high and hasn't grown much in 5 weeks. Since it is so small I reckon it was more susceptible to being burnt by over fertilising?







I companion planted marigolds in the pots with my hops. I thought they attract beneficial insects/predators but it hasn't really worked...

I also have the occasional *leaf curling bastard bug*:





They are all first year plantings from good sized zomes. The Chinook below was the smallest zome. Even with water crystals in the potting mix, I think it drains too quickly.







*Any advice?*


----------



## hsb (15/11/10)

raven19 said:


> The Mt Hood of mine has done bugger all too of late mate. About 1-2m growth then nothing! Warm weather should kick start it again. If that warm weather ever arrives....



Same here Raven, the leaves are quite small as per the pictures above your post. (a characteristic of the variety?) But it looks OK, think it is just 'holding' before it starts getting serious, it is still growing and throwing out shoots.

I also picked up and plonked down a Goldings (East Sydney Goldings)  and that is going totally bananas, easily growing 6 inches plus a day with up to 15 shoots!

I'll try and put some pictures up next chance I get. They've both had a good feed of 'worm juice that should see them in good stead. Loving the hop growing, gardening never made more sense! :icon_cheers:


----------



## jbirbeck (15/11/10)

Malted said:


> Kind of like this is it?
> I can't see what would be making this happen (in terms of spores etc) to mine but have a theory or two.
> In my case it could be *(1)* got too dry whilst I was away *(2)* burnt off from being over fertilised (slow release stuff and some blood and bone - watered in) when I got back *(3)* both 1 and 2, *(4)* something else.



The caterpillar looks liek your standard white cabbage moth caterpillar. Relax. Pick them off when you see them. I get them all the time, pick them off when they are big and get rid of them. if I can't see them I'm not fussed even after they have chewed through a few leaves. One of two leaves here or there is no big deal. I've found they can't keep up with the growth of the plant and because the eggs are laid on established leaves the caterpillar can't and doesn't attack the new growth.

the leaves - they look burnt to me. Sun burnt, like something has been sprayed on there on a hot day. I've not seen anything like that to be honest even when I've done silly over fertilisation and not watering enough.


----------



## Malted (15/11/10)

Rooting Kings said:


> The caterpillar looks liek your standard white cabbage moth caterpillar. Relax. Pick them off when you see them. I get them all the time, pick them off when they are big and get rid of them. if I can't see them I'm not fussed even after they have chewed through a few leaves. One of two leaves here or there is no big deal. I've found they can't keep up with the growth of the plant and because the eggs are laid on established leaves the caterpillar can't and doesn't attack the new growth.
> 
> the leaves - they look burnt to me. Sun burnt, like something has been sprayed on there on a hot day. I've not seen anything like that to be honest even when I've done silly over fertilisation and not watering enough.



Thanks RK. Glad to hear that someone else has grubs too.
The catepillars are quite mobile and get about the plant a bit. Buggers seem to chew a bit of one leaf and move onto another. One pillar seems to chew on quite a few leaves. I'll keep squashing them as I find them (inspections in the morning and evening - SWMBO thinks I am obsessed!). I'll try to relax...

Funny enough the plant that gets the most shade is the one that has the most 'burning', it is also the Chinook that is stunted around 30cm or so.


----------



## MaltyHops (15/11/10)

Malted said:


> And this Chinook leaf is *sick AND chewed*: Most of the plant is like this but it was the first to poke out but has stalled and is no greater than 30cm high and hasn't grown much in 5 weeks. Since it is so small I reckon it was more susceptible to being burnt by over fertilising?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


This could be due to earwigs - I've also had some damage like this without any
signs of caterpillars or other mite type bugs but have a lot of earwigs about,
which others have thought can cause damage like this. DrSmurto and others
have posted some ideas on how to trap and "relocate these buggers earlier on
this thread.

T.


----------



## Malted (15/11/10)

MaltyHops said:


> This could be due to earwigs - I've also had some damage like this without any
> signs of caterpillars or other mite type bugs but have a lot of earwigs about,
> which others have thought can cause damage like this. DrSmurto and others
> have posted some ideas on how to trap and "relocate these buggers earlier on
> ...



Sounds a likely bug as I'd expect they'd have to be small bugs if they can't or won't chew throught the ribs/veins of the leaf like the catepillars seem to.


----------



## MaltyHops (15/11/10)

MaltyHops said:


> _HAVE TRELLIS, WILL TRAVEL!_
> Finally got the bits and pieces yesterday and couple of hours of
> sawing and design thinking on the fly, my mobile trellis is almost
> ready, just need to glue some of the horizontal pieces. There's
> ...


 Well, my trellis and the hop ladies - Hoodie, Saazi, Goldie, Cascie and Chinnie - have
traveled to their new location (hopefully for a few seasons).
T.


----------



## AussieJosh (15/11/10)

what sparys do you guys use to kill caterpillers and other little bugs that like to chew on your leafs? They seem to like my cascade....


----------



## raven19 (15/11/10)

Just remove the caterpillars by hand. Once the hops get going they wont be able to keep up in any case!


----------



## manticle (15/11/10)

Probably white oil which you can make yourself or buy. As non-toxic as pesticides get.


----------



## bluejed (15/11/10)

AussieJosh said:


> what sparys do you guys use to kill caterpillers and other little bugs that like to chew on your leafs? They seem to like my cascade....






give a pyrethrum spray a go, I use this on cherry trees for cherry slug and as it is a natural plant based insecticide it breaks down readily. its available from your local hardware as concentrate mix with water and spray


----------



## Kieren (15/11/10)

manticle said:


> Probably white oil which you can make yourself or buy. As non-toxic as pesticides get.



I have read white oil works but not used it myself - only critters I have found on my hop plants are a few spiders which I leave so they can eat any other nasties.




Malted said:


> Kind of like this is it?
> I can't see what would be making this happen (in terms of spores etc) to mine but have a theory or two.
> In my case it could be *(1)* got too dry whilst I was away *(2)* burnt off from being over fertilised (slow release stuff and some blood and bone - watered in) when I got back *(3)* both 1 and 2, *(4)* something else.
> 
> ...



No, not really, though they are some pretty patterns you got going there. Mine is a more dull brown radiating out from the center. It hasn't been too dry here, I water every day unless rain is forecast, the standard off the shelf potting mix I used had some sort of fertilzer in it which I suppliment with a liquid seaweed fertilizer mixed into the watering couple of times a week.


----------



## proudscum (15/11/10)

Malted said:


> Sounds a likely bug as I'd expect they'd have to be small bugs if they can't or won't chew throught the ribs/veins of the leaf like the catepillars seem to.




looks like over fert to me but i had a look at deficiency as well and this is as close as i could find after 30min search.you could maybe ask Boston to look at the photos as he propagates hops and works in the industry i think.could be and interesting threat to start on bugs and other growing problems we hop farmers face.look at over watering too,to check if they need water grab a handful of soil and squeeze it if it forms a compact ball you dont need to water if it crumbles away then you need to water. 

here is a link look at calcium deficency.

http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/min-def/hops.htm

hope this helps


----------



## drsmurto (16/11/10)

I've found caterpillars tend to be resistant to most organic sprays. Chilli/garlic/pyrethrum sprays are nothing more than mouthwash to them in my experience. 

You normally wouldn't see caterpillars in large numbers so manually picking them off and squishing them is the most effective method i have found. 

But like others have said, hops grow like weeds at up to 30 cm a day. I haven't found a bug yet that can keep up with that growth, not even my arch nemesis, the harlequin bug.

The pics of funny coloured leaves don't look like insect damage, more like an issue with either lack of or excess of something in your soil or issues with humidity and fungal growth. 

For those in SA there has been an outbreak of downy mildew in the riverland so the wet spring we are having is creating the perfect conditions for it. I've never looked up how you would treat that. 

My biggest issue now is due to my very poor foresight. After finally building a trellis the hops have reached the top already (3m) and are waving around in the breeze above. It looks like i will need to get the ladder out after all as they seem to want to grow towards each other so I am going to have to train them afterall. And here i was thinking i had built a low (zero) maintenance trellis.


----------



## Nick JD (16/11/10)

My Saaz was growing so much I had to put up some more wires. 






But seriously - two things I've noticed is my little chinook doesn't like too much water, or wind. It spent a long while "bulking up" when it got windy and almost went dormant. 

It's also responded well to light feeding - and I'll be bumping up the K and P when it starts to flower, which I think we all should.


----------



## pk.sax (16/11/10)

Nick JD said:


> My Saaz was growing so much I had to put up some more wires.



Where can I send a pre-paid envelope and $10/kilo?? Bb possible?!

; - )


----------



## raven19 (16/11/10)

DrSmurto said:


> My biggest issue now is due to my very poor foresight. After finally building a trellis the hops have reached the top already (3m) and are waving around in the breeze above. It looks like i will need to get the ladder out after all as they seem to want to grow towards each other so I am going to have to train them afterall. And here i was thinking i had built a low (zero) maintenance trellis.



Chop them off about a foot above the top of the trellis, then wait for the side shoots and subsequent flowers to grow.


----------



## AussieJosh (16/11/10)

Update on my hops...

First is Chinhook, then Hersbrucker and the last two are Cascade.




Uploaded with ImageShack.us




Uploaded with ImageShack.us








Uploaded with ImageShack.us


----------



## beersatan (16/11/10)

AussieJosh said:


> what sparys do you guys use to kill caterpillers and other little bugs that like to chew on your leafs? They seem to like my cascade....



I had a lot of those green caterpillars on my cascade last year so I used dipel while the plant was small but once it was up to roof height I didn't bother anymore. I used Dipel because I already had it and it only targets caterpillars and doesn't affect other bugs and it's non-toxic to humans and pets. On the downside, it only lasts a week or two and gets washed off by rain so needs to be sprayed on fairly often. But two satchets made up 10 litres and covered two happy hop plants, a few large kale plants and some silver beet for the whole season.
I wouldn't spray flowers at all.


----------



## HeavyNova (18/11/10)

Just recived a couple of photos of the hops in Dunsborough.

Saaz - better get a trellis sorted quick;






Cascade - still quite small but looking healthy;


----------



## essjay (19/11/10)

Malted said:


> Bloody inch worms of sorts have been giving them a good go over, anyone know *who these are and what to spray them with*? I have just been looking under leaves and pulling them off and squashing them but they are hard to find until they get big and they've done a lot of munching:




I got the same little beggars, going over my tomatoes, strawberries, hops, wherever they can get their grubby (pun intended) little arses onto. I have found the Pyrethrum/chilli spray from bunnings to work really really well, i think it was the bRunnings brand, but its in a yellow bottle. I could see about five of them on my tomatos, so gave them a good light spray over the whole plant, within 60 seconds there was dozens of them dropping off left right and centre. And seeing as its made from daisies and chilli, the birds got to them pretty quick and everyones a winner, except the little grubs and thats their own fault, hops are for beer. 


Someone previously posted that the pyrethrum/chilli/garlic sprays are no good, but gotta say this one worked wonders for me. Can be pretty generous with the stuff if you want to, bottle says not to eat whatever your spraying for 24hrs, but otherwise all well and safe except for the grubs of course.


----------



## Sydneybrewer (19/11/10)

Well in an attempt to save my chinook i have snipped of the strugling bines and taken out of the wine barrell and planted in the garden, here is hoping i get at least one hop off it lol. Ps the rhizome was mental 4x the size of when i planted it at the start of spring, but it only had two wilted bines the tallest 30cm.


----------



## jbirbeck (19/11/10)

Sydneybrewer said:


> Well in an attempt to save my chinook i have snipped of the strugling bines and taken out of the wine barrell and planted in the garden, here is hoping i get at least one hop off it lol. Ps the rhizome was mental 4x the size of when i planted it at the start of spring, but it only had two wilted bines the tallest 30cm.



first year rhizomes in my experience can go metal early and grow 30cm - 150cm in the space of a few weeks and then stop and do nothing for months. I suspect that is what yours has done. They often bounce back. Ripper example is last year one of my Rhizomes started stopped and then started again in March. I was picking flowers in May!

I have a few hops in half wine barrels and without doubt those in the ground perform better.


----------



## davelovesbeer (19/11/10)

This is exactly what mine did (first year rhizomes). Went crazy for about 1.5m in a few weeks, and have barely moved since. Hope they kick on.


----------



## goatus (19/11/10)

Same thing here Davelovesbeer. Seems like its their growing pattern, must be putting energy into the root system once they get a few sun-soaking leaves established. We just got a big week of heat in Perth and im seeing it starting to inch up the rope again, so hopefully this is the real thing =)


----------



## stew.w (20/11/10)

my chinook has gone nuts, ive been away for about 6 weeks and i came back and it was like this:


something is eating it though, i cant see anything on it either.
not sure if you can see in the pic but theres just heaps of little holes in a few of the leaves.

Cheers,

Stewart


----------



## felten (20/11/10)

I've got the same problem, I thought it was hail damage at first but it's definitely worse since we had hail last.


----------



## Sydneybrewer (21/11/10)

Rooting Kings said:


> first year rhizomes in my experience can go metal early and grow 30cm - 150cm in the space of a few weeks and then stop and do nothing for months. I suspect that is what yours has done. They often bounce back. Ripper example is last year one of my Rhizomes started stopped and then started again in March. I was picking flowers in May!
> 
> I have a few hops in half wine barrels and without doubt those in the ground perform better.




cool i hope they grow better in the ground now, the main reason i sniped the bines other then their stunted growth was the bad case of holey leaves, every leaf on the bine was peppered with holes and i tried everything but nothing seemed to help it just got worse and the leaves started to brown, so hopfully the re-plant in the ground in a completely different location will help sort it.


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## white.grant (21/11/10)

I noticed last night that my tettnang has produced its first two flowers.


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## davelovesbeer (21/11/10)

well, i now have no leaves at all on my 3 plants. possum swung by last night and ate the lot. lets see if they survive


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## Kieren (21/11/10)

My Chinook in Adelaide needed a little attention - I only see it every couple of weeks.

Before



After


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## Hatchy (21/11/10)

I'm not sure if anyone can confirm or deny this but I've been told to not worry about pests. Once they've been there for a while they'll attract predators. My leaves don't seem to be getting eaten any more.


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## drsmurto (25/11/10)

Nothing short of a plague of locusts of biblical proportions can stop these bastards now B) 

There are a few bugs on them, plenty of holes in the leaves but it's all relative..... 

First burrs are now appearing.  

L-R - Goldings, Chinook, Cascade (in the right growing on the fence, not the trellis






Reverse angle - L-R - Chinook, Goldings, POR 





Victoria is on the right (out of the frame) of the POR in the 2nd pic. It too has reached the top of the 3m trellis.


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## Shaneygrog (25/11/10)

Well they look like some great plants to me. 

I'm growing hops for the first time thanks to a friend who got me a few rhizomes of different varieties. The Hallertau Hershbrucker and cascade plants are in the ground and I have wire along the front of the house so they have about 8 meters to grow for each plant. I'm not sure how big they will grow this year as they were very small cuttings I got but both are about two foot long so far. the H H gets more afternoon shade at the base as I read that noble hops don't like it too hot but the cascade gets lots of afternoon sun but the foliage of both plants will get many hours of sunlight. If they grow well we will get some shade on the front veranda which will help on hot summer afternoons.


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## Rotgut (25/11/10)

raven19 said:


> Side shoots on my chinook have grown from nothing to 2+ feet in less than a week! These weeds are insane. B)


I've got a Chinook too that grew 2 feet in 2 months, it grew another 2 feet last week!


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## WobblyBoot (26/11/10)

..My Hallertau is suffering from I-Don't-know-what.

It had been growing like a champion until about 2-3 weeks ago, when we got a stack of rain here in Melb. The leaves started to turn yellow at the base of the plant, and the ends of the bines stopped growing.

Here's what it looks like now...








A couple of weeks before the sustained rain I gave it a bit of potash, diluted in water - a very small amount of potash. I've given it seasol a few times also.

The Saaz growing next to it (not pictured) is doing OK, but this one clearly isn't.

Any thoughts?


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## Nick JD (26/11/10)

davelovesbeer said:


> This is exactly what mine did (first year rhizomes). Went crazy for about 1.5m in a few weeks, and have barely moved since. Hope they kick on.



Mine did the same. I think the initial burst of growth is using up the rhizome's energy source like a potato, and then it goes dormant for a week or two (what mine did) and then BANG it's off again.

Just a guess.


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## drsmurto (26/11/10)

WobblyBoot said:


> ..My Hallertau is suffering from I-Don't-know-what.
> 
> It had been growing like a champion until about 2-3 weeks ago, when we got a stack of rain here in Melb. The leaves started to turn yellow at the base of the plant, and the ends of the bines stopped growing.
> 
> ...



How much potash and how much water did you dilute it with?

That looks like a plant that has been burnt by over fertilising.

Potash in powder form can be sprinkled around a plant and allowed to slowly dissolve in and be used by the plant. When given in liquid form you have to dilute is by a very large amount otherwise you are feeding the plant all the potash in one hit.


