# Hops outside the growing zone.



## CheekyPanda (23/4/16)

I've just moved to the upper hunter and have access to a few acres of river flats and an irrigation licence. I'm aware we are above the desired latitude but was wondering if anyone had any experience growing hops around this area. I have heard that the guys at Murrays tried but said the odd hot day really knocked them over.
As a keen brewer I'd like to put some hops on the flats instead of just feeding the sheep/alpacas.
Does anyone have some suggestions on what I could do or specific varieties that may go ok in an area that may not get the daylight hours.
Just looking to get an idea before I put in some poles etc..


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## BottloBill (23/4/16)

Between 6 and 8 hours of direct sun a day and most probably less water than you have access to


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## Yob (23/4/16)

There are a few people to talk to here, send Belgravebrewer a pm on set ups..

If you have access to good water, you're in a good place, they'll do fine of you can keep up the water to them...

Aus chinook, Columbus, Victoria... 

If icon ever get my male I'm after, a breeding program is on the cards.. That shit really excites me big time..


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## CheekyPanda (23/4/16)

Thanks for the response, where are you located BottloBill?

Thanks for the tip Yob. I had a look at the website, looks good. Do you ever deal in rhizomes?


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## BottloBill (23/4/16)

CheekyPanda said:


> Thanks for the response, where are you located BottloBill?
> 
> Thanks for the tip Yob. I had a look at the website, looks good. Do you ever deal in rhizomes?


Hey Cheeky! 

I'm located in the Newcastle area for reference.
+1 to what Yob has stated and there is plenty of decent varieties that will grow well in the upper Hunter.


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## Bribie G (24/4/16)

Ages ago I read that hops struggle once you get North of Port Macquarie and of course are ideally suited to Victoria and Tasmania, but you're well South of the line there and out of the Sub Tropical Zone.


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## Yob (24/4/16)

CheekyPanda said:


> Thanks for the response, where are you located BottloBill?
> 
> Thanks for the tip Yob. I had a look at the website, looks good. Do you ever deal in rhizomes?


I'll be improving my beds this year so it's likely I'll have a bunch mid winter


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## Ducatiboy stu (24/4/16)

You will find they will grow fine, but the flowering crop will be reduced


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## CheekyPanda (24/4/16)

Ducatiboy stu said:


> You will find they will grow fine, but the flowering crop will be reduced


Do you have any idea by how much the crop would be reduced? 10-20-50 percent?




Yob said:


> I'll be improving my beds this year so it's likely I'll have a bunch mid winter


Keep us posted Yob, will you be selling through your site?


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## Yob (24/4/16)

Dunno mate, I'll need to look at it as I dig them up, I can't really commit until I see them


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## Ducatiboy stu (24/4/16)

CheekyPanda said:


> Do you have any idea by how much the crop would be reduced? 10-20-50 percent?


No, I cant find any crop figures ( mainly because since they are not grown so far north/south there are no figures ) but it would be interesting to find out just have much latitude affects cropping

In some places they actually use hydroponics lights to simulate extra twilight hrs


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## Belgrave Brewer (24/4/16)

Hi CheekyPanda,

There's a hop grower in the Blue Mountains who gets a decent enough crop, so you should be fine. You may not get the highest yield up there, but you'll still get a crop. You can always grow a few to see and then expand the next year. We had a hot and dry summer here in Victoria and I still got a decent crop. Some homebrewers are growing in Queensland.

I've put up heaps of photos of my hop field from construction to first years crop here: https://www.facebook.com/yellingbobrewing/

Let me know if you have questions.

Cheers,
BB


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## perko8 (24/4/16)

I got 60gm dry off a first year cascade in Dalby Qld (hour west of Toowoomba) pretty happy with that, so I'd say have a go wherever you are. Just had to keep the water up to them, and protected from western sun by the next door naighbours garage.


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## CheekyPanda (25/4/16)

Cheers for all the advice.

I guess it's a case of start small, test out a few varieties, see what works and go from there.


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## dblunn (27/4/16)

Dr Smurto (of golden ale fame) usually sells Victoria Rhizomes, a very nice dual purpose hop.
Dave


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## Stu Brew (2/5/16)

Upper hunter should be fine. I know a guy up there that supplies a fair whack to 4 Pines that he grows on his acerage. You'll have a fair bit of trouble sourcing rhizomes and I would actually recommend doing a pilot season with about 20-30 just to get your bearing and not spend a fortune on outlay for your first season! The conditions are correct for growth but your daylight hours are lacking a little over further south. So just be aware you probably wont get things growing passed 5m with the amount of sun they get before solstice. Which in a way can be easier for a grower in terms of setting up lower trellis rather than huge high trellis.


