# Grow Your Own Hops?



## Trough Lolly (21/9/03)

Has anybody grown their own Hop plants?

I am sick of taking pot luck (pardon the pun) on the availability of hops in the local shop and want to grow my own pots of hops! I'm after Tettnang, Hallertau, Goldings and Saaz.

Can you buy hop seedlings in Australia? Anyone know where (hopefully somewhere reasonably close to Canberra)!  

I figure that this is probably a good time of the year to start cultivating and growing some hop bushes. Any info welcomed...  

Cheers,

TL


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## jayse (21/9/03)

yeah mate theirs a few aussie back yard growers.

don't get seedlings though.you need to grow from root cutting from a already mature plant.reason being you need to grow female plants just the same as their cousins mary jane.


the root cuttingts are called rizomes.its proberly to late to get them this year as they would have allready sprouted.you need to get them just before they sprout.i got tettnanger,hallertau'P.O.R and cluster about a month ago.doing very well their about a metre high now here's a pic from 2 weeks ago.

they are a vine which grows about 10-15 metres long.the hop growers grow them on a wire going straight up into the air.iam doing what most backyard growers do 2 metres up and a few metres across.


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## deebee (21/9/03)

TL

I love your handle.

Hops grow from spring to autumn and die back to a rhizome in winter. Looks like a knotted sweet potato. You transplant them in their dormant state ie in winter. Like jayse says, it's too late now; they're all sprouting.

But I have often thought of planting the seeds that come in their thousands in a pack of hops flowers. (Don't seem to get them in plugs or pellets.) you could plant out a dozen of the best plumpest looking seeds into pots in good potting mix and pick the females by the end of the first growing season. I don't know if all seeds are fertile but I seem to remember reading a post from someone who had done this and they grew.

You won't get a plant genetically identical to the parent (which is an advantage of growing from cuttings or rhizomes - you know exactly what you are getting) but you will know the variety of its mother and its father is probably the same.

You probably won't get a crop of any significance for a couple of years. But you would have to wait until winter to pay money for a rhizome when you could possibly grow some beauties for the price of some potting mix out of a product you buy for brewing anyway. If you try it, let us know...

Oh and you have to grow them south of 30 degrees latitude (or "north of" if you live in the N hemisphere) or they won't flower. So a line roughly Perth to Sydney and south. They apparently will grow in the tropics but they need the longer summer days to flower.


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## Trough Lolly (21/9/03)

deebee said:


> <snip>
> ...you could plant out a dozen of the best plumpest looking seeds into pots in good potting mix and pick the females by the end of the first growing season.
> <snip>


Jayse / DeeBee,

Thanks for the info guys...

I enquired at the local plant shop and they are getting hop plants delivered any day now! It appears as though there is a bit of a rush on in Canberra for Hop Plants! Yeah, I was gobsmacked to learn that the woman looked me in the eye and casually said "...yeah, you do home brewing too eh?!..."  

Anyway, she's gonna give me a call when they (don't know the varieties yet) arrive...

Now, I'm not botanist and the closest I've come to hops is tea bags, some pellets and a week or so ago I got a bag of stuff that looked like it was put together by a very tidy dung beetle that the brew shop guy assured me were Hallertau plugs. I'll be an idiot and ask a dumb question....If I grow some plants from seeds, how do I pick out which plants are females??? :blink: 

Do I look for the ones with pink fringes on their leaves or what?! :lol: 

Cheers,

TL


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## jayse (21/9/03)

thats unreal that a plant store would have hops.specially now.anyway cool.what are they charging?i can't even get garlic for growing from my plant supplier.

basically the females will grow the cone shaped flowers that were after.
i don't know what the males would grow in there place but i presume a hell of a lot of seeds.

so like there cousins the mary jane.buds not seeds.iam not sure.
but they don't grow the cones.

like the mary jane and a wet female they will smell.maybe not have a pink skirt though.sorry being obscene will edit that bit out if its deemed i should.


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## deebee (22/9/03)

Females will look like cones. Heaps of pix of hops in the web.

Males will look different to that.

Jayse, seeds are in the girly plants.


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## THE DRUNK ARAB (22/9/03)

I planted some rhizomes a few weeks ago. I used potting mix and some slow release fertilizer. POR was from a mates plant, Hallertaur from a HBS and Tettnang from a guy on Ozcraftbrewers. They are all beginning to shoot and I currently have them in pots. 
I will transfer them to the ground soon but I have to set up a trellis of some type.

TDA


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## Gout (22/9/03)

I'd love cascade and saaz (to go with my hallertau)

never found anyone that stocked them, only grumpys with the hallertau $35


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## deebee (22/9/03)

ben check grumpys supplies for next year. cascade amongst them. jovial monk also sells hops rhizomes.


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## Jazman (22/9/03)

the cascade may cost big bickies as it may be imported or the nz type of cascade


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## deebee (22/9/03)

Jaz, I think (but am not sure) that cascade is cascade, no matter where it is grown. The plants are from the same strain or variety.

The difference between Oregon and NZ cascade comes from the growing conditions and, possibly, the processing.

Similarly I think goldings is goldings but the conditions in East Kent make it special when grown there. Kinda like you can take the goldings out of East Kent AND you can take the East Kent out of the goldings.

Anone know anything more about this?


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## jayse (22/9/03)

the u.s. varities the grumpy ones are getting next year are all from their place of origin.so being cascade is originally from the u.s i would say that they would be from their.
the new zealand ones would also come from the u.s but being in a different climate and feeding on different soils,water etc.thats were they would get there different a.a%.
not exactly sure here but this seems to make sense.

they will have something like 15-20 types next year.even some that even the most hard core brewers will never have heard of.

i can't wait for the home growns next year.
i'll do 5 pale ales with all pale ale malt then each hop on its own then one with all of them.then go from there.
i really can't wait.


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## Trough Lolly (23/9/03)

Thanks for the info guys...

I will check out Grumpies and The Jovial Monk to see if they mail the Rhizomes interstate...

Cheers,

TL


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## deebee (23/9/03)

Yup they do. That's how i got mine.


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## jayse (24/9/03)

buy more than one and get the post for free.
mine already had shoots on them.came with in a week.
also with growing them.
back in the roman times they were named the wolf plant.
because they grow like wolves amoung sheep.they used to grow in forrests surronding roman cities.

another bit of trivia.the german ones were very closely guarded and if you got caught trying to take any rhizomes out of the country i think the plenalty was death.
the germans were very strict about brewing products.i think i have even read once upon a time if you served beer made with inferior products even to your close friends the penalty was as equally strong.
so if a friend served you a beer that wasn't up to scratch you would have to pretend it was great or your friend may not be around for much longer.


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## Goat (24/9/03)

I got my Hallertau a week or so ago (mailed to Perth). There was also a shoot coming out of it which was broken off when I unwrapped it  - I planted the rhyzome anyway. 

Is there any chance it will live? - has this happened to anyone else? I could really see where the shoot came from so I took a bit of a guess as to which way was up (if you know what I mean).


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## deebee (24/9/03)

I reckon no worries at all.

You're supposed to pinch out all but the strongest three bines anyway so it should hack it without a hiccup.

Just plant in good rich well drained soil and give it a sprinkle of blood and bone and a drink of Seasol or similar seaweed extract - really good for seedlings and transplants. Worm juice is good too if you have a worm farm.


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## Goat (24/9/03)

phew ! thanks deebee


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