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## WobblyBoot (26/11/10)

DrSmurto said:


> How much potash and how much water did you dilute it with?
> 
> That looks like a plant that has been burnt by over fertilising.
> 
> Potash in powder form can be sprinkled around a plant and allowed to slowly dissolve in and be used by the plant. When given in liquid form you have to dilute is by a very large amount otherwise you are feeding the plant all the potash in one hit.



I mixed about 20g of potash in with a bucket of water, and this one bucket went into both hops plants, plus a tomato plant and a bunch of herb pots. No other plants are showing distress.

And - I forgot to mention before - I sprinkled some blood and bone onto the topsoil at the start of spring.


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## MarkBastard (26/11/10)

What soil did you use in the pot? Potting mix or something else?


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## WobblyBoot (26/11/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> What soil did you use in the pot? Potting mix or something else?



It's potting mix I bought pre-mixed with Osmocote, but it's been in the pot for over a year (since August 09).


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## raven19 (27/11/10)

After a week or so away interstate, I trimmed up excess shoots and growth on the Chinook includes some nice burrs...


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## clarkey7 (28/11/10)

I thought I was going great until I saw Dr Smurtos photos.... :lol: 

Anyway here goes from left to right on the back fence:

Trellis done (all cheapo stuff from Bunnings)....My two second year plants took a while to fire, but seem to be healthy now. 
I counted 22 bines from the Chinook...so I cut 11 off (I thought 7 bines per string was a bit excessive and I'm testing the common wisdom). POR has a dozen that I'll leave alone.

I also managed to severely stun 2 healthy plants that I had in pots...I didn't water them enough. They are just recovering now. Mt Hood and Cascade. 

High wind killed back the Hallertau that was shooting up the string...new side shoots are coming.

Goldings looks really healthy for a first year plant. 









Should look good along the back fence in a couple of months (if you can see past all the kids equipment).

Can't wait to brew a harvest ale.

Hopefully I'll have enough crop for an IPA  .

PB


----------



## Stinger (4/12/10)

Daemon said:


> White oil is just a bit of vegetable oil and detergent, very easy to make up yourself. It works by suffocating the bugs (ie by coating them in oil and stopping oxygen) so you have to spray it on when they're on the leaves and ensure that you spray under the leaves as well. It's completely harmless to plants and you can use it every two weeks if it's a bad infestation.



White oil will only control certain pests like leaf miners, scale, mealy bugs but will probably not do too much to spider mite and caterpillars.
BT based sprays will work best on caterpillars (bacillus thuringiensis is a organic bacteria safe to use, dipel is one brand) 
Rogor (dimethoate) is more toxic but is good on spider mite and used properly will be very effective (use golves and wash hands after, should be safe on the hops but don't spray if picking in a couple of weeks but used early in the piece should not have any residue issues) avoid this if you dont like to use insecticide
Confidor (imidacloprid) is great on thrips and silverleaf white fly and aphids and is residual but same comments as above about not using close to harvest.

these products should not affect the hops as they are only toxic to insects but those that are into tree hugging and organics should stick to the pyrethrum, dipel and white oil as they are on the safer end of the spectrum.

Stinger


----------



## Stinger (4/12/10)

essjay said:


> I got the same little beggars, going over my tomatoes, strawberries, hops, wherever they can get their grubby (pun intended) little arses onto. I have found the Pyrethrum/chilli spray from bunnings to work really really well, i think it was the bRunnings brand, but its in a yellow bottle. I could see about five of them on my tomatos, so gave them a good light spray over the whole plant, within 60 seconds there was dozens of them dropping off left right and centre. And seeing as its made from daisies and chilli, the birds got to them pretty quick and everyones a winner, except the little grubs and thats their own fault, hops are for beer.
> 
> 
> Someone previously posted that the pyrethrum/chilli/garlic sprays are no good, but gotta say this one worked wonders for me. Can be pretty generous with the stuff if you want to, bottle says not to eat whatever your spraying for 24hrs, but otherwise all well and safe except for the grubs of course.



These are Looper Caterpillars, pyrethrum/chilli/garlic will be ok but have a look for the BT sprays you can get from garden centres and bunnings etc. is Bacillus Thuringiensis and one brand is Dipel. is an organic bacteria that will kill the little buggers when they eat it. is very safe for humans and dont need to worry about witholding periods etc from more poisonous products. if you have heaps of moths/cabbage white butterflies they will be laying eggs so you can spray the BT spray every week or so on both sides of leaves. need to re-apply after rain as can wash off.

Stinger


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## Stinger (4/12/10)

Here is my first attempt at growing hops, thanks to Rupert for sorting me out with rhizomes down here in Albany

first pic is the Saaz, which took much longer to get going than the cascades or the chinook, reflecting its european breeding? this was a monster rhizome so it is quickly catching up as the warm weather comes in.

Next is the Chinook, slower to get going than the Cascades but faster than the Saaz. bit more kikuyu around the base may be competing a little bit.

lastly the Cascades, there were about half a dozen small rhizomes put in and this has grown the fastest so far and hit the 2.5mt top of the trellis first.

There has been a reasonable amount of rain (nothing compared to you dudes on the east coast though) and the soil pretty free draining so I have had to dose with ammonium sulfate a couple of times. rhizomes were sown with NPK blue and have also spread blood and bone with trace elements around the base too. From what I have read they really chew the nutrients when growing so fast. I can just about watch them growing! Now they are starting to reach the top of the trellis I think i will just train sideways along the top wire and let the laterals spread out. still more bines coming up from the base so training a few of those up the twine (some of the twine has three or four bines going up it) If i keep the nutrition up hopefully the yields will come!

Stinger


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## arogers (5/12/10)

Recent photo of two of my better ones.... Vienna gold and cascade.


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## barls (5/12/10)

just a quick one does anyone have full size cones yet?
cause i just found about a dozen at an inch long.


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## raven19 (5/12/10)

Just burrs on my Chinook here in SA, nothing on my other plants as yet...


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## thylacine (5/12/10)

I'll be happy to not lose any more bine tips to hail storms; and for the 25km wide locust hordes to remain in Victoria...


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## Lebowski (10/12/10)

barls said:


> just a quick one does anyone have full size cones yet?
> cause i just found about a dozen at an inch long.



I noticed some cones on my first year chinook the other day..








..suprising because the base of the plant looks pretty eaten or something.. 




Had to put up a little wire fence to stop all the neighbourhood cats stratching and crapping in there.


My first year cascade looks a lot healthier and has more shoots but no hops yet. 





Will have to invest in a higher trellis next year.


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## Housecat (11/12/10)

This is my Cascade 2 months after getting the rhizome from Malty Hops.

Its about 5 1/2 feet tall now and starting to grow about 4 inches a day  




HC


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## Steve (11/12/10)

Kieren said:


> My Mt Hood is looking a little sickly, I think it may be downy mildew but not to sure. Can anyone confirm? It is a first season from a smallish rhyzome.
> 
> The small shoots at the base have not grown for a couple of weeks.
> 
> ...



pots too small and its probably dying of heat stroke. Image how hot that cement floor terracotta pot and brick wall gets in the sun. Poor things getting frazzled.


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## MaltyHops (12/12/10)

Housecat said:


> This is my Cascade 2 months after getting the rhizome from Malty Hops.
> Its about 5 1/2 feet tall now and starting to grow about 4 inches a day
> HC


They seem to be doing much better than mine (tho I've had to be neglecting
my plants for the last few weeks).

T.

Pssst! That should be 1 month - had me worried about where a whole month
might have gotten to


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## Housecat (12/12/10)

MaltyHops said:


> Pssst! That should be 1 month - had me worried about where a whole month
> might have gotten to




LOL true, time has been going pretty quick for me lately but 2 for 1 is ridiculous!!


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## Adam Howard (12/12/10)

Last post

Chinook growing rapidly after a boost of nitrogen and plenty of water. It was only a few inches tall in the above post and is over a metre now. Plenty of burrs too!





Cluster is recovering after what I feel was a potash overdose. The rain we've had seems to have rinsed the potassium out of the immediate area. Burrs appearing.









So hard to see the actual growth against that background. 

Thinking I'll bulldoze my pumptrack and establish a hop garden through that area. Want to get hold of a fair few more varieties next winter. My uncle has a POR going hard as well as Saaz and Hallertau.


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## Kieren (13/12/10)

Steve said:


> pots too small and its probably dying of heat stroke. Image how hot that cement floor terracotta pot and brick wall gets in the sun. Poor things getting frazzled.



Hmm, you're probably right. Pot is actually plastic (prob no better than terracotta for heat resistance) but granted too small. My only other option for location is out the back where it may get direct sun until 11ish am.

So, would it be advisable to move the plant now to a place with much less direct sun. Plant has begun to shoot buds, overall growth has been slow but steady but has recently slowed a lot. i know certain other plants rely on the cycle of the sun to decide when to start flowering, could moving the hop plant now upset their budding cycle?

Also, would re-potting now be too much of a shock to it as well?

It must be said, I never had much hope for this plant. Last year I bought 4 rhyzomes and gave to a mate to grow for me as I don't have the space and he has a bigger green thumb than me. They all died during the first big heat wave. This plant has survived much better so far. It's also a Mt Hood - a hop I don't see myself using that much - bought it because I could. I have a chinook in adelaide which my dad is looking after and is currently going boonta - have greater hopes for this one.

Latest photos... (Mt hood in whyalla)


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## MaltyHops (14/12/10)

Kieren said:


> _Hmm, you're probably right. Pot is actually plastic (prob no better than terracotta for heat resistance) but granted too small. My only other option for location is out the back where it may get direct sun until 11ish am._


G'day Kieren,

Can you maybe move the pot sideways away from being in front of that brick
wall? The wall probably reflects and doubles the heat getting to the pot.

_Also, would re-potting now be too much of a shock to it as well?_

If you can keep the current soil around the plant intact and move into a new pot/soil,
it probably would be ok - maybe if you can get some stiff plastic or galv, slide it down 
the side of the pot to keep the soil together when you shift it out of the current pot.

The pot isn't huge but doesn't look that small - if heat is the problem, maybe another
help might be to get a much bigger pot fill it with wood chips or coconut coir so when
the current pot is put in it, it sits near the rim level, and then fill the sides with more
chips/coir - as a way to insulate the pot a bit for this season.

_ It's also a Mt Hood - a hop I don't see myself using that much - bought it because I could._

I'm also in the same boat with a Mt.Hood - bought in a rush thinking time's running
out for this season. I did get a large rhizome and it went like a rocket for the first
month but has stalled for the last couple of months (I did snip the bine leaders as I
thought they were getting too long for their temp location). Maybe this is just their
particular growth habit.

T.


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## felten (14/12/10)

My willamette also stalled out for ages after putting out a dozen shoots but has started going gangbusters again, a few of the new bines are growing at half a foot a day.


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## proudscum (14/12/10)

Have been thinking of cloning some hops by using some of the lateral shoots.Will try with the Hersbrucker,Hallertau and Goldings that i have(the chinook didn't cope with all the rain and the Rhizome just went moldy and died)to start with.

I would be interested in doing some cuttings of other strains if people would be so kind as to offer up a few laterals.Am in Footscray but am willing to go for a drive if i am successful would love to reward you with Rhizomes next spring.

Looking for american varieties but will consider all offers.

Plz PM me.


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## petesbrew (16/12/10)

Yay, the hop vine I planted in the ground is starting to produce flowers!
Wish I could remember what it was, as all the tape with the names has fallen off... I'm guessing either Tettnang or Perle.


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## barls (16/12/10)

i picked the first lot yesterday


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## MaltyHops (16/12/10)

petesbrew said:


> Yay, the hop vine I planted in the ground is starting to produce flowers!
> Wish I could remember what it was, as all the tape with the names has fallen off... I'm guessing either Tettnang or Perle.


I went for daytrip to shoot pixes of Boston's hops plants in the Adelaide Hills
today (big thanks to B.) and the distinctive thing about B.'s Tettnang plant is that
nearly all of the leaves (especially the first leaves) are single lobed. From memory,
I don't think his Perle plant was like this (can't find my SD card reader at the
moment so can't check this right now).

T.

Edit: Oops! OTOH, the hops leaf gallery shows Perle leaves are also single lobed
(but I don't recall seeing any of the initial leaves on B.'s Perle as single lobed).


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## proudscum (18/12/10)

proudscum said:


> Have been thinking of cloning some hops by using some of the lateral shoots.Will try with the Hersbrucker,Hallertau and Goldings that i have(the chinook didn't cope with all the rain and the Rhizome just went moldy and died)to start with.
> 
> I would be interested in doing some cuttings of other strains if people would be so kind as to offer up a few laterals.Am in Footscray but am willing to go for a drive if i am successful would love to reward you with Rhizomes next spring.
> 
> ...



Started doing the first batch of clones from cuttings today.


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## proudscum (18/12/10)

proudscum said:


> Started doing the first batch of clones from cuttings today.




24 cuttings done 12 each of Goldings and Hersbrucker.Hope to do another 48 tomorrow including 
Cascade,Chinook,SAAZ and Hallertau.

Not sure what survival rate will be but would like to have them in the ground by mid January so they can have 3 to 4 months to get a rhizome going on.


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## Lillywhite (18/12/10)

Pocket Beers said:


> I thought I was going great until I saw Dr Smurtos photos.... :lol:
> 
> Anyway here goes from left to right on the back fence:
> 
> ...



Don't mean to be critical but are those timber posts on the end strong enough to support that many plants?


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## tommygun (19/12/10)

proudscum said:


> 24 cuttings done 12 each of Goldings and Hersbrucker.Hope to do another 48 tomorrow including
> Cascade,Chinook,SAAZ and Hallertau.
> 
> Not sure what survival rate will be but would like to have them in the ground by mid January so they can have 3 to 4 months to get a rhizome going on.



I have never done hops cuttings before but as a general rule this time of year its best doing semi-hardwood so the cuttings don't wilt so quickly. Make sure you keep those babies out of the direct sunlight and if you notice the tips wilting, nip them off, they'll quickly form new buds if the start to root. Hops grow so quickly and easily im sure you'll get a good success rate.

tommy


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## waggastew (19/12/10)

After what seemed like a slow start my 1st year rhizomes are well and truely working their way up the strings. I have five varieties: Cascade, Chinook, Goldings, Mt Hood and Saaz. The Chinook, Goldings and Saaz are very vigorous, the others less so but ticking along. I planted them too close together but I will replant them further apart over winter. 

Spotted some burrs forming on the Chinook today. It would be great to get a few cones in the first year. Planning on doing a harvest ale with the wet hops if they come through.


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## proudscum (19/12/10)

tommygun said:


> I have never done hops cuttings before but as a general rule this time of year its best doing semi-hardwood so the cuttings don't wilt so quickly. Make sure you keep those babies out of the direct sunlight and if you notice the tips wilting, nip them off, they'll quickly form new buds if the start to root. Hops grow so quickly and easily im sure you'll get a good success rate.
> 
> tommy




North facing laundry bench behind opaque glass so no chance of direct sunlight but plenty of light.The ones from yesterday are looking good so i would expect to see some action within 7 to 10 days.Thanks AMPY for letting me come out and get a few cuttings.There ended up being enough for 20 cuttings cheers pal.


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## Kieren (25/12/10)

Decided to put up some shade cloth instead of move the Mt Hood in the aim to reduce any heat stress. Might be slightly over kill but almost immediately growth rates have picked up and the hop cones have started to plump out.


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## beerdrinkingbob (29/12/10)

This is my chinook, it's been grown from a cuttting that was taken about two and a half months ago ( the photo was taken about a month ago) :beerbang:


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## clarkey7 (29/12/10)

Been away for a week...lotza rain, lotza growth..  

The bushy ones with the cones are second year Chinook and POR.

The healthy looking 1st year plant on the far right is Goldings....will be getting flowers on there too by the looks. :beerbang: 













Note the cheap timber posts are really bending now....I guess I should reinforce ASAP, but I reckon they would have snapped off by now with all the rain, wind and foliage on there.

Happy growing...

PB


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## barls (29/12/10)

just picked and filled one whole screen that is from my oust. who said wurtenburger is a low yield plant.
ill get some pics later.


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## Lebowski (29/12/10)

barls said:


> just picked and filled one whole screen that is from my oust. who said wurtenburger is a low yield plant.
> ill get some pics later.



How do you tell the correct time to pick the cones? I have a small ammount of decent looking cones on my first year chinook at the moment.


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## barls (29/12/10)

by feel and colour of them. ive had them for 4 years now so have had a bit of experience with them.


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## jonocarroll (31/12/10)

Do people train laterals up the bines? I've got a lot of laterals coming up strong, some more than 30cm now and not sure how to treat them. The main plant (three bines twisted together) has climbed the length of twine and I'm now training it horizontally to see how far it will go. Not sure if i'll get any flowers this year, but it's early days yet, and the plant itself is doing quite well.