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## A.B. (2/5/16)

I tried growing my own just outside Canberra. For 4 years I had healthy growth from 6 plants, but zero flowers. They are now all in the compost.


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## Stu Brew (2/5/16)

A.B. said:


> I tried growing my own just outside Canberra. For 4 years I had healthy growth from 6 plants, but zero flowers. They are now all in the compost.


Id say vast lack of nitrogen.......hops cones are 50% nitrogen by weight when harvested. There is a specific time to add nitrogen too to get big cones out! 

Canberra is actually below the 35th so technically they should grow well there...some of the stock floating around is pretty rubbish too....


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## A.B. (2/5/16)

Stu Brew said:


> Id say vast lack of nitrogen.......hops cones are 50% nitrogen by weight when harvested. There is a specific time to add nitrogen too to get big cones out!
> 
> Canberra is actually below the 35th so technically they should grow well there...some of the stock floating around is pretty rubbish too....


yeah maybe I jumped the gun in ripping them out. Looks like they ramp up their N intake frojm early Summer ( at least this article suggests so: http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/20648/fg79-e.pdf)...

I really had no idea what type the hops were anyway, as they were donated by a mate who had lost track of what was what in his garden !


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## CheekyPanda (2/5/16)

Stu Brew said:


> Upper hunter should be fine. I know a guy up there that supplies a fair whack to 4 Pines that he grows on his acerage. You'll have a fair bit of trouble sourcing rhizomes and I would actually recommend doing a pilot season with about 20-30 just to get your bearing and not spend a fortune on outlay for your first season! The conditions are correct for growth but your daylight hours are lacking a little over further south. So just be aware you probably wont get things growing passed 5m with the amount of sun they get before solstice. Which in a way can be easier for a grower in terms of setting up lower trellis rather than huge high trellis.


Cheers for the advice Stu Brew.

Yeah the plan is to start with only 2, maybe 3 varieties and do a pilot test.

I'd love to visit an active grower in the region and get a gander at the setup if anyone knows of anywhere close by.


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## wynnum1 (2/5/16)

With some plants like garlic they need time to acclimatise to your area and if can get locally have better results and if you get rid of the hops too quickly may not have given a chance .


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## A.B. (2/5/16)

I get what you're saying but I can grow garlic no worries (and just about anything else except for tropicals), and the hops had 4 years chance! I'll see if there's any remnants of the rhizomes in spring and see if I can get them to flower up.


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## Rocker1986 (2/5/16)

I had them in Brisbane over the just gone warm season and ended up with 40g dry off a Hallertau plant. I was pretty happy with that given I didn't really know what to expect off it. It was only in a pot on a 2ish metre high mesh framework thingy, but over winter I'm going to move it into a large raised garden bed and build a higher trellis. Same deal with the Fuggles plant although I didn't bother harvesting from it this season. So yeah it can work outside the usual areas.


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## CheekyPanda (4/5/16)

Cheers guys,

Just wondering what your thoughts are regarding hop yard set-up. As I only plan to do a pilot run this year with a few varieties I was thinking of employing the teepee technique as seen in the following link as opposed to a full on trellis system.

http://cabrew.org/wp-content/uploads/1011046_10152000784368056_1874381974_n.jpg

Any thoughts or suggestions would be great.

Tim


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## Brownsworthy (4/5/16)

A bloke I know who grows hops in New Lambton uses 2 1.5" poles spaced about 1.5m apart they stick about 5 feet out of the ground he then has 2 poles with a larger diameter and around 3m long that slot over the top with cord strung between 
He has holes up the poles stuck in the ground so he can adjust height and also makes it easy to take down for harvesting. 

Cheers


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## CheekyPanda (7/5/16)

http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/article.aspx?id=38537&h=SABHopFarmsputsthebitterintobeer

In the past, when farmers were growing earlier locally-bred hop varieties, they used large electric lights to extend the effective daylight length for maximum production. Five 1 000W lights mounted 18m above ground level would provide enough light for only 4ha of hops. 