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## barls (31/12/10)

i use secondary lines for the laterals


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## Tony (31/12/10)

here is my first year PoR plant. I put the rihazome in the ground on 17th october and its already got hundreds of little hop flowers on it. 

Its currently sending out massive amounts of laterals and taking over the latice on the side of the house which im quite happy to have it do!

i looked at a photo of it a week ago and there were almost no latterals........ at its current speed, it will engulf the lattice by mid january.

cheers


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## raven19 (5/1/11)

I know its 2011 now but...

My chinook is going nicely






POR and Cluster are dragging ass though!


----------



## Housecat (6/1/11)

I was looking at my Cascade hop plants tonight and have found some exciting little buds  I thought I'd share them with you all








Also quite impressed with the speed these things grow! These are less than two months old and my second bine popped up a few days before Christmas you can see it just up above to the right of the stake. 




Looking forward to the beer I get to drink with these added in :icon_drunk: :chug: 


HC


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## jonocarroll (6/1/11)

raven19 said:


> I know its 2011 now but...
> 
> My chinook is going nicely
> View attachment 43116


Whoa. Nice!



raven19 said:


> POR and Cluster are dragging ass though!


Hopefully that's the reason there's not a glimpse of hop flowers on either of mine yet then. My POR has reached the limits of where I want it to grow, so I'll be pinching the end of it soon and hoping it puts more energy into actually growing some laterals. My Cluster's got laterals all over the place and I've now trained the longer ones up the main bundle.


----------



## Murcluf (6/1/11)

Interesting year so far majority are growing as per seasonal norm except for 2 My TDB is growing like a triffid but flowering normally and my Victoria is punching out Hop Cones like its on roids and am not sure when to pick them any advice would be welcomed. piccies of Victoria below


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## jonocarroll (6/1/11)

The drool icon ( :icon_drool2: ) just doesn't cut it here... had to make my own more suitable one;







Good on ya. Now I'm truly jealous. C'mon hops! What are you waiting for?


----------



## Malted (6/1/11)

QuantumBrewer said:


> Whoa. Nice!
> 
> 
> Hopefully that's the reason there's not a glimpse of hop flowers on either of mine yet then. My POR has reached the limits of where I want it to grow, so I'll be pinching the end of it soon and hoping it puts more energy into actually growing some laterals. My Cluster's got laterals all over the place and I've now trained the longer ones up the main bundle.




Looking at the other Adelaide hop growers in particular, it seems as though there is quite a lot of variation in growing 'characteristics'. My Chinook had its growing tips snapped off (wind or birds perhaps) but in just the last week it has hit the straps - it is growing rather rapidly. Where my others had thin bines it is throwing bines about half the thickness of a pencil, very robust compared to the others (PoR, Saaz, Hersbrucker). Saaz and Hersbrucker both have a good amount of spikes. The Chinook laterals are storming upwards (replacing the snapped off growing tips) and do not have any spikes let alone developed flowers like Ravens. The fellas in QLD seem to have had developed flowers for some time. DrSmurto says, relax they grow like weeds, let them do their thing (not his exact words obviously). I am starting to worry less about my hops, sort of...
It is great to see lots of photos of others hop plants, it shows the variation and makes me worry less.


----------



## Malted (7/1/11)

I don't know if it is because the weather has warmed, my Chinook has recovered from the tips being snapped off (laterals have replaced them) or if it is they like the fish and seaweed liquid fertiliser more than the slow release pellets but it is starting to take off now. The laterals growth above the SS cable is just from the last couple of days and is much more robust than others/previously. When the others hit the top of the wire I have trained them back and forth between the two wires. I have hacked the shiite outa the neighbours vine to give my hops enough breathing room!







Here is a closeup of the new Chinook growth. 
On the left is a Saaz bine and has been the size of bines of all the hops until now; for comparison on the right is the robust new growth on the Chinook:






All four varieties seem to be quite busy throwing laterals. I think this is my PoR. I have been waiting until they're long enough and then training them up the neighbouring strings.






Saaz and Hersbrucker both have flower spikes. Here's a pic of some Hersbrucker spikes:






All photos taken this morning.


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## drsmurto (8/1/11)

@The Meerkat - your Victoria hops don't look ready yet. They are a very pale green and they tend to get darker as they get larger and start to dry off. 

When you squeeze them I am guessing they dont make a lot of noise and feel quite 'wet'. When they feel papery and make a noise like crunching a dry leaf they are ready to pick. 

Does that make sense?

Not sure but i have learnt over the years to know when they are ready by sight and touch. Mine are a long way behind yours.

Cheers
DrSmurto

p.s. will have to catch up and pass on a bottle of my Victoria rye golden ale. Only been in primary for 5 days but is tasting VERY nice. Will help you in understanding what this hop tastes like. Very unique. Screams loqats.


----------



## West Brew (10/1/11)

My first year cascade has now got some small hops on there!



From what I have read the hops are ready to pick when they go slightly brown and feel papery rather than springy? Is this correct?

Also is a couple of days plenty of time to dry a small ammount of hops in hot weather (30+ degrees)?


----------



## HeavyNova (13/1/11)

Wow, all of these photos looke great. My hops took off reasonably well then nothing much happened for a good 2-3 weeks in December, even had a small section die off. I thought that even though they like the sun maybe the sudden jump in temperatures cooked them a bit.

Anyway, there are lots of small growths all over the plants again and they're coming along nicely again, however nothing like any of the photos getting posted.

Will they continue to grow throughout the summer? Just wondering if they'll get any bigger than 1.5 metres this year!?


----------



## felten (13/1/11)

arrrrrr! I've broken 2 tips off in 2 days, luckily only on laterals, this melbourne weather isn't good for trying to manipulate your bines. I've been trying to train all my laterals onto the main line, but there's so many it's a real PITA.

This one is a 1st year willamette, the main bine is 2m up and 2.5m long and is the only one with flowers on it atm.




ps. if you break any tips off, they taste great.


----------



## jonocarroll (13/1/11)

felten said:


> arrrrrr! I've broken 2 tips off in 2 days, luckily only on laterals, this melbourne weather isn't good for trying to manipulate your bines. I've been trying to train all my laterals onto the main line, but there's so many it's a real PITA.


I broke the tip off one bine that I wanted to stop growing higher ... didn't stop the darn thing. Some of the laterals I've been training up the main bine on another plant are racing towards the leader that I'm training horizontally. Still no signs of flowers yet.



felten said:


> ps. if you break any tips off, they taste great.


Wish I'd thought of that.


----------



## Adam Howard (15/1/11)

Chinook. Some of those wires have laterals from the middle bine heading up them and CATCHING the main bines. Unreal. I am also finding little burrs starting too.





Cluster. Looking very healthy. I can only imagine the rhizome is under serious development on this one!


----------



## proudscum (15/1/11)

felten said:


> arrrrrr! I've broken 2 tips off in 2 days, luckily only on laterals, this melbourne weather isn't good for trying to manipulate your bines. I've been trying to train all my laterals onto the main line, but there's so many it's a real PITA.
> 
> This one is a 1st year willamette, the main bine is 2m up and 2.5m long and is the only one with flowers on it atm.
> View attachment 43280
> ...




The growing tips that you really want to eat are the ones at the beginning of the growing season when they are still underground and white.A bit like asparagus and a bit of a Belgian specialty there is a recipe in Michael Jacksons Beer Companion .Be interesting to see if there is a taste difference between the different hops.


----------



## stew.w (15/1/11)

heres my 2nd year chinook, its gone nuts this year
somethings been eating the leaves but its still growing at a ridiculous rate


----------



## Murcluf (15/1/11)

DrSmurto said:


> @The Meerkat - your Victoria hops don't look ready yet. They are a very pale green and they tend to get darker as they get larger and start to dry off.
> 
> When you squeeze them I am guessing they dont make a lot of noise and feel quite 'wet'. When they feel papery and make a noise like crunching a dry leaf they are ready to pick.
> 
> ...


Thanks Mate understand completely, probably exactly what I needed to hear and will play it by ear and feel. Currently very wet and resieny which stains the fingers yellow after being squeezed. Chinook is starting kick into gear with a few cones taking form. 

Also mulling over the idea of doing a couple Mikkeller & Rogues inspired single wet hop IPA's with at least my Victoria and Chinook hops. As I've never done an IPA before I'm not sure on a malt base to build for a good balance, was thinking of 85% Pale 10% Munich and 5% Crystal. With a hop schedule of 60, 10, 5, 0 aim for 50 to 70 IBU SG 1.064 using Rogues Pacman yeast. (I'm open to suggestions)

Definitely have catch up for a taste as I just love loquats


----------



## insane_rosenberg (19/1/11)

G'Day Melbourne Brewers!

I am looking to grow some hops next season and was wondering if any of you would be willing to sell/trade some rhizomes?

If not who is a good retailer?

I am hoping to get one high-alpha and two low-alpha varieties.

I don't want to hijack your (very impressive) plantation thread so please PM me any info.

Cheers,
-Shaneo.


----------



## Superoo (19/1/11)

Howdy All,
I harvested my fisrt ever hops on 27th december, and laid them out on some flywire to dry, no fan etc, just inside a pretty hot shed.
They were quite papery on the bine, and it had been quite windy for a fair while, so maybe they were papery and ready due to the windy weather, more than actually being ready. But they had heaps of bright yellow lupulin in all of the leaves, so all good there I think. They smell bloody awesome.
The next brew will tell me if they were any good.

Harvested approx 800 grams fresh Cascade, dried to 234 grams.
Harvested approx 160 grams Chinook, dried to 46 grams.
Hallertau performed like Leyton Hewitt and did stuff all except soak up attention, so they have one more chance or out they come.

Cheers to All...

Pics below were taken early December.


----------



## Housecat (23/1/11)

When it is time to harvest my pretties, how long can they be left on the bines until they need to be picked? I have a feeling that I'll be away for when harvest time comes around.

HC


----------



## barls (23/1/11)

from experience its generally about a couple of days to a week depending on conditions and variety of hops.


----------



## cdbrown (28/1/11)

Here's mine. They seem to be growing ok, no signs of any hops yet, but they keep creeping up the twine. They did take a while to take off and I didn't help the matter by leaving them grow without having any twine to climb up at the start.

Taken about 3 weeks ago





Taken a few days ago


----------



## waggastew (29/1/11)

The harvest has begun at my place (Mid North Coast of NSW) with an initial haul of 145g wet. I just snipped them off the plants with secauters as they are not all ready. Mixture or Chinook, Goldings, Mt Hood and Saaz (my Cascade is only just ticking along). In the winter I will replant them further apart as they have all grown together. Will make and interesting mix for my first Harvest Ale. Will dry the hops as I pick them and then try and use the last pick wet.












Many more coming along ranging from just about ready to just forming spurs.











My hop pole worked well too. Basically a pole with a bracket at the top with a rope strung through like a flag pole. I tied a hoop to the rope and attached the twine strings to it. Came down and went back up no problems!











PS. My hands smell like hops....mmmm hops!


----------



## clarkey7 (29/1/11)

Harvest day for 1 of my plants today too!

2nd year Chinook 276g wet after leaves and stems snipped off.

Should be able to manage an IPA for my harvest ale with a combination of my 2nd year POR and Chinook flowers.

I'll harvest POR tomorrow...












Also Brewed 44L of Galaxy Pale Ale B) 

PB


----------



## under (29/1/11)

Do you guys wait until all the buds are fully mature then pick. Or pick them as they are ready (like tomatoes)?

I have around 20 bud that I think are ready (turned paper like and no resiny, they have also slight browning. Heres some pics.


----------



## waggastew (29/1/11)

My plants have been the ground for all of 8 months so probably not the best person to ask. From what I understand most commercial setups prune back their vines to the ground early in the season so that they all grow (and ripen) at the same point in time. I did not do this so I figure that I better pick them when the individual flowers are ready. If you wait until they are all ripe then some are gonna be a bit overdone?

From the photo they look ready to pick (signs of browning at the ends). The general consensus seems to be pick when they are 'papery' and only spring back partially when you give em a squeeze.


----------



## Lecterfan (29/1/11)

I really wish one of the highly learned hop growing boffins from this site would do an article all about picking/harvesting, storing and using.

But then again, if I learn the hard way then I'll be part of the clandestine cult and won't care about all the new growers...

Or I could just shut up and keep drinking.


----------



## felten (30/1/11)

like this one? http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=91


----------



## proudscum (30/1/11)

felten said:


> like this one? http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=91





Bookmarked +1


----------



## Lecterfan (30/1/11)

felten said:


> like this one? http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=91




Aaaah DAMMIT! Honestly I searched both manually and using the search function. I found the hop register and hop galleries etc etc but didn't find this one.


Thanks Felten,

humbly yours etc... :wacko:


edit: did another search and of course it was top of the list. Feeling like a dickhead is good for character development. I must have developed quite a lot by now.


----------



## insane_rosenberg (30/1/11)

Hey Melbourne Growers,

How are your plantations standing up to the heat and wind today? It's one of my big concerns for my plantation next year.


----------



## NickB (30/1/11)

Moving house recently has really thrown out my ability to pick the hops (they stayed, I moved), however was up at the old place on Friday and found that the 2nd year Chinook had gone ballistic due to all the rain and now all the heat.

Will head up next weekend to pick the first batch, and judging by the burrs on the remainder of the plant, sometime in the next month or so to pick again....

View attachment 43727

Chinook going a bit crazy


View attachment 43728

Closeup of the cones already formed (at a guess, probably about 25-30 of them all up)


View attachment 43729

The burrs on the laterals, just ready to form cones very soon....



Cheers


----------



## Lebowski (30/1/11)

My tiny first year cascade harvest.. hopefully they were ready to pick, felt papery and had a little bit of browning on the leaves.


----------



## clarkey7 (30/1/11)

Got 119g from a second year POR plant today and left quite a few "not quite ready" cones on for next weekend.
There were also plenty of burrs forming on my 2nd year plants, so it looks like I'll be harvesting again in a month.
I might get a small crop from the first year plants...but they are taking their time.

I'm no expert...still learning. Didn't really get much last year to brew with so definitely haven't brewed a lot with home grown hops. I have included pics for people to remove the mystery. Enjoy.  



Some I left behind. You can see plenty of luplin, but not papery.
Todays haul of POR.



Too crispy.
My effort at displaying when a hop is ready. 
In my opinion - This from left to right is: almost, perfect, a bit past it but still usable.



You can see I'm not putting any hop companies out of business, but it's great fun.

Cheers,

PB


----------



## Stinger (30/1/11)

I am probably at the stage of harvesting the Cascades and Chinook with Saaz just at the early flowering stage



Cascades




Chinook



Saaz

The plan is to harvest and brew on same day Thinking a pale ale will be the go


----------



## DUANNE (30/1/11)

i have about 30 or so nearly ripe cones on my first year hallertau but around 200 or more burrs in various stages of develepment at the moment.can any one tell me if this is normal, and if it is then do i ust do a staggerd picking type of arangement.


----------



## felten (30/1/11)

Picked about an ounce today that looked ripe before the hot weather/wind hit, still have double that on the plant in various stages as well. They definitely don't all ripen at the same time.


----------



## DUANNE (30/1/11)

thanks for that. it makes me wonder how the big producers do it pulling all of the crop down at one time.


----------



## kelbygreen (30/1/11)

didnt some one say they cut them back so all the shoots come up at once. So they all produce cones the same time?


----------



## Lecterfan (30/1/11)

Well I finally got a heap of photos but fucked if I know how to make them less than 2mb...even when I send them to a zip file they are bigger than 2mb. 

You know what hop bines and flowers look like, I have a few of them and I am excited about it! Whacky doo..,,,yaaaaayyyy...who gives a shit...


----------



## Lecterfan (31/1/11)

Actually...from L to R...hersbrucker, spinach, cascade, pumpkin and chinook (chinook mostly in the shadows).


----------



## Rotgut (5/2/11)

Thought I'd try a bit of "Flood Irrigation" on my Saaz down here in Melbourne..


----------



## kelbygreen (5/2/11)

think you watered it a bit to much rotgut lol. Hopefully it wont affect it to much for you.


----------



## proudscum (6/2/11)

CHEEKY LINKY http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=52091


----------



## Lecterfan (12/2/11)

Cascade going mad, have wet hopped my first brew with some last week...


----------



## timryan (12/2/11)

Gday guys looking at growing my own cascade and or chinook plants how and where do i start to source the products? Cheers Tim


----------



## Mitternacht Brauer (13/2/11)

Hey guys,
I have been a bit busy lately but finally had a look at the hop garden yesterday .they have tried to take over the house. Picked half a bucket load off my cascade. The cluster and the Hersbrucker look to have heaps more cones. I will know better when they ripen in aweek or two ?


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## kelbygreen (13/2/11)

mine arnt faring so well. I forgot to water them a few days when it was 40+ deg and now they are dying off  hopefully I can revive them but all the cones are shot for this year at least. I think I need to replant them as the soil I got doesnt really let the water soak in so that could be another reason. lets hope next year goes better lol


----------



## wakkatoo (13/2/11)

timryan said:


> Gday guys looking at growing my own cascade and or chinook plants how and where do i start to source the products? Cheers Tim



Wrong time of the year to source plants (although it can be done, I think there was a recent thread with someone selling pots). Wait a few months and you'll start to see a few threads popping up with people either selling or giving away rhizomes. I got all mine as 'freebies' and will return the favour to the AHB community when they are big enough to divide - probably after next season. Its a lot of fun, especially now that I've had some cones forming on my Mt Hood and goldings. The cascade, tett and Hallertau are a bit behind -its been crazy weather here this year and I think the poor buggers are confused!


----------



## kenlock (13/2/11)

timryan said:


> Gday guys looking at growing my own cascade and or chinook plants how and where do i start to source the products? Cheers Tim



Try two posts north of yours.


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## Malted (13/2/11)

timryan said:


> Gday guys looking at growing my own cascade and or chinook plants how and where do i start to source the products? Cheers Tim




I discussed getting rhizomes a bit here: Growing hops in 1/2 wine barrels

An excellent read is also here: DIY Hops - how to grow and use them


Rhizomes will become available in June/July. There will be heaps of sources. 
I am not really sure what to do with my Chinook flowers, apparently they can be a bit 'grassy'. They do grow very well though.


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## Malted (13/2/11)

kelbygreen said:


> mine arnt faring so well. I forgot to water them a few days when it was 40+ deg and now they are dying off  hopefully I can revive them but all the cones are shot for this year at least. I think I need to replant them as the soil I got doesnt really let the water soak in so that could be another reason. lets hope next year goes better lol




I have had exactly the same problem with the soil in my pots. A dripper system is not good (for me) because it just goes straight through and does not wet the pot up. I have to water them with the garden hose and a nozzle. I thought I had fried mine on a couple of occasions but they seem to come back. Don't give up on them.


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## DU99 (13/2/11)

you could mix some water saver granules thru the soil/mix


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## proudscum (13/2/11)

I am not really sure what to do with my Chinook flowers, apparently they can be a bit 'grassy'. They do grow very well though.


they are not to bad for a bit of aroma and in small amounts for bittering.


----------



## drsmurto (13/2/11)

Malted said:


> <snip>
> 
> I am not really sure what to do with my Chinook flowers, apparently they can be a bit 'grassy'. They do grow very well though.



Not grassy at all no matter how much you throw in the kettle - Link


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## felten (13/2/11)

unless they meant the other kind of grassy


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## raven19 (13/2/11)

4 Buckets full of my chinook picked over the last few days...  

Its a 3rd Year plant.

Probably a tad late on the picking this year but was too busy last week with work!


----------



## BoilerBoy (14/2/11)

Iv'e got 700g dried off my second year Chinook so far with more drying as I write and more to pick this week.

I cant believe how much this plant puts out!  With really good sized cones and noticable aroma as well.

Cant wait to use them!

cheers,
BB


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## Stinger (14/2/11)

Harvested an estimated 4.5kg wet weight of Cascades this avo, still more on the bush (6 small rhizomes planted a bit close together) but ran out of flyscreens to put them on. hopefully they will dry in a day or two and I can get the rest sorted. still some that are a bit less mature up there.

used some Chinook and Cascades wet in a mongrel blonde pale ale
ended up putting in (wet weight) 40gm Chinook + 40gm cascades at 60min, 30gm cascades at 30min, 30gm at 15min and 30gm Chinook+30gm Cascades at flameout with a handful into the fermenter for good measure! 

I tried checking the moisture by drying 50gm wet in the oven and came out with 8gm dry so possibly makes the volume of hops used less speccy?


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## big78sam (14/2/11)

I started my harvest on the weekend. Got about 500g wet each from first year Goldings and Cascade. To date I've picked and 750 grams from my second year Chinook plant with heaps more to go. At a guess I'll get 3 to to 5kg wet from the chinook. 

I learnt an important lesson though. Plant with plenty of space between plants and watch them like a hawk during growing season for crossover. My Chinook had grown over into my goldings so it took me ages to untangle them. I had to get the secateurs out at times and hope I was cutting the right stuff in the tangle of bines. The last thing I want in a subtly hopped mild or bitter is a whack of chinook!


----------



## Goofinder (14/2/11)

I really need to get mine in the ground next year. There just isn't enough nutrients in the pots. Haven't got any flowers at all this year (had a few last year).

What's a good separation between plants?


----------



## raven19 (14/2/11)

Goofinder said:


> What's a good separation between plants?



I think around 3m+ ideally mate, but mine are only 1.5m apart - just have to keep a close eye on wandering shoots and rhizomes making their way across from plant A to plant B.


----------



## cdbrown (14/2/11)

Goofinder said:


> I really need to get mine in the ground next year. There just isn't enough nutrients in the pots. Haven't got any flowers at all this year (had a few last year).
> 
> What's a good separation between plants?



Mine are in pots with good potting mix and the bines are growing and climbing well. No signs of flowering yet which is a worry. Might have to give them some thrive to help.


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## Malted (14/2/11)

cdbrown said:


> Mine are in pots with good potting mix and the bines are growing and climbing well. No signs of flowering yet which is a worry. Might have to give them some thrive to help.




Mine, also in pots, seem to quite like a liquid fertiliser that is seaweed + fish (they responded heaps better to it than they did to osmacote type slow release stuff). 
Now that mine have gotten fully into flowering, the bine and laterals growth seems to have almost stopped. Since yours aren't flowering, are they still on the march up and outwards?


----------



## cdbrown (14/2/11)

Malted said:


> Mine, also in pots, seem to quite like a liquid fertiliser that is seaweed + fish (they responded heaps better to it than they did to osmacote type slow release stuff).
> Now that mine have gotten fully into flowering, the bine and laterals growth seems to have almost stopped. Since yours aren't flowering, are they still on the march up and outwards?



Yep still climbing up the twine. Last few days went up another metre on two of the bines. Also keep seeing new bines coming up from the rhizome. Should I just stop them so it focuses on what's there? 

edit - they were planted fairly late and only started sprouting initially well after seeing some impressive plants in this thread.


----------



## Fents (15/2/11)

:kooi:


----------



## Lecterfan (15/2/11)

Awesome! I did my first full ice cream bucketful harvest of cascade yesterday - didn't weigh them wet.

Riddle me this: Why is it that a confirmed dry hopping enthusiast like me is worried about dry hopping (or even wet hopping) with my own homegrown flowers? I'm happy to use them in the boil and at flameout, but howabout chucking them straight into secondary or in primary after 7 days of fermentation?

I don't think twice about chucking pellets into secondary but using flowers fresh from the plant, or dried in the garage just somehow doesn't seem sanitary! Can I make a tea with my flowers (for aroma) and add that to secondary instead?


edit: I am aware that it is irrational, it just feels odd using them in that capacity...surely there would be some wild yeasts etc somewhere on the flower???


----------



## jonocarroll (15/2/11)

Lecterfan said:


> surely there would be some wild yeasts etc somewhere on the flower???


Wouldn't that also be true of purchased hop flowers, then?

I have heard concerns from mates about consuming any home-grown plants grown near a roadway. I'm sure it can't be all that bad - what's the worst that could happen?


----------



## Lecterfan (15/2/11)

Lecterfan said:


> edit: I am aware that it is irrational,






QuantumBrewer said:


> Wouldn't that also be true of purchased hop flowers, then?
> 
> I have heard concerns from mates about consuming any home-grown plants grown near a roadway. I'm sure it can't be all that bad - what's the worst that could happen?




Yea I know I know haha - just nagging insecurity, the voices whispering "you don't know what you're doing, you're doing it all wrong, everyone hates you, Satan commands you to kill", all the usual stuff.

The worst that could happen is the perfectly acceptable 20L of fresh cascade flower and willamette beer in the fridge that I am about to rack could be ruined. Now while that is hardly of concern in the grand scheme of things, it would be enough to give me a hearty dose of the shits.


----------



## Malted (15/2/11)

cdbrown said:


> Yep still climbing up the twine. Last few days went up another metre on two of the bines. Also keep seeing new bines coming up from the rhizome. Should I just stop them so it focuses on what's there?
> 
> edit - they were planted fairly late and only started sprouting initially well after seeing some impressive plants in this thread.



From what I have seen so far: 

It was my experience that when I cut (or they snapped off) bines or laterals, that they just shot even more new shoots from lower down (a bit like Medusa). The thing about cutting thinner bines off to focus on more robust ones would appear to be more of a commercial thing to make flowering and harvest more uniform. You could try it, it couldn't hurt. Personally i'd just let them do their thing. 

My gut feeling is that if you get flowers they will be in late March/April. The burrs just appear from no where all of a sudden. My Chinook was the last to form burrs but is first to be almost ready to harvest, it does not appear to have much in the way of yellow/orange lupulin in the flowers. The Hersbrucker is a bit behind but has more lupulin in the flowers. PoR and Saaz are still in small burrs stage so they will be quite a while yet. There are early varieties and later varieties, this could be a factor on top of when you planted yours.

My hops do not seem to have produced many burrs/flowers below the 1.5 - 2.0m mark. They are all in the top section so don't be in a rush to nip the ends off (to limit height and spread) of the exploratory shoots and laterals.


----------



## wakkatoo (15/2/11)

Lecterfan said:


> it would be enough to give me a hearty dose of the shits.



He he, if thats the case then there definately was something nasty on the hops!  

I understand your hesitations tho. Maybe think of it a a 'microbe war' where the yeasties have such a vast army, that the small amount of bad troops on the hops stand no chance?? As I am yet to pick any flowers (getting close tho I think), this is all theory based on a hunch!


----------



## Lecterfan (15/2/11)

wakkatoo said:


> He he, if thats the case then there definately was something nasty on the hops!
> 
> I understand your hesitations tho. Maybe think of it a a 'microbe war' where the yeasties have such a vast army, that the small amount of bad troops on the hops stand no chance?? As I am yet to pick any flowers (getting close tho I think), this is all theory based on a hunch!




As long as the hops aren't harbouring 300 spartan bacteria I should be ok haha!

In regards to hops near a roadway, I'm not concerned by their location - I eat corn, spinach, zucchini, silverbeet, cauliflower and pumpkin from the same spot (not too far from a well used semi-rural road).

It just feels strang to go to so much effort with everything else but then just pluck these suckers off, dry them on shadescreenin the garage and then chuck them straight in haha. Sorry to everyone for the OT, but hey - its 32 pages already! Have another pic to stay on topic:


----------



## Fents (15/2/11)

Lecter toughen up and get brewing/hopping with them! 

You do realise hops were first used because they have special antibiotic properties to them when used in beer?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops


----------



## Lecterfan (15/2/11)

Fents said:


> Lecter toughen up and get brewing/hopping with them!
> 
> You do realise hops were first used because they have special antibiotic properties to them when used in beer?
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops




 

Yep, I know all that. I shall dry hop with some fresh flowers and call it the Fents Says HTFU Ale...the FSHTFUA for short haha

(As I said, I've already used some in the boil and at flameout, got no probs with that side of it). Cheers.


----------



## cdbrown (15/2/11)

Malted said:


> From what I have seen so far:
> 
> It was my experience that when I cut (or they snapped off) bines or laterals, that they just shot even more new shoots from lower down (a bit like Medusa). The thing about cutting thinner bines off to focus on more robust ones would appear to be more of a commercial thing to make flowering and harvest more uniform. You could try it, it couldn't hurt. Personally i'd just let them do their thing.
> 
> ...



They are still climbing, the two bines at the top probably grew another 10cm yesterday and are now looking for something else to cling to since they've reached the end of the twine. Thanks for the advice - won't take the ends off and just let them go. None of the plants look anywhere near as bushy as the pics in this thread. Maybe they're just not getting enough sunlight being on the south east side of the house. They get a good dose of sun from morning till mid afternoon, then the house blocks it. Shame the mrs won't let me grow them on the decking where it pretty much get's full sun all day.


----------



## Mitternacht Brauer (15/2/11)

Hi Guys,

Here is a pic of some of my hop plants. I left them alone this year.Even failing to trim the foliage off at the ground.

They have just bushed up and are looking the best since I've had them. The one to the left is a Hersbrucker and is very heavy with cones. The Hallertau on the right hasn't even got any flowers on it.

One danger I have found out is that they are ruthless in regards to where they wish to go. I have the rough sandstone bricks on my place and the quad that they used where the bricks meet the eve leaves some small gaps. The smallest of these gaps is enough for the stray bile to get into and take off looking for light in the roof space. 



MB


----------



## mxd (16/2/11)

Here's mine, I think I'll do some pick'n on sundy




Chinock



Goldings



Mt Hood


----------



## timryan (16/2/11)

Gday guys would love to start growing my own hops.. I'm located just outside Melbourne and i was wondering if there is a type that is best for the Melbourne conditions... As i would possibly love to grow some Cascade and or Chinook does anyone know where i can get these varieties from?? 

Cheers Tim


----------



## big78sam (16/2/11)

timryan said:


> Gday guys would love to start growing my own hops.. I'm located just outside Melbourne and i was wondering if there is a type that is best for the Melbourne conditions... As i would possibly love to grow some Cascade and or Chinook does anyone know where i can get these varieties from??
> 
> Cheers Tim


Mate I can fix you up with a chinook rhizome come winter, and probably goldings and cascade as well. They grow just fine for me in Sunbury. 

You wont need to plant until after the last frost this year so you'll have plenty of time. If you're happy to call past Sunbury one day you can pick them up. Just send me a PM reminder in winter and I'll dig out the rhizomes for you


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## Malted (16/2/11)

timryan said:


> Gday guys would love to start growing my own hops.. I'm located just outside Melbourne and i was wondering if there is a type that is best for the Melbourne conditions... As i would possibly love to grow some Cascade and or Chinook does anyone know where i can get these varieties from??
> 
> Cheers Tim




*G'day Tim*, 5 posts (#609) after your last post (#605), I put in a couple of links. The first one is a link to what I did. In it I discuss the pros and cons of whether you try to get a hop rhizome for free or whether you buy a Rhizome. This may be something you need to consider.

In June or July, one source of purchasing good rhizomes (including Cascade and Chinook and many other varieties) will be from _Lochrockingbeats_ on Ebay. He is in NSW but posts everywhere except WA. 

As for what would be 'best' for Melbourne, I don't think there is a good answer. Growth, maturity and harvest rates seem to be very variable amongst growers even in the same town; there are probably more variables at play than just location. Go for what you think you'd like to use in beer you like making. 

Also have a look at Post# 602. He might be able to get you started right now....


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## manticle (16/2/11)

Lecterfan said:


> Awesome! I did my first full ice cream bucketful harvest of cascade yesterday - didn't weigh them wet.
> 
> Riddle me this: Why is it that a confirmed dry hopping enthusiast like me is worried about dry hopping (or even wet hopping) with my own homegrown flowers? I'm happy to use them in the boil and at flameout, but howabout chucking them straight into secondary or in primary after 7 days of fermentation?
> 
> ...



I've used other people's hop flowers as dry hop, no problem. Straight in. This year it looks like I'll actually get enough of my own flowers to do similar.


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## timryan (16/2/11)

big78sam said:


> Mate I can fix you up with a chinook rhizome come winter, and probably goldings and cascade as well. They grow just fine for me in Sunbury.
> 
> You won't need to plant until after the last frost this year so you'll have plenty of time. If you're happy to call past Sunbury one day you can pick them up. Just send me a PM reminder in winter and I'll dig out the rhizomes for you




Cheers Mate that would be awesome im in bacchus marsh so its not too far away.. ill send you a pm round july then i guess Cheers Tim


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## raven19 (16/2/11)

Malted said:


> As for what would be 'best' for Melbourne, I don't think there is a good answer. Growth, maturity and harvest rates seem to be very variable amongst growers even in the same town; there are probably more variables at play than just location. Go for what you think you'd like to use in beer you like making.



The varying weather from year to year also seems to affect my varieties differently.

Chinook loved the cooler summer this year, the POR pretty much died after 2 hot days - last year both of these plants went bananas when we had longer hot periods.


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## goatus (16/2/11)

My POR plant is looking almost ready to harvest with amazing big hop flowers all over it. My Cascade is lagging well behind, took ages to take off, but has now got burrs on it, looks like ill at least get a bit of dry/wet hopping off it. Very impressed for my first year.

How does everyone determine a rough AA content figure? Im not too fussed with the cascade as ill just use it late and dry. I was thinking making a hop tea with my POR flowers and just comparing it to comercial POR flowers by taste to determine a rough comparison to bitterness. Is there a more scientific way?


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## Malted (16/2/11)

raven19 said:


> Chinook loved the cooler summer this year,



So have I!  

Interesting observations Raven, thanks for sharing.


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## Malted (16/2/11)

goatus said:


> I was thinking making a hop tea with my POR flowers and just comparing it to comercial POR flowers by taste to determine a rough comparison to bitterness. Is there a more scientific way?