“The main variety grown at that time was the Southern Brewer. Its productivity would increase by 30% when supplemented with artificial light,” recalls Laurie.

Perhaps I could get a few of these

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10W-LED-Grow-Light-Water-resistant-Durable-Energy-Saving-for-Outdoor-Indoor-SN-/162058293716?hash=item25bb6d51d4:g:i9QAAOSwubRXKHiL

and place a few at the top of the poles and jimmy up a solar/battery so they run for an hour or two at the end of each day?


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## wynnum1 (8/5/16)

Maybe you can use the street lights


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## Brownsworthy (8/5/16)

CheekyPanda said:


> http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/article.aspx?id=38537&h=SABHopFarmsputsthebitterintobeer
> 
> In the past, when farmers were growing earlier locally-bred hop varieties, they used large electric lights to extend the effective daylight length for maximum production. Five 1 000W lights mounted 18m above ground level would provide enough light for only 4ha of hops.
> “The main variety grown at that time was the Southern Brewer. Its productivity would increase by 30% when supplemented with artificial light,” recalls Laurie.
> ...


I suppose every little bit helps but I reckon you'd be getting plenty of sunshine through the growing period up Gloucester I think the biggest battle would be keeping the water up to them when it gets hot.


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## Stu Brew (9/5/16)

Have a look at this......

http://www.hydrohopfarms.com/


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## CheekyPanda (9/5/16)

Stu Brew said:


> Have a look at this......
> 
> http://www.hydrohopfarms.com/


Wow, just wow. The time lapse video is amazing.

I can't even imagine what the initial startup cost would be in somethiing like that.

I wonder how improved the yield is or is it just higher alpha content etc..


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## Stu Brew (12/5/16)

Yob said:


> There are a few people to talk to here, send Belgravebrewer a pm on set ups..
> 
> If you have access to good water, you're in a good place, they'll do fine of you can keep up the water to them...
> 
> ...


Hey Yob......try the new owners of Hopswest. They offered me a male rhizome mate not sure on the price as they seem a little pricey but probably the only place ive heard of selling them in Australia atm


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## Yob (12/5/16)

Stu Brew said:


> Hey Yob......try the new owners of Hopswest. They offered me a male rhizome mate not sure on the price as they seem a little pricey but probably the only place ive heard of selling them in Australia atm


what varieties?

Ive got a whole bunch of seeds so I want to germinate and go from there, I don't care if my yard is the first trials rows if it means we can get one of our very own B)


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## Stu Brew (12/5/16)

CheekyPanda said:


> Wow, just wow. The time lapse video is amazing.
> 
> I can't even imagine what the initial startup cost would be in somethiing like that.
> 
> I wonder how improved the yield is or is it just higher alpha content etc..


Probably not heaps. Farming in the US is well subsidized in comparison to here. I actually have one of the owners as a mate on FB......going to pick their brains at some point!!

Extremely interesting idea. I think probably the point would be to speed up the growth. Plants expend a lot of their energy pushing roots into the ground. With anything hydroponic you're essentially letting the plant grow faster because its not expending so much energy pushing roots down looking for nutrients and water. Because the growing system is providing them. I'd be very keen to go check out a few places like that in the US at some point. Its bloody interesting stuff!


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## Stu Brew (12/5/16)

Yob said:


> what varieties?
> 
> Ive got a whole bunch of seeds so I want to germinate and go from there, I don't care if my yard is the first trials rows if it means we can get one of our very own B)


IIRC it was 'red earth' one of their own breed. Just make sure with the seeds that anything non performing goes in the bin! You'll potentially get about 3-10 plants out of 100 that actually perform well. Then its a matter of picking any that perform and then crop well......time consuming but anything from seed will be different to both the parents.

Plenty of people have lucked out with self seeded varieties. Ill keep an ear out for anything male for you!


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## CheekyPanda (12/5/16)

Growing from seed and testing new varieties really interests me. I'm not sure if its the green thumb in me or the opportunity to name something.


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## Ducatiboy stu (12/5/16)

Yob said:


> , I don't care if my yard is the first trials rows if it means we can get one of our very own B)


Good to see you taking one for team AHB Yob


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## CheekyPanda (12/5/16)

Not sure if this has been posted before but here is link to whole heap of info on growing.

https://docs.google.com/folderview?usp=sharing&id=0B7aNkuU_q8iEREdBMkxWcFI2THM


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