A little better than this could be:

*Estimating Hop Bitterness* Info cut and pasted from this page LINK *By Patrick D'Luzansky 1997*

The old standard method to estimate alpha-acid percentage is to make an educated guess and then modify the guess as you gain brewing experience with your hops. Because homegrown hops are fresher and have suffered less handling, they are more bitter than commercial hops. Estimating their alpha as 50 percent higher than the average alpha for the same commercial cultivar is a pretty good guess. Knowing the exact alpha of your hops is less critical if you use them only for flavor and aroma additions. 

We can improve on this guess with a taste-testing technique I call "ratiometric titration." The approach here is to compare a same-cultivar hop of known alpha content with our unknown alpha hop. We compare the ratio of quantities of sugar needed to overcome the bitterness and infer that this ratio will equal the ratio of alphas. Thus, if it takes five teaspoons of sugar to offset the bitterness of our homegrown hops and three teaspoons to null the commercial hops, then our hops are five-thirds as strong, and our alpha-acid content is five-thirds the commercial alpha. If the commercial alpha is 6 percent, then our alpha is 5/3 times 6, or 10 percent. 

I make up two hop tea samples - one from our unknown alpha fresh hops, and the second from commercial whole leaf hops of the same cultivar with known alpha. Stir one-quarter ounce hops plus one teaspoon sugar into two cups of boiling water (the sugar is needed because the hop resins are nearly insoluble in plain water.) Next, reduce the heat and simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes. Now add enough boiled water to each sample to bring their volumes back to two cups. Let the teas settle and cool to room temperature. Next, decant and filter the teas through a coffee filter to remove sediment. 

Now comes the tasting part. It's best to do the tasting in the morning when your taste buds are freshest. Measure a quarter cup of each of the hops teas. Now taste a few drops of the unknown alpha tea and rinse off your tongue. The tea will taste bitter, of course. Next, add one-quarter teaspoon sugar and taste. It will taste a little less bitter. Continue titrating the tea with the sugar in quarter-teaspoon increments (and doing a tongue rinsing between each tasting) while tasting for the point when the predominantly bitter taste finally gives way to a sweet taste (with bitter overtones). This is when the bitter loses its bite. Record the amount of sugar it took to reach this turning point. Now repeat the titration with the known alpha tea. The ratio of the titrated sugar for the unknown hops to the sugar required for the known hops is our estimate of the ratio of the alphas of the respective hops.


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## raven19 (16/2/11)

goatus said:


> Is there a more scientific way?



Laboratory tests if you want it accurately! But that is costly.

But even if you picked all your flowers from one plant there will be variety as some might be just past their prime, others a tad early others ok, etc...

I tend to use the lower end of the range for the given Hop Type and use them primarily as late hops.


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## Blue Dawg (16/2/11)

Started to harvest Cascade last week with 1kg wet so far.

Brewed a pale with wet flowers bittering and a hop tea at day 3..

The POR is a little behind and should be ready in a week so. I hope it pulls its finger out as the house will be up for sale at the end of the month and they they need to move on.


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## Tony (17/2/11)

My first year POR is going great

I got 42g dried (was about 250g wet) off it last week and there is 20 times more to come

cheers


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## Housecat (17/2/11)

well, I got my first harvest off of my Cascade baby. A whopping 48grams...... wet :blink: 

they are probably a bit young still but I couldn't wait!



some of the beautiful Lupulin (spelling?)



There is still more on the plant but it only looks like I'll get about 150 - 200 g off of it though. :unsure: 

looks like I'll be using them as dry hops this year!!

HC


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## Malted (17/2/11)

Tony said:


> My first year POR is going great
> 
> I got 42g dried (was about 250g wet) off it last week and there is 20 times more to come
> 
> cheers



Very impressive looking harvest for a first year rhizome Tony! Since there has been discussion of such, where did you get your zome and how big was it?


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## Malted (17/2/11)

Housecat said:


> well, I got my first harvest off of my Cascade baby. A whopping 48grams...... wet :blink:
> 
> they are probably a bit young still but I couldn't wait!
> some of the beautiful Lupulin (spelling?)
> ...



All the more power to ya son. Don't wanna cast dispersions but hell yeah they certainly do look a bit young. So you're the young bull that wants to run down and brew them all huh?


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## NickB (17/2/11)

Got my first harvest from my second year Chinook a fortnight ago - a massive 12g dried. Will be back up to pick the next lot over the coming weekends, and hoping for a lot more than that....

Cheers


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## Housecat (18/2/11)

Malted said:


> All the more power to ya son. Don't wanna cast dispersions but hell yeah they certainly do look a bit young. So you're the young bull that wants to run down and brew them all huh?



Unfortunately, cos I'm going interstate for work, I fear they would be too old if I left them for when I return 

Maybe I'll have to train my wife on how to pick them??

HC


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## Elbow (18/2/11)

I've got a Chinook and a Hersbrucker Hallertau which were both planted in early spring 2009. Last year got nothing from either, but this year they have both flowered to varying degrees. The Chinook is just a single bine with at a guess around 30 hop cones. They are pretty big and when I pulled a tiny petal off, it definitely had the wondeful aroma. 
The Hersbrucker on the other hand has only sprouted it's flowers (over a hundred or so) in the last 3 weeks. Although they are also nice and big, they smelled pretty grassy with no noticable hop aroma at all. I'll post some photos of both later. 

Should I pick the chinook and leave the Hersbrucker for a while longer?


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## beersatan (19/2/11)

Last year was a major disappointment - my 2yo cascade was cooked by consecutive 40ish days just as it budded which resulted in only 6 reasonable flowers - the first year before it actually gave me enough for one 19L batch which I still rate in my top 5.
This year I have a bumper crop!! :icon_drool2: 
I just yanked off 532g of wet flowers and it looks like I'll get 3 or 4 more pickings of the same size.


Apart from wanting the remaining cones to mature a bit more, the thing that stopped me was while "yanking off" the wind blew a stray bine onto me and it feels like a bloody jellyfish sting.


I wore gloves but will be wearing a burka next time I start picking. Or at least a shirt!! :icon_cheers:


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## raven19 (19/2/11)

My arms were also nice and red following picking my crop. Those hop plants have some bite!

I have noticed the lowest metre of my chinook has some serious spines on the bine now too. Approach with caution!


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## felten (20/2/11)

Take a nice fresh hop cone and put it between your lip and gum like you would with dipping tobacco, give it a go


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## proudscum (20/2/11)

First year Goldings have just yielded 160gr which is about 1/2 the berries.
Cant wait to pick my POR which have been in for years,looks like another 
3 weeks till they are ready.Not having the garage in the way any more has helped bump up the coming yield.


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## Tony (20/2/11)

Malted said:


> Very impressive looking harvest for a first year rhizome Tony! Since there has been discussion of such, where did you get your zome and how big was it?



It was given to me by Kelbygreen. I was given a large amoount of malt and i swaped a bag or 2 for the root.

It was growing out of the bag in his fridge at 4 deg. The root was about 4 inches long and had a fer shoots heading out of the bag from its time in the fridge.

I put it in the ground in mid october and look at it now..... just 4 months later. I dug down deep and put in lots of top notch soil, potting mix, compost, blood n bone, mulched it and fed it up 2 or 3 times a week with liquid fert...... lots of nitrogen early and then switched to seasol as it wanted to flower to stop plant groath and premote flowering. Just like i do with my chillis.

Seemed to work 

I think Kelby regrets giving it to me now


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## Malted (20/2/11)

beersatan said:


> View attachment 44170
> 
> I wore gloves but will be wearing a burka next time I start picking. Or at least a shirt!! :icon_cheers:




He he he, so it'll be a 'bogan brew' will it?  Ah well, the hard lessons we learn huh!
I get nasty sorts of sratches just training them (with a shirt on); I would not try and harvest them without a shirt.

PS you appear to have lopsided chest hair. Dam emoticons are not responding right now! I wanted the laugh my ass off in a good natured, shit stirring kinda smile.


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## jyo (20/2/11)

Well, harvested my 2 year old Hersbrucker today. 55 grams wet...I'm not taking a photo, it's embarrassing! My 2nd year Cascade has not produced ANY cones...
I don't know if any others have this experience in Perth but my hops seem to boom along with strong, healthy growth from Spetember Oct, NoV and then develop a decent amount of burrs. Then when Summer hits they get completely fried from the sun and wind. Those of you who live or have lived in Perth, particularly at the foothills, will know about the shocking, almost daily Easterly winds that we get. The winds 'bruise' the cones and dry the shit out of them, ending up with about half that are dwarfed. This is my experience anyway.
I fertilise with cow shit, blood and bone, seasol, another organic liquid fertiliser, so nutrient deficiencies is not the problem.
I was wondering about others in the Perth region and their experiences. 

Cheers, John.


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## kelbygreen (20/2/11)

nice to see your plants going well tony  Yeah that rhizome was a freak cant remember who I bought it off. Only reason I gave it away is I already had a POR rhizome in the ground and it was a to good a deal to pass. I soon realised I doubt I will need 2 POR plants so kept the one already planted lol.

My are starting to get new growth now but doubt I will get any cones this year. I am going to replant them and do it properly this time it was a bit of a rush job and nothing was fully finished so its my own fault but hope they at least had some root growth to get them going for next year.


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## Blue Dawg (20/2/11)

My Cascade had the life beaten out of them over the last 2 days down here on the Vic west coast.
The wind broke the support strings and bruised 75% of the cones.

I was planing on a harvest today, which gave me 3 buckets of not so good cones.
Never mind I'm sure the beer will taste deelux anyways.

POR is still a week or so from harvest and got off lightly compared to the Cascade.

Also bottled the first home grown Cascade Pale tonight, will be a long wait conditioning these suckers...


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## Brad Churchill (20/2/11)

That's a bugger mate.
I wonder if it's possible to set up some sort of shade cloth protection for the hotter months.
Not sure this would work and it would be a bit of stuffing around. Just a thought....
I was thinking a few posts cemented in the ground. You could then frame up some shade cloth to bolt to the posts for when the sun is really harsh. Perhaps have it set up so that it doesn't block all the sun but mayb half of it through the hottest part of the day.

Bit of work but what won't we do for this fine hobby of ours  .

Hopefully some one else has had similar problems and can offer some proven advice.

Cheers Brad.



jyo said:


> Well, harvested my 2 year old Hersbrucker today. 55 grams wet...I'm not taking a photo, it's embarrassing! My 2nd year Cascade has not produced ANY cones...
> I don't know if any others have this experience in Perth but my hops seem to boom along with strong, healthy growth from Spetember Oct, NoV and then develop a decent amount of burrs. Then when Summer hits they get completely fried from the sun and wind. Those of you who live or have lived in Perth, particularly at the foothills, will know about the shocking, almost daily Easterly winds that we get. The winds 'bruise' the cones and dry the shit out of them, ending up with about half that are dwarfed. This is my experience anyway.
> I fertilise with cow shit, blood and bone, seasol, another organic liquid fertiliser, so nutrient deficiencies is not the problem.
> I was wondering about others in the Perth region and their experiences.
> ...


----------



## keifer33 (20/2/11)

jyo said:


> Well, harvested my 2 year old Hersbrucker today. 55 grams wet...I'm not taking a photo, it's embarrassing! My 2nd year Cascade has not produced ANY cones...
> I don't know if any others have this experience in Perth but my hops seem to boom along with strong, healthy growth from Spetember Oct, NoV and then develop a decent amount of burrs. Then when Summer hits they get completely fried from the sun and wind. Those of you who live or have lived in Perth, particularly at the foothills, will know about the shocking, almost daily Easterly winds that we get. The winds 'bruise' the cones and dry the shit out of them, ending up with about half that are dwarfed. This is my experience anyway.
> I fertilise with cow shit, blood and bone, seasol, another organic liquid fertiliser, so nutrient deficiencies is not the problem.
> I was wondering about others in the Perth region and their experiences.
> ...



I would have to agree John, mine went mental for first year plants..then dec/early jan it was like a flame had come and burnt them. Will be thinking over winter on a shade cloth system to protect them even just a little bit along the lines of running the wires for the bines to grop on and then running a few cross wires with shade cloth to project it from around 11-4 where the sun goes in the garden. My cascade just died back totally and has shot back up to around 2 x 2m bines but hasnt produced anything. My wuert has produced a handful of cones but are all growing at different rates so cant really pick alot. I did harvest my first 2 cones today with a big smile but dismal when its compared to the basket fulls in previous photos. Even if I didn't get a big harvest it inspired me to get my camera out and use it for like the first time in 6 months.


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## jyo (20/2/11)

Brad C said:


> That's a bugger mate.
> I wonder if it's possible to set up some sort of shade cloth protection for the hotter months.
> Cheers Brad.



Cheers, Brad. A mate tried the shadecloth this year on his third year Chinook. The Easterlies fried his. He got less cones than me...
Spoonta from AHB has also reported crap yields.




keifer33 said:


> I would have to agree John, mine went mental for first year plants..then dec/early jan it was like a flame had come and burnt them. Will be thinking over winter on a shade cloth system to protect them even just a little bit along the lines of running the wires for the bines to grop on and then running a few cross wires with shade cloth to project it from around 11-4 where the sun goes in the garden. My cascade just died back totally and has shot back up to around 2 x 2m bines but hasnt produced anything. My wuert has produced a handful of cones but are all growing at different rates so cant really pick alot. I did harvest my first 2 cones today with a big smile but dismal when its compared to the basket fulls in previous photos. Even if I didn't get a big harvest it inspired me to get my camera out and use it for like the first time in 6 months.



Yea, Keifer, it's frustrating. I will give them another go this year, but if I don't see any improvement I may have a heap of Rhizomes up for grabs. There I was at the start of the season thinking I was going to get at least enough for a double batch <_< 
It's great to see all of these fresh hop pics coming in though, blokes.
Cheers, John.


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## Blue Dawg (21/2/11)

It was the wind that damaged the cones, the heat hasn't been too bad here this "summer".
We have had 3 hot days around 40deg, the rest has been humid or cloudy mild, which is not so good when you live at the beach in Vic..


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## Mitternacht Brauer (21/2/11)

Hi Guys ,

Here is a pic of my efforts yesterday. All off one Hersbrucker . All up 5 bucket loads . I will weigh the cones when dry. 




This year all my hop plants have been neglected as opposed to previous years. They had some seasol early in their growth but that hasn't happened for some months. Only a Perle in a pot had the leaves clipped around the base. 

They are on the easterly side of the house so are protected from the sun in the afternoon.

I don't mean to gloat but Woohoo!! :lol: 

MB


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## cdbrown (21/2/11)

jyo said:


> Well, harvested my 2 year old Hersbrucker today. 55 grams wet...I'm not taking a photo, it's embarrassing! My 2nd year Cascade has not produced ANY cones...
> I don't know if any others have this experience in Perth but my hops seem to boom along with strong, healthy growth from Spetember Oct, NoV and then develop a decent amount of burrs. Then when Summer hits they get completely fried from the sun and wind. Those of you who live or have lived in Perth, particularly at the foothills, will know about the shocking, almost daily Easterly winds that we get. The winds 'bruise' the cones and dry the shit out of them, ending up with about half that are dwarfed. This is my experience anyway.
> I fertilise with cow shit, blood and bone, seasol, another organic liquid fertiliser, so nutrient deficiencies is not the problem.
> I was wondering about others in the Perth region and their experiences.
> ...



The bines on mine are still trying to climb and aren't showing any signs of producing hops so unfortunately can't help with the wind.


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## Wolfy (21/2/11)

Mitternacht Brauer said:


> This year all my hop plants have been neglected as opposed to previous years.
> ...
> I don't mean to gloat but Woohoo!! :lol:


Well worth gloating for a haul like that, well done. 

I think we've been a bit lucky with the weather this year, there has hardly been any extended hot/dry/windy periods, so - unlike previous years - hops have thrived with minimal care.


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## Malted (21/2/11)

Wolfy said:


> I think we've been a bit lucky with the weather this year, there has hardly been any extended hot/dry/windy periods, so - unlike previous years - hops have thrived with minimal care.




Still waiting for some update pictures of your bines on the farm...


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## grimpanda (21/2/11)

Didn't think it would happen, but I might actually end up with enough hops from my first years plantation for a brew!

I've got two Hallertau, one Fuggles and one Tettnang which are all at various stages of flowering.

The Tettnang took off first and climbed quickly, but sadly died back - yet to really determine why.

The Hallertau are by far doing the best - I think i'm fairly close to being able to harvest some - they're developing a little more aroma each day. Should I just pick them when they go papery, regardless of aroma?


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## Bretto77 (21/2/11)

Hi Nick,
I did similar and placed some solo lights to the base of the plant. Second years crop was greay over 100gms of Casade very happy big cones great smell. Seems that keeping first year yeild expectations low is the key.

Brett



Nick JD said:


> This is my first try, Brett. I hear the first year is always pretty crap for yield as the rhizome is hell bent of establishing itself. I heard the trick is to fool the thing into thinking the suns setting at 10pm, so I'm going to wrap a cheapo length of those christmas lights up the string and put the timer to come on at 6pm and go off at 10pm - they're only a few watts.
> 
> Yield is supposed to have a lot to do with photoperiod.
> 
> ...


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## Stinger (22/2/11)

Finished drying and vac packing the Hops, there is still another pick to go to clean up the hops left on the bush. My first harvest yielded Cascade about 750gm dry and Chinook 75gm dry. About a similiar amount of chinook left on the bine and maybe a quarter of the Cascade left.
Growing in the soil I found I had to pump on the nutrients, loads of NPK Blue plus blood and bone, seaweed juice and extra nitrogen, they lapped it up. I also didn't bother to select the strongest bines, reckoned that let them all have a go and feed the plant up. I only had 2.5metre trellis so I had to train all of the bines that grew over the top sidewasy away from the Saaz so they didn't get mixed up.
After drying I think I have underhopped the harvest ale I put down with fresh hops, i only doubled the dry weight to get the amount of wet hops to put into the boil but after drying an estimated 4-5kg wet hops down to 750gm it seems my ratio is a touch out :blink: Will just have to see how it all goes. Could rack into secondary and dry hop more?


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## lagers44 (22/2/11)

now I'm depressed ! my first year chinook gave me 15gm wet cones so i didn't bother to weigh them when dry..................oh well i may just soak them in my next pint .


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## petesbrew (22/2/11)

lagers44 said:


> now I'm depressed ! my first year chinook gave me 15gm wet cones so i didn't bother to weigh them when dry..................oh well i may just soak them in my next pint .


Hehe, my perle has supplied me with a bountiful 10g. As it's my first ever harvest I'm stoked with anything. Will dry hop them in a knk lager I've got planned soon.


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## Lecterfan (23/2/11)

I'll try to steal my gf's camera this weekend but I thought I'd offer some observations.

I just picked 900gms (wet) cascade and 700gms (wet) of chinook.

The chinook cones were more uniform in size and shape. In general they were a bit smaller than the cascade but certainly based on feel, shape and presence of lupulin they were at the same developmental stage. The chinook grew nicely in pairs or groups of 4 and I could pick a group at a time.

The cascade is all random shapes and sizes (this is my second harvest of them but this time I was less discriminating as they are all starting to look as though they could get papery and brown and ruined if this weekend heats up), but there is simply truckloads of it and the flowers are scattered all over the place.

Not sure how I'll go with drying and storing them all (I have kindly been offered a vac sealer to borrow this weekend), but I'm going to do a LFPA on Friday using all chinook and cascade and just guesstimating the chinook is going to be at least %8-10. If it's heaps more I don't care, I can handle the IBU's haha. I'm going to try FWH in place of the 20 min hop addition.

Awesome. :beerbang:


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## husky (23/2/11)

Finally got some pictures on my hops. Made up a steel frame from 40x40x3 SHS that is around 3.5 m high. It was not going to be this high initially but im glad I did as there are not many cones on the first two metres or so, but hundrest in the top section that gets alot of sun.
1st year POR rhizome on left and 1st year Cascade rhizome on right. No special soil treatment but it gid get watered on the hotter days. Nearly time to harvest I think, some cones getting brownish tinge and yellow lupin beginning to appear.


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## Lecterfan (24/2/11)

This is madness. Just picked another 1kg of cascade and 700 gms chinook.

The chinook is now bare but the cascade looks like its barely been touched.

Anyone in the Ballarat area who wants to pick some cascade hops for themselves PM me.


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## husky (25/2/11)

Picked a handfull yesterday to get an idea of how ready they may be. Looking at the pics can anyone suggest it they "look" ready to pick. I was expecting a pungent smell but perhaps that comes after theyre dried. The felp a bit papery but spring back to original position when squeezed.


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## wakkatoo (25/2/11)

going by what I have read, once they start to brown then they have just passed the ideal time to pick (apparently need to pick just before they brown, but that can be difficult to tell). Mine look similar and I was expecting more of a hoppy smell as well. Think I'm used to the strong aroma of the concentrated pellets.

So to answer - yes, they needed to be picked


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## proudscum (25/2/11)

open them up and look for a nice yellow resin that looks like pollen.To get an idea of the aroma rub the cone between your fingers should be sticky and aromatic.Just vac packed 27gr of goldings that smell a little grassy but plenty of resin and a nice aroma when rubbed.


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## husky (25/2/11)

The browning is only on one side so im suspecting a bit of sun bern perhaps. These were the only brown ones showing atm, the rest are still all green. Might just pick them and learn for next year if they dont produced the expected bitterness. Theres plenty of yellow lupin under the leaves.


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## felten (25/2/11)

proudscum said:


> open them up and look for a nice yellow resin that looks like pollen.To get an idea of the aroma rub the cone between your fingers should be sticky and aromatic.Just vac packed 27gr of goldings that smell a little grassy but plenty of resin and a nice aroma when rubbed.


+1, the cones don't have much of a smell themselves, you have to pull a bract off and get the lupulin on your fingers to appreciate it.


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## Lecterfan (25/2/11)

All dried - 400gms cascade, 180 gms chinook, 80 gms hersbucker. This is what I picked on Wednesday, Thursdays crop is still drying and I still have a lot of cascade and hersbrucker yet to pick.


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## proudscum (25/2/11)

Lecterfan said:


> All dried - 400gms cascade, 180 gms chinook, 80 gms hersbucker. This is what I picked on Wednesday, Thursdays crop is still drying and I still have a lot of cascade and hersbrucker yet to pick.




Need to be a little careful when drying em.they may feel dry but the storks may still have a bit of moisture in them.i normally dry to the point they feel dry then bag em up in a zip lok over night to let the moisture balance out then give em a couple of hours to dry off i bit more before packing and freezing.


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## jimi (25/2/11)

I take it that I've been a bit slow to pick some of mine as they've gone brown. 
So what is the issue with the brown ones and what do people do with them? 
ditch em?
expect less aroma / flavour from them?


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## Malted (27/2/11)

Lecterfan said:


> All dried - 400gms cascade, 180 gms chinook, 80 gms hersbucker. This is what I picked on Wednesday, Thursdays crop is still drying and I still have a lot of cascade and hersbrucker yet to pick.




Is that a kilt or a flanny you're wearing?  :lol:


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## Lecterfan (27/2/11)

proudscum said:


> Need to be a little careful when drying em.they may feel dry but the storks may still have a bit of moisture in them.i normally dry to the point they feel dry then bag em up in a zip lok over night to let the moisture balance out then give em a couple of hours to dry off i bit more before packing and freezing.



Cheers - this bloody cool humid weather is making it harder than I imagined, but I'm pretty confident most of those were dry as a nuns nasty. 



Malted said:


> Is that a kilt or a flanny you're wearing?  :lol:




The clan McBogan. :icon_drunk:


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## uncyp (27/2/11)

petesbrew said:


> Hehe, my perle has supplied me with a bountiful 10g. As it's my first ever harvest I'm stoked with anything. Will dry hop them in a knk lager I've got planned soon.




Hey Pete,

I have my first crop of Goldings - when you dry hop yours do you dry them at all or straight from the bines to the barrel?

Cheers


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## Fents (28/2/11)

cascade, still got about that much left on the plant too


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## DU99 (28/2/11)

Nice crop..


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## Stinger (28/2/11)

jimi said:


> I take it that I've been a bit slow to pick some of mine as they've gone brown.
> So what is the issue with the brown ones and what do people do with them?
> ditch em?
> expect less aroma / flavour from them?



I picked heaps of brown ones, there is probably heaps of brown cones harvested from commercial crops that get processed into pellets and we never see it......................... B) 
We have had some constant wind for about the past 6 weeks so there was some wind burnt ones but also some that had rubbed against leaves and bines which also didn't look that pretty, but all had plenty of yellow lupulin crystals and aroma was really cool when picking them and also stuffing them into the vac seal bags

There would be some difference to a nice fresh green pretty hop cone, but chucking them into a boiling wort is a great leveller tho.


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## jimi (28/2/11)

Stinger said:


> I picked heaps of brown ones, there is probably heaps of brown cones harvested from commercial crops that get processed into pellets and we never see it......................... B)
> We have had some constant wind for about the past 6 weeks so there was some wind burnt ones but also some that had rubbed against leaves and bines which also didn't look that pretty, but all had plenty of yellow lupulin crystals and aroma was really cool when picking them and also stuffing them into the vac seal bags
> 
> There would be some difference to a nice fresh green pretty hop cone, but chucking them into a boiling wort is a great leveller tho.



Hi Stinger, I was thinking along the same lines. For the sake of comparison though I'll bag my hops in two bags and seperate the brown ones for comparison. Have you sampled any results from the brownish hops?


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## Stinger (28/2/11)

jimi said:


> Hi Stinger, I was thinking along the same lines. For the sake of comparison though I'll bag my hops in two bags and seperate the brown ones for comparison. Have you sampled any results from the brownish hops?



My harvest ale is in the fermenter at the moment, bottling will be the job for tomorrow evening. 
I didn't discriminate with the hops, I had a hop pellet tea bag that I threw into the boil at 60 min along with 50gm Chinnook and 50gm Cascades (wet weight) then did 30gm Cascades at 30min, 30 gm Cascades 15min and then 30gm of Cascades + 30gm Chinnook at flameout
but while i boiled this up I dried 50gm wet Cascades in the oven on low until very dry and came out with result of 8gm dry, so I thought bugger it and chucked that into the fermenter when i pitched the yeast (strained all of the other hops out when I transferred wort to fermenter)
Only the first time i have played with hops like this due to having a supply to experiment with.

you could be on track to do a couple of small scale batches??


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## Malted (28/2/11)

I thought that weight divided by 4 may be appropriate to calc wet hop additions but those in the know (Dr Smurto) suggested divide by 5 to give an 'equivalent' weight. Well beggar me, I dried 80g wet and they dried out to 16g - a factor of five! I know it is only one 'test' but it supports what I was told and I believe that advice to have credibility based on repetition.

I tried what I thought to be a novel way to dry my remaining hops:
I No Chilled my wort in a jerry can on it's side, laid a cloth over it and spread my wet hops (80g) on the cloth. 24hrs the wort was at ambient temperature and the hops were nicely dried! The stems will snap and the flowers themselves are like paper and will come apart when rubbed; I think they are dried (maybe even a little too much). 

So on Sunday I did an APA(ish) brew with 200g of fresh Chinook hops (not the dried ones) for 15mins:



Even though I gave them a good stir, they took a while to get wet enough to actually be circulated in the boil.



But they made a good trub trap:



Oh and since this thread is meant to be about growing hops, here's a picture of my Hersbrucker taken today (all first year plants). I am planning on pulling the cones off it tommorrow. 



I had trouble telling if they were dried enough, papery enough etc when picking. It seemed like the 'ripe' ones would pull away easily, often with them breaking a bit off the top and it remaining on the bine whilst the not so ripe ones would require the stalk to be snapped. So then I did a tug test, it felt good so I went back to picking hops...


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## homebrewkid (1/3/11)

so where do i get some seeds from so i can grow some myself?


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## husky (1/3/11)

Harvested last night. Both first year rhizomes. 1.3kg wet POR 200g wet Cascade. Very happy now trying to settle on a recipe for theis weekend to make use of them. I wish my shed smelt of hops all year!


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## Malted (1/3/11)

homebrewkid said:


> so where do i get some seeds from so i can grow some myself?




That question has been asked a few times in this thread already. I so hope this is a joke. If it is, yeah you got me.

Just in case it isn't, you buy/swap/freebee *rhizomes* around July. 
Try this for some info to start with: AHB Wiki article on growing hops LINK


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## raven19 (1/3/11)

homebrewkid said:


> so where do i get some seeds from so i can grow some myself?



You will want to wait about 5 or 6 months and keep an eye out here on on ebay for Hop Rhizomes. Seeds are no good, as you may get a non flowing male plant.

Plenty of people have rhizomes up for grabs come September-ish onwards. Cost is minimal, often just the cost of a few of your finest brews.

Edit - too slow typing...


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## Golani51 (1/3/11)

Fents said:


> cascade, still got about that much left on the plant too




Please send me your address Fents and times when you are not home and I'll 'help' you clear the bines of those nasty hops.


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## grimpanda (2/3/11)

Just did a quick harvest to play around with drying.

Picked 200g wet from my first year Hallertau - was rather choosy and only went for the driest cones, so there would be at least 3 times this amount left still to ripen - some were also starting to brown (though I suspect this might be sun/wind burn - it's been windy as hell in Melbourne lately).











Does anyone have experience using a food dehydrator to dry hops? I a few guys in the US seem to use them - i've got access to one that can be adjusted down as low as 35C.

Gabe


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## jimi (2/3/11)

400g of Mt Hood dried down to 75g and 300g of chinook dried down to 59g. Vacc sealed and the shrink down again to something about the size of a fist. But man they smelled promising


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## goatus (3/3/11)

Ive just been overseas for 2 weeks and left some hop cones drying in a dry dark place.. they are as dry as dry can be. Will they be alright, or will they be staled? How long is everyone drying for if just air drying?


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## Malted (3/3/11)

goatus said:


> Ive just been overseas for 2 weeks and left some hop cones drying in a dry dark place.. they are as dry as dry can be. Will they be alright, or will they be staled? How long is everyone drying for if just air drying?




I'd reckon they will be fine, just a little too dry perhaps but still usable. Not stale, just over dry.
Hops are given a Hop Stability Index, which has been pointed out to me is the amount of Alpha Acids they will lose over six months if left uncovered at room temperature. Depending upon variety it could be as low as 12% or higher than 50% lost in six months. A couple of weeks isn't going to make them loose much alpha acids. 

If you're still not sure, bag them up and send them to me for 'disposal'


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## geoffi (4/3/11)

My hops is getting close to harvest time. This year I have four varieties planted: POR, Goldings, Columbus and Tettnanger. They are producing in that order, with the POR loaded with cones; the Goldings might have enough for a brew or two; Columbus has just a handful, but they look great; Tettnanger only a couple of scrawny cones. 

One interesting thing I find is the difference in size and shape of the cones between the varieties. Compared to the Goldings and Columbus, POR is much more slender.

Example 1: POR and Columbus






Example 2: POR and Goldings


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## Sydneybrewer (4/3/11)

dam i am so jealous my 1st yr chinook only ever grew to 1m high and produced no flowers, have to look at a location change next season and hope i get some results :unsure:


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## geoffi (4/3/11)

Sydneybrewer said:


> dam i am so jealous my 1st yr chinook only ever grew to 1m high and produced no flowers, have to look at a location change next season and hope i get some results :unsure:




I've heard the first year is usually not too productive. I had a bumper crop of POR first year, and have had moderate to almost nil with the other varieties. I did pay my POR a lot of attention last year, with plenty of food and water. This year I was overseas all of January, so everything had to fend for itself pretty much. Maybe that made some difference.


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## Golani51 (4/3/11)

Sydneybrewer said:


> dam i am so jealous my 1st yr chinook only ever grew to 1m high and produced no flowers, have to look at a location change next season and hope i get some results :unsure:



My Chinook is in the ground, whilst the others (columbus, POR) are potted. The POR started off well but seems to have stopped and died somewhat (same with the Columbus). The chinook started off slow, however since New Years has grown around 5m. Still only tiny, what I think are, hops but nothing real yet. It has sprouted out several small shoots in the last couple days. I don't know if Ill get anything out of it (They were planted late) but it has been interesting nevertheless. 

R


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## Leigh (6/3/11)

Just completed my first harvest. Wet weights are 24g por, 7g chinook and 46g cluster.


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## thylacine (6/3/11)

..."Just completed my first harvest. Wet weights are 24g por, 7g chinook and 46g cluster."...

My second year harvest finished two weeks ago. Twenty-one bags in the freezer. 75g per bag. Dried first. POR, Chinook, Tettnang and Elsasser. Latter didn't flower. 
Hops all in ground, year round. Face north and on drip system. Healthy rhizomes obtained from "Gilbrew" 2009. (Elsasser not from Gilbrew)


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## geoffi (8/3/11)

I've just harvested my Goldings (about 100g wet), Columbus (a few handfuls), and about 1/3 of my POR (good crop, maybe 1.5kg wet.)

The POR and Goldings smell nice and hoppy, as expected.

But the Columbus...wow. It really hits you. I'm looking forward to next year when this one hopefully starts producing a decent crop.


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## waggastew (8/3/11)

First year harvest was 485g wet (~100g dry) of Chinook/Cascade/Goldings/Mt Hood/Saaz in an unknown ratio (don't plant hop rhizomes too close together!). Used most of the hops in a Harvest Ale

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry748998

I have my hops on a 'flag pole' system so I could lower them to harvest and then raise them again. I plan to leave the bines for another month or two and then will give them the chop and move the rhizomes to more distant mounds!


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## proudscum (8/3/11)

waggastew said:


> First year harvest was 485g wet (~100g dry) of Chinook/Cascade/Goldings/Mt Hood/Saaz in an unknown ratio (don't plant hop rhizomes too close together!). Used most of the hops in a Harvest Ale
> 
> http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry748998
> 
> I have my hops on a 'flag pole' system so I could lower them to harvest and then raise them again. I plan to leave the bines for another month or two and then will give them the chop and move the rhizomes to more distant mounds!




I would be tempted to just let them die off naturally so they can spend the next few months storing up energy for the winter months.Over winter i would prepare your new hop garden with a lot of organic matter and mulch and then move then next spring when they start to appear so you dont run the risk of killing them off ...but that is my thoughts and how i am going to move the plants that i have in the ground at the moment.


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## waggastew (8/3/11)

Yeah, that probably sounds like a better plan. That way they are either happily dormant in the current spot or actively growing in the new spot. Will go with that.


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## Blue Dawg (8/3/11)

I had a sample of my harvest brew tonight, pale, vienna and carapils with 100grms POR early and 200grms Cascade late, Deelux, with a hop punch.

My first year growing hops, I have harvested dry 900grms cascade from 2 plants and 500grms POR from 1 plant, happy camper/brewer.

Golden Ale Homie next up..


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## fergi (9/3/11)

i wonder if anyone in south australia has any rhizomes for sale,i would like to try growing some hop plants, i live 30 klm,s north of gawler, can pick them up and pay whatever the going price is.
cheers fergi


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## adryargument (9/3/11)

Check at the end of winter, bit early at the moment.



fergi said:


> i wonder if anyone in south australia has any rhizomes for sale,i would like to try growing some hop plants, i live 30 klm,s north of gawler, can pick them up and pay whatever the going price is.
> cheers fergi


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## jonocarroll (17/3/11)

Fents said:


> cascade, still got about that much left on the plant too


Oh yeah? Check this out... First year Cluster grown in a pot



All of 16.5g wet. Dried on some old chicken wire in the shed. 




Got it down to 3.5g dry.




Packed and frozen. 




Ha! Top that! ... Beat you by miles.... And I've got even less on the PoR yet to harvest... wait, the point _IS_ to get the smallest possible weight, right? Golf style? .... ah shit.

I was seriously considering doing a 1L 10-min IPA on the stove if I got the 10g I would need.... *WTF am I meant to do with this now?
*


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## jyo (17/3/11)

I kick your arse by about 10 gms, mate. :icon_cheers:


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## NickB (17/3/11)

Finally got to the old house last Friday and harvested my crop.

No pics, but ended up with 8g POR dried, and 47g Chinook Dried (first harvest netted 12g dried). Have just about enough for a late addition in an APA now 

Oh well, next year they will really get going I reckon 

Cheers


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## jonocarroll (17/3/11)

jyo said:


> I kick your arse by about 10 gms, mate. :icon_cheers:


-6.5g? :blink:


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## ~MikE (17/3/11)

QuantumBrewer said:


> -6.5g? :blink:


he took 6.5g of hops he'd bought and stuck it to a bine. 

i'm in the same boat with growing in pots, i've got about 7-8 cones, and 6 plants. they are so going in the ground this year...


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## RobH (17/3/11)

I read somewhere on the forum recently (maybe in this thread?) about someone who was going to try to strike some hop plants from cuttings... as I have just started my first attempt at striking some cuttings of other plants* around the garden I am curious if anyone has done this successfully with hops.

* Ornamental Grape, Rosemary, Lavendar, Daisy, Geranium


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## matho (17/3/11)

Yeah rob they are really easy to take cuttings from I do it every year if you want some hop plants let me know this September and I'll take some for you 

Cheers steve


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## jyo (17/3/11)

QuantumBrewer said:


> -6.5g? :blink:



I don't play golf.


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## wakkatoo (17/3/11)

nice to hear (not really) about the small 1st year amounts. I've had bugger all, got some cascade but realised after the fact they were picked too early. Still some out there, may pick them tomorrow but not eough to do much with (other than chuck a few in my glass of beer, which is fun  ). I was just happy to see hop cones this year, expect more out of the buggers next year tho!

edit- Can't beat QB tho, I've got more than that


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## RobH (18/3/11)

matho said:


> Yeah rob they are really easy to take cuttings from I do it every year if you want some hop plants let me know this September and I'll take some for you
> 
> Cheers steve



That would be awesome! Thanks  

I am already planning in my head where the garden beds are going to be for the hops


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## Whiteferret (21/3/11)

Here's my haul for this season all first year rhizomes


Saaz 96 grams dry
Cluster 150 grams dry
POR 90 grams dry
Perle 21 grams dry
Chinook 40 grams dry
Nugget 51 grams dry
Goldings 0
Fuggles 0


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## Blue Dawg (21/3/11)

Today I spent 2 hours digging up my POR and Cascade as we ae on the move.

These rihzomes have grown at lest 4 times the size they where last August.

Forrest brewery will score some Cascade and the the rest will go to the old man.

All I can say is plant them with heaps of poo be careful of the roots...


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## black_labb (22/3/11)

My chinook just keeps growing. I'm not sure wether to expect flowers from it this late but it wont stop growing. I found more rogue vines growing out that I had to training onto the trellis after the weekend. 

my por got scorched (more sun where it is compared to the chinook). I got a few and have some more that aren't yet ready to pick.


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## cdbrown (22/3/11)

One bine has about 20 hops on there, no idea if I should pick it. Another bine is showing the start of hops will other plants just seem to be happy growing and not producing. It's been fun.


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## Wolfy (22/3/11)

RobH said:


> I read somewhere on the forum recently (maybe in this thread?) about someone who was going to try to strike some hop plants from cuttings...


I tried taking cuttings from mine, but they all failed/died.
I find root propagation/layering/rhizomes work best for me.


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## proudscum (22/3/11)

Doing cuttings is very easy but you need to look after them really well.my method is

have pot of water ready to put cutting material in

take cuttings with 3 or 4 sets of leaves that are close together and cut with a new razor blade and put them straight into the pot of water.

prepare cutting media(propagating mix, vermiculite,perlite or a mix of all 3)by putting it into propagation trays and wet it down so it is moist but not soaking.

cut the hop material on an angle after taking a few of the bottom leaves off and dip into rooting hormone then put into planting media where you have poked a hole with a satay stick into the media.

i use propagating trays with a plastic lid($7 from green shed)and put them under a fluro light
for 3 to 4 weeks till they show signs of throwing roots,then slowly introduce them to natural light.

i did about 120 cuttings with about a 80% strike rate even when i went away for 10 days and they had no one looking after them.

If enough people were interested in learning how to do this i could set up a workshop next spring/summer.If all my plants pull through there will be 12 varieties to take cuttings from.


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## [email protected] (26/3/11)

I got 50-odd grams (dry) of Cascade and Tardiff de Borgogne.... Not a good yield compared to last year and my Goldings did SFA again this year. Has anyone had much luck growing Goldings? Not sure if the plants are no good or whether the Otways weather is too wet for them.



Blue Dawg said:


> Today I spent 2 hours digging up my POR and Cascade as we ae on the move.
> 
> Forrest brewery will score some Cascade and the the rest will go to the old man.



Are you in the Otways Blue Dawg? Didn't know the Forrest Brewery was after home grown hops, will bear that in mind next year if my harvest is good.


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## Wolfy (26/3/11)

proudscum said:


> If enough people were interested in learning how to do this i could set up a workshop next spring/summer.If all my plants pull through there will be 12 varieties to take cuttings from.


Adding photos to your description, either in this or a new thread or better still as an AHB Article would be more than enough for me. 

Am I right to assume that plants grown from cuttings - in general - will require an extra year to establish themselves well when compared to rhyzomes (since they will not have the food-stores built up as a rhizome would)?


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## matho (26/3/11)

cuttings establish themselfs pretty quickly 




the cutting was taken in october 08 and that photo was in march 09 so the grow fairly quickly. i took 7 cuttings this year using the method i posted in the hops article and i got 5 to take the other 2 died mainly because of me.

proudscum thats a good idea about the fluro lights 

cheers matho

edit: i have given a fair number of cuttings to other ahb members it would be interesting to see how they are going


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## proudscum (26/3/11)

Wolfy said:


> Adding photos to your description, either in this or a new thread or better still as an AHB Article would be more than enough for me.
> 
> Am I right to assume that plants grown from cuttings - in general - will require an extra year to establish themselves well when compared to rhyzomes (since they will not have the food-stores built up as a rhizome would)?




The main reason i took cuttings was to get as many varieties as possible 
(as we are renovating and will have about 40 mtr of pergola that needs covering ...then we where going to move so flogged most of em off except for a couple of each strain)

and it was past the time that you would have people selling rhizomes.The cuts are in 250ml pots and are on average 2-3ft long and the rhizome is now about as thick as a pencil but not sure how long as i didnt want to disturb it to much.They will winter over in the pots so i can really pump some organic matter in for spring.I think but will have to see that they will do better than a rhizome as they have a good root mass whereas most rihzome cuts i do dont have any/few roots.

Will do an article on cuttings next spring with photos......just thought a workshop was a good way to meet a few fellow brewers/growers and give the perlicks a work out.

Cheers SCum


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## clarkey7 (3/4/11)

Brewin my 2IPA Harvest Ale today.

159g POR and Chinook all going in.

Have kept some back for hop tea/dry hop and an Aussie Pale Ale later  

Have heard most use commercial hops for bittering etc etc....I'm just going for it.




I'll let ya know how it goes.

PB


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## Malted (4/4/11)

Pocket Beers said:


> Brewin my 2IPA Harvest Ale today.
> 
> 159g POR and Chinook all going in.
> 
> ...



Not sure if milling the flowers will help, let us know how it goes.... :lol: 

Not sure if you have read it but Dr Smurto says that from his experience factoring 9% AA is a good bet for home grown Chinook (in the Adelaide Hills). 
I used about 200g of fresh Chinook at 20 mins, no chilled in a Pale Ale and it is probably not bitter enough (nor flavoursome enough but that may be the no chill).


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## Malted (4/4/11)

Wolfy said:


> I tried taking cuttings from mine, but they all failed/died.
> I find root propagation/layering/rhizomes work best for me.




I have had no success with layering; I'd be keen to hear more about how and when you did these techniques.

I had no success with cuttings straight into potting mix. But I did have good success with cuttings that I put in a glass of water for a few weeks until they struck roots about 30mm long or longer and then put them into potting mix. 
No rooting hormone powder and cuttings in water = roots from nodes/stem axis only; 
Rooting hormone powder on cutting then cuttings in water = roots all over the place (even between the stem axis').


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## ekul (4/4/11)

Hops are one of the easiest plants to root.

Cut a piece of bine that has at least two bits where the leaves come out (called nodes). If you have a sharp knife or razor blade this is best to use when making the cut.

Trim away the bottom leaves

Put cutting in glass of water. Change water every few days

Roots will appear in a week. As soon as the plant has roots it can go in some potting mix. 

I made some chinook cuttings earlier in the yeasr and they ended up being as tall as my other chinooks, and produced about the same. The other plants were rhizomes were first year plants.

Because the plants flower depending on the light cycle it might be important to break the bight cycle, this can be done by having the plants inside where lights will be on at night time, or use a flouro.


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## clarkey7 (4/4/11)

Malted said:


> Not sure if milling the flowers will help, let us know how it goes.... :lol:
> 
> Not sure if you have read it but Dr Smurto says that from his experience factoring 9% AA is a good bet for home grown Chinook (in the Adelaide Hills).
> I used about 200g of fresh Chinook at 20 mins, no chilled in a Pale Ale and it is probably not bitter enough (nor flavoursome enough but that may be the no chill).


Thanks Malted...yeah I remember reading that...but I use different fertilizer on my hops, have shorter day length and a very wet year etc....so who knows what I'm starting with?
I figured that I would make a big enough beer (7.5%), that if using averages of hop IBU's the malt would stand up to a 1:1 IBU/BG....and if they weren't bitter enough....they would probably still be fine....

I tasted the wort remaining in the pot after draining. It wasn't as bitter as what I was expecting and tasted a bit grassy.
Must have been those 5 wet hop cones I chucked in  

I too am No-chilling, but have about 35g of chinook for a hop tea for after fermentation has slowed down.....not really keen on just chucking them straight in.

If all else fails I could add some commercial hops for aroma or make a mini batch and blend etc.....

Let you know.

PB


----------



## Tony (23/4/11)

I chopped my hop plant back to leave a few buds at the base.......... and now its growing again.

Winter crop???


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## raven19 (23/4/11)

Mine have yet to die back Tony also! They should go dormant once it gets darker and cooler over winter months for sure.


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## kelbygreen (23/4/11)

mine are still growing after all the leaves and all but 1 bine on each plant survived the heat and neglect. I am just leaving them die off on there own now havnt really checked them this week but didnt get a single cone of them they was forming when it died back.


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## matho (24/4/11)

Tony said:


> I chopped my hop plant back to leave a few buds at the base.......... and now its growing again.
> 
> Winter crop???



hey tony my plants do that some times, they will only grow about 1 in and have small leaves on them and they will say like that all winter, nothing to worry about.

cheers matho


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## Newbee(r) (24/4/11)

Hopz said:


> I got 50-odd grams (dry) of Cascade and Tardiff de Borgogne.... Not a good yield compared to last year and my Goldings did SFA again this year. Has anyone had much luck growing Goldings? Not sure if the plants are no good or whether the Otways weather is too wet for them.
> 
> 
> 
> Are you in the Otways Blue Dawg? Didn't know the Forrest Brewery was after home grown hops, will bear that in mind next year if my harvest is good.



My goldings seem to go gangbusters with lots of water - they also really need lots of sun and compost. I got a pound off a second year goldings despite the lower sunshine in Canberra this year.


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## mmmyummybeer (24/4/11)

*Hops and Peas - can you grow both
*​I'm just in the process of cutting my hops down and have been thinking that as they are dormant over winter I might try to grow a crop of winter pea's in the same spot. I figure I might as well make us of my strings whilst the hops are dormant and I know peas are renown for putting nitrogen back into the soil, which I reccon the hops would love. Only problem I can see is that there might not be enough room for the pea roots to grow, as the rhizome is getting quite big. Any way I am going to give it a go. Just wondering on any one else's thoughts, or has anyone else come up with the same idea and tried it. Cheers :icon_chickcheers:


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## Newbee(r) (24/4/11)

mmmyummybeer said:


> *Hops and Peas - can you grow both
> *​I'm just in the process of cutting my hops down and have been thinking that as they are dormant over winter I might try to grow a crop of winter pea's in the same spot. I figure I might as well make us of my strings whilst the hops are dormant and I know peas are renown for putting nitrogen back into the soil, which I reccon the hops would love. Only problem I can see is that there might not be enough room for the pea roots to grow, as the rhizome is getting quite big. Any way I am going to give it a go. Just wondering on any one else's thoughts, or has anyone else come up with the same idea and tried it. Cheers :icon_chickcheers:



I see no reason why not. The hop is dormant over winter and you would just cut the peas down to the ground as the hops start to shoot and should be fine. Be aware some peas and beans (scarlett runners for example) will keep coming back put down some good root systems, so better to cut them. Not sure of your climate but if you get a frost in winter better off to get pea straw and give the hop a good mulch with it.

You could always divide your hop crown (good for them every few seasons I understand) and have two hop crowns for next season and have peas!! :icon_cheers:


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## HeavyNova (28/4/11)

My 2 hop plants still have plenty of green on them, however I don't think they're really growing anymore. I take it it's ok to just let them die off on their own and then chop off the dead stuff and wait until next spring for it to start all over again?

Or is there anything else to do that will help them out?


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## proudscum (28/4/11)

Has anyone in Victoria had much success with growing SAAZ?

Or for that matter which cultivars have you had a good yield from?


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## Wolfy (28/4/11)

proudscum said:


> Has anyone in Victoria had much success with growing SAAZ?
> 
> Or for that matter which cultivars have you had a good yield from?


This year I found my UK/EU varieties grew best with Goldings and Tettnang being most prolific.
While the Saaz grew fine, some have suggested that the local-flavour-profile might be different to Cz-Saaz.


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## raven19 (28/4/11)

HeavyNova said:


> My 2 hop plants still have plenty of green on them, however I don't think they're really growing anymore. I take it it's ok to just let them die off on their own and then chop off the dead stuff and wait until next spring for it to start all over again?
> 
> Or is there anything else to do that will help them out?



Yeah, best to let them die back on their own accord, let the rhizome draw back what it can from the leaves, etc. Then chop them back at the ground.


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## Nevalicious (29/4/11)

raven19 said:


> Yeah, best to let them die back on their own accord, let the rhizome draw back what it can from the leaves, etc. Then chop them back at the ground.



Brad, I did this... They really have died right back. I mean, the plants look dead... Anyway to tell in your experience whether I may still have viable plants for next year. Check the rhizomes or root ball etc??

I sorta forgot about watering them after the harvest due to work etc etc etc. Any advice?? If you require a pic (as the bines are still in place to be chopped back this weekend), I'll try to get one tomorrow night!

Cheers

Nev


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## HeavyNova (29/4/11)

raven19 said:


> Yeah, best to let them die back on their own accord, let the rhizome draw back what it can from the leaves, etc. Then chop them back at the ground.


Cheers Raven. Makes sense.


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## MaltyHops (29/4/11)

G'day Nev,

These BYO articles have some notes on pre-wintering care:

_Grow Your Own Hops_

_10 Tips for Hop Growers_

T.


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## Lecterfan (29/4/11)

Pretty sure I made some silly beginners mistakes (being a silly beginner)...

All the brews I've used my hops in seem to have a similar taste to them...regardless of hersbrucker, cascade or chinook. I think a couple of things may be at fault: when I did a final harvest of everything I was sick of picking them so stripped the bines bare, this means probably %10-%15 (visually) of the cones appeared to be a little immature compared to the majority. Also I had real trouble drying them out and am wondering if part of the flavour I am imparting is actually a bit of a mildewy taste?

In regards to the first part, regardless of the actual variety, do young/"
unripe" hope cones maybe throw a similar flavour?

Also, given that all three grew in the same conditions (soil, water sunlight etc), I suppose it could be reasonable that there is a regional similarity between them?

Undoubtedly it could be a combination of all these things. At this point none of the beers are bad, just they have a similar taste at a certain level...and this is disconcerting as one of these beers is my schwarz for the case swap that I've used some homegrown hersbrucker in.

Anyway, as always, experienced opinions are welcomed.

In answer to proudscum my cascade, hersbrucker and chinook all provided over 2kg WET weight of cones, so I consider that pretty good going.


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## drsmurto (29/4/11)

Lecterfan said:


> Pretty sure I made some silly beginners mistakes (being a silly beginner)...
> 
> All the brews I've used my hops in seem to have a similar taste to them...regardless of hersbrucker, cascade or chinook. I think a couple of things may be at fault: when I did a final harvest of everything I was sick of picking them so stripped the bines bare, this means probably %10-%15 (visually) of the cones appeared to be a little immature compared to the majority. Also I had real trouble drying them out and am wondering if part of the flavour I am imparting is actually a bit of a mildewy taste?
> 
> ...



You should easily be able to distinguish between hersbrucker and the c hops. I've used home grown hersbrucker before and they aren't that dissimilar to the german imported version. Chinook is very resinous and best compared to B Saaz, cascade similar to NZ cascade.

Have had a beer or 2 from brewers who picked early and used immature cones. No hop flavour/aroma was the result. In a lighter style that comes across as slightly vegetal, in a dark beer its largely hidden.


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## Lecterfan (29/4/11)

DrSmurto said:


> You should easily be able to distinguish between hersbrucker and the c hops. I've used home grown hersbrucker before and they aren't that dissimilar to the german imported version. Chinook is very resinous and best compared to B Saaz, cascade similar to NZ cascade.
> 
> Have had a beer or 2 from brewers who picked early and used immature cones. No hop flavour/aroma was the result. In a lighter style that comes across as slightly vegetal, in a dark beer its largely hidden.




Ok - well the subtlety I am putting down to the %age of immature cones. Yes, I can easily pick the difference in the beers, I was just concerned that there was another flavour lingering in the background....

....having said that the schwarz is CC-ing and I just drew off a sample and tasted it and it's (predictably) not throwing the same flavours as it was a few days ago so maybe I am/was pre-empting this one.


Cheers, sorry to wander o/t.


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## raven19 (29/4/11)

Nevalicious said:


> Brad, I did this... They really have died right back. I mean, the plants look dead... Anyway to tell in your experience whether I may still have viable plants for next year. Check the rhizomes or root ball etc??
> 
> I sorta forgot about watering them after the harvest due to work etc etc etc. Any advice?? If you require a pic (as the bines are still in place to be chopped back this weekend), I'll try to get one tomorrow night!
> 
> ...



It sounds like yours are ready to chop off at the ground, cover in mulch then set and forget for 6 months.

(Mine are still green as, we move in 6 weeks so I need mine to die back soon so I can transplant them to the new house garden!) Crazy Adelaide weather!

The plants will definately be ok for next year, the rhizome just goes into a 'hibernation' of sorts over the winter months. Left in the ground with some mulch cover and they will be fine. Dr S will agree that its pretty hard to kill these weeds! B) 

I don't water mine at all either, just leave them be. When I had them in pots over winter a few years ago, they were under the pergola (hence dry), I watered them maybe once in that 6 month period, and they were fine after the winter.


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## Nevalicious (29/4/11)

MaltyHops said:


> G'day Nev,
> 
> These BYO articles have some notes on pre-wintering care:
> 
> ...



Excellent work Tom. Just what I needed. 

Also, thankyou Raven!

They're gonna get the chop this weekend. I'm also going to think about putting them into the ground...

Cheers


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## Golani51 (29/4/11)

I have two in pots,one of which has died back, although the other is still green. First year potsand only grew 2 feet as did the other pot. 
I also had one in the ground that did best (7m?) but didn't have cones at all.

Should I leave the first two in pots till the next season and then plant in ground or plant now?

Thanks,

Reuven


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## MaltyHops (29/4/11)

Golani51 said:


> Should I leave the first two in pots till the next season and then plant in ground or plant now?


I would vote for leaving in pot for now - otherwise you're disturbing them and
planting them when they're about to go dormant, probably not the best idea.
Main thing is not to let them dry out completely - could maybe just half-bury the
pots for now in ground that wont get too wet.

T.


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## Wolfy (29/4/11)

Golani51 said:


> I have two in pots,one of which has died back, although the other is still green. First year potsand only grew 2 feet as did the other pot.
> I also had one in the ground that did best (7m?) but didn't have cones at all.
> 
> Should I leave the first two in pots till the next season and then plant in ground or plant now?


Hops are large plants with a large root-mass, they will always do better in the ground if you can provide them a suitable place and enough room to grow.

Often the first years growth is all about the plant establishing itself, and often related to how much you fertilize, care for it and water it.
Even if the plants only grew 2ft, when you transplant from the post to the ground (I would suggest you do that just as spring is starting) you should find that the root-mass has increased substantially.

If next year they also grow to 7m but do not flower, you might not be providing them with enough hours of sunlight or enough growth (leaf nodes) both of which are required before the plants will flower.


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## Golani51 (29/4/11)

Wolfy said:


> Hops are large plants with a large root-mass, they will always do better in the ground if you can provide them a suitable place and enough room to grow.
> 
> If next year they also grow to 7m but do not flower, you might not be providing them with enough hours of sunlight or enough growth (leaf nodes) both of which are required before the plants will flower.



The property I live on has very limited areas in which to plant in the ground. Even less that have sunlight.
I may have to look in to getting very big pots.

R


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## clarkey7 (21/5/11)

Here it is.....Double IPA with 186g homegrown POR and Chinook hops...and 33g leftover (Centennial and Galaxy) commercial hops to lift aroma and perceived bitterness a touch.

For the record, the beer was about 15-20% less bitter than I was expecting before I dry hopped it....

Very Tasty! :icon_chickcheers: 





PB


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## Frag_Dog (2/6/11)

I don't know if this should go in here or a Hop Plantations 2011 thread.

I just dug up my cascade today. The leaves were all yellow and it was dieing back. Here is what the rhizome looks like...




So what do I do with it now? Will each of the root stems potentially produce another plant? If so I think I have at least 10-15 rhizomes that are of decent size (finger diameter, about 10cm long). Anyone interested in a swap?

I read somewhere that they should be wrapped in a wet paper towel and stuck in the fridge until spring. Is this what others do as well?


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## raven19 (2/6/11)

Frag_Dog said:


> So what do I do with it now? Will each of the root stems potentially produce another plant? If so I think I have at least 10-15 rhizomes that are of decent size (finger diameter, about 10cm long). Anyone interested in a swap?
> 
> I read somewhere that they should be wrapped in a wet paper towel and stuck in the fridge until spring. Is this what others do as well?



Honestly, unless you are moving the plant to another part of the garden, best to leave it in the ground over winter.

That being said, wrap it in slightly damp newspaper then into a plastic bag in the fridge over winter should be fine. Not too damp though otherwise it will go mouldy!

Re: Splitting, you need some root stem along with at least 1 bud if you want to split it up.


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## big78sam (2/6/11)

Pocket Beers said:


> Here it is.....Double IPA with 186g homegrown POR and Chinook hops...and 33g leftover (Centennial and Galaxy) commercial hops to lift aroma and perceived bitterness a touch.
> 
> For the record, the beer was about 15-20% less bitter than I was expecting before I dry hopped it....
> 
> ...



:icon_drool2: I just got back to the office from as game of soccer and I could go one of those


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## Wolfy (2/6/11)

Frag_Dog said:


> So what do I do with it now? Will each of the root stems potentially produce another plant? If so I think I have at least 10-15 rhizomes that are of decent size (finger diameter, about 10cm long). Anyone interested in a swap?
> 
> I read somewhere that they should be wrapped in a wet paper towel and stuck in the fridge until spring. Is this what others do as well?


Looking that that picture, I do not really see any split-able rhizome there. The rhizome should be thick and fat (like the root showing in the middle of the picture) but with lots of buds all the way along it, it looks different to the normal roots (which is what most of that photo shows) that if split will not produce a new plant.

But as raven19 said, best to leave it in the ground unless you need to move it, but keep it damp (not wet) and refrigerated and it should be fine until spring.


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## Wolfy (2/6/11)

No decent photos of when they were all nice and green this year, but it was time to tidy everything up on the weekend:





The only way I can harvest them is by chopping them down, and since they were first-year plants I wanted to let them establish rather than do that.
So here is the lovely crop of Tettnang:





During the growing-season for varieties that I only had one plant, I used some layering to make more for next year.
The parent plant is at the front of the row, and so I dug a 2m trench and layed one of the growing bines down into it, leaving just a bit sticking up the end:





Now that the growing season is over, you can see that each place where the was a leaf-node, it is now a root/rhizome node:





For a few other plants, I just used some pots filled with potting soil, and layered them direclty under the parent plant:





While small, they should still grow fine next year.





I find that layering makes it easier for me than taking cuttings, since it seems I fail at that.

Will not be digging any up this year, but hopefully they'll all be established well for next year, not all plants grew so well this year, maybe a combination of newly planted and the weather. Golding and Tet went like crazy, most other UK varieties and even the Saaz went well, but all the Australian and US varieties could have done better.


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## Malted (6/6/11)

Wolfy said:


> The only way I can harvest them is by chopping them down, and since they were first-year plants I wanted to let them establish rather than do that.
> 
> I find that layering makes it easier for me than taking cuttings, since it seems I fail at that.



If you really were keen you would have been up a ladder...

I had no success putting cuttings straight into the dirt. What method I did however have good/best success with was as as below. (It is sort of like proofing the cuttings before putting them in dirt). 



When collecting cuttings from the plants, have a bucket/s of water to put them straight into.

Cut a piece a bine into a length with three or four leaf pairs.

Cut off lower two leaf pairs about 5mm from stem.

Dip this cut end into some root growth hormone powder and shake off excess. This is not needed, BUT I found I had a lot more rootlets growing along the cutting (the cut end, nodes and in between) than without the powder (rootlets on the cut end and at the nodes if you're lucky).

Bung a whole heap of these into a glass of water with the remaining leaves above the water level.

Leave on a window sill (top up water as necessary) or other sunny spot until lots of white rootlets are visible, then plant out into pots etc...



Whilst my plants have died back for the season, my cuttings in pots have not, they are still green and growing. However, since I did them late in the season they are only 25cm long at most with lots of little leaves.


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## drsmurto (26/6/11)

Finally got around to finishing cutting back my hops and giving them their annual feed (horse manure)

This pic shows my chinook plants - 2 bags of manure each side of the fence at a cost of $2.50 per bag.

1 plant on this side of the fence, 2 younger ones on the other (I planted the newer ones to prove to myself that the rhizomes i sell are viable - they are!)

The horse manure extends only 15cm beyond the shoots - as you can see it covers a very large area, garden gloves in for perspective. So for those who have bought hops from me and are planting them in the ground - take note.


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## kelbygreen (26/6/11)

is it best to fertilise them now?? or can you do it just before they are about to kick back off again?? What would you suggest to do with rhizomes bought? last year I left in the fridge one POR grew roots in the fridge but I gave to tony as already planted one. So will the roots still grow if planted and fertilised now???


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## timryan (26/6/11)

Whens the best time to plant Hops Rhizomes in Bacchus Marsh? Outer Western Surburbs Of Melbourne. Ive had them in the fridge for about 8 weeks just starting to get worried something will happen to them....

Cheers Tim


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## kelbygreen (26/6/11)

Tim last year I put my 2 plants in pots and just put them in the ground when it warmed up. One I left in the fridge and it went nuts. But if you got a area to keep frost and stuff off them you should be fine I dont think frost will hurt them as they will be dormant under the soil but its best to be sure. If you do it this way try to keep the soil damp but not wet as the same as in a fridge you dont want them to dry out but you dont want them to get mouldy


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## timryan (26/6/11)

I think i might have picked up a little mold i cleaned them up today... Hence the worry... I'm going to be planting them in the big pots.. Just dont want to loose my Chinook and POR


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## kelbygreen (26/6/11)

they are really hardy plants. I forgot to water mine over the 2 weeks we had close to and above 40deg each day and they died I thought that was it but gave them some water few days later new little shoots came of the bines the top prob 4 foot totally died so cut that out they where straggly but survived my neglect lol


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## timryan (26/6/11)

fingers crossed they hold out.. haha i guess ill put them in their containers in about mid August..


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## drsmurto (26/6/11)

I'm in 2 minds as to the best way to deal with these hops.

The POR i am selling is shooting. Sitting on my back porch where the average temp is less than 10C. Friggin weeds i tells ya. 

I planted mine today despite the fact i am in a high frost zone as i already have established plants and so if the new ones die i can replace them. Plus, they are now under a 10cm+ layer of horse manure so i figure they are protected. I am risking them rotting if we get a lot of rain for extended periods.

My reasoning behind the manure now is that over the course of the next few months the rain will leach nutrients into the soil reinvigorating it ready for the hops to take off in spring. It's also an effective mulch so helps with weed suppression.


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## kelbygreen (26/6/11)

sweet thats all I needed to know Mark. I have to dig mine up as the soil I have compacts with water so when I water then they run off so plan to dig them up dig a hole prob 500x500x500 and fill with nice top soil and fertiliser and plant them back into that. I guess the roots grow in winter as said my POR at about 3-4 deg grew in the fridge so if you plant them in the ground should be fine. I might even put water crystals and some sort of drainage under the plants so it can drain water away but the crystals hold moisture as here it takes a bit to soak water in but once its in it takes ages to dry


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## timryan (26/6/11)

how long can the stay in the fridge realistically?


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## Wolfy (27/6/11)

Personally I'd plant 'new' rhizomes after the chance of frost killing the new shoots have past, and so the plants can grow up in spring without problems. Earlier than that and there is more risk of them rotting in the ground or the shoots dying due to frost, or other things happening to them. The plants are 'used' to being dormant over winter (they are grown in places where the ground is ice and covered with snow during winter) so storing them in the fridge for many months is not a problem.

As for when to fertilize, that would be more related to when the nutrients will be available to the plant, not much is going to happen while it is dormant over the winter, but many fertilizers take some time to break down, so it is best to fertilize so that the nutrients are available when the plant is active and growing. Too early (before spring) or too late (in summer after cones have formed) both do not really help the plant grow at all.


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## HeavyNova (27/6/11)

My hops died off a while ago and the dead stuff has been chopped back right down to the ground level.

However....thay're starting to grow again! Little shoots are appearing. Is this normal?


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## under (4/8/11)

After a pretty good yeild for my first year colombus, I totally forgot about the pot and recently discovered it amoungst all the shit leftover from the move. I decided to get it out of the pot and have a go at splitting the rhizome up. 

I was suprised at the size of the bugger. It had grown huge since when I planted it originally. I split it in half and am left with two pieces the same size, im just wondering being a novice what the hell do I do with it. Im not sure if its still alive  It has a shit load of nodes and still seems moist.

Here they are -


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## drsmurto (4/8/11)

Looks like a normal, healthy rhizome to me Under.


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## Golani51 (4/8/11)

I have one left in the ground and noticed the same thing. Started sending up shoots. As it is still frosty, I will cover it with a well broken down straw/mulch/mush compost and protect it a while longer whilst still giving it a chance to develop. It will be the second year, so hopefully I'll get at least a single hop flower this time around!

R


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## under (4/8/11)

I got shedloads first year on the columbus. Its insane


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## raven19 (7/8/11)

The correct 2011 Thread Linky.


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