2006 Hop Plantations

[T.D.]

I have flowers on my POR and Tettnager
Perhaps not as good as you brewers in the colder climates,but I am happy
Batz

Batz, how did your cuttings go that you struck in water? Have you transplanted then into soil? Are they growing ok? I just tried the same thing on the weekend but too early to tell if they are going to strike or not...

 

[johnno]

I have flowers on my POR and Tettnager
Perhaps not as good as you brewers in the colder climates,but I am happy
View attachment 11340
Tettnager

View attachment 11341
POR
View attachment 11342
Batz

Looks like they are flowering up at about the right time Batz. Mine are about the same size currently.

Will you fill all that space with plants? The Batz hop plantation? You will never have to buy again.

cheers
johnno

 

[Lukes]

Looks like they are flowering up at about the right time Batz. Mine are about the same size currently.

Will you fill all that space with plants? The Batz hop plantation? You will never have to buy again.

cheers
johnno

And sell them to us Batz @ say $15 a kg ??

 

[Batz]

Well next year I will at least double the plantation,and add a lot more varieties.

T.D.
Over half are looking good,I replaced the others today with fresh cuttings,I think it maybe to late to try again if some don't make it this time.
I should have plenty for those who would like a plant at the March Cave meeting.

Batz

 

[Batz]

I need to get my trellis together,what are others doing?
These things just want to climb to the sun.

Batz

 

[johnno]

Picture of my PoR from Jan 21.
Lots of buds on it so hopefully will get a few hundred grams dry again this year.

Pics are a bit delayed as I get held up at times.

cheers
johnno

 

[AngelTearsOnMyTongue]

Harvest No.2 of my 1st Yr Chinook - 425g wet.

Brings to 1075g wet total so far.



ATOMT

 

[T.D.]

I need to get my trellis together,what are others doing?
These things just want to climb to the sun.

Batz

I've been meaning to get some feedback on trellis design and maybe this is an appropriate time to bring it up.

My hops are up on my folks' property in the hunter valley. There is a small block of unused land where I plan to plant a fair few hop plants (naturally increasing their numbers over the years). I have a couple of books that describe how to build trellises and so on, and the general consensus is that, like Batz said, you need something that has some height.

I've attached a dodgy diagram of my proposed trellis. Basically it consists of two decent sized wooden end posts driven into the ground. And then an extension post bolted onto those. Total height is 3 metres. Then I will run a bottom wire around 50cm from the ground, which I will train the hops onto. Now, this is the bit I am not that sure about (and is the reason I was asking all those questions before about hops being exposed to the elements while dormant). My family is in the wine industry so most of my experience in horticultural stuff is with vines. I was just thinking of doing a very similar thing to a vine and training the hops up to a wire and then laying out arms (as in the pic). Then when coing into winter, pruning them back to the arms (maybe a spur prune or similar) but leaving the hop plant wrapped around the bottom wire (this is the bit I am not sure about as most people recommend cutting the plant right back to the ground - any comments on this would be great!). Then letting the hops shoot each year from those arms and letting them take off up a piece of twine that is attached from the bottom wire to a top wire up at the 3m high point. Then when you want to harvest, you just get on a ladder and cut the twine at the top, and lay it down on the ground. This makes it much easier to pick the flowers, and also should also help to keep the different varieties separate when harvesting.

This is still a work in progress though so I would really appreciate any feedback you guys might have. I would like to do this on a fairly significant scale eventually, depending on how many plants I can strike.

 

[jdsaint]

are hops hard to grow? easy to maintain?
so its legal for a amatuar to grow hops? h34r:

 

[Screwtop]

Have a look how hop farmers trellis at places where hops are grown commercially. There are a couple of different methods but the ones I have seen (not hedgerow) use trellises constructed from posts 21' high with permanent wires across the top and anchored strainer posts at the ends of the rows. At the start of the season workers on a machine like a scissor lift platform go along tying string droppers from the wire. As the bines grow the plants are pruned to about 4 - 6 bines and these spiral up the droppers. After flowering, workers cut the dropper strings from the top wire. The bines are harvested and the flowers removed for processing/pelletising. Flowers used to be dried in kilns years ago, you can do that in your home oven or food dehydrator, stops flowers spoiling from going mouldy.

 

[newguy]

Hi T.D.,

The structure you're proposing looks like it will work very well. The idea about cutting the top piece of twine to lay the entire thing down to make picking easier sounds like a winner too. The only thing I would suggest would be guy wires from the tops of each wooden post to the ground to reinforce the thing. Each post should have 3 wires, one parallel to the structure (to keep the top wire from sagging), and two perpendicular to that. One of these would come out of page of your drawing, and the other would go into the page. Hops get pretty bushy and if you had an unsupported structure with the wind blowing at it sideways, it would lay down.

Regarding pruning hops and leaving some exposed above ground as opposed to pruning it down to the ground.....I would normally prune mine down to the ground but one fall we got a very early dump of snow before I had a chance to prune it down to the ground. Come spring, I didn't get around to taking out the old dead vines, and it started to grow from the ground, not from the old vines. Of course, the cold could have had a hand in killing the remains left above ground. If the region is prone to frost, I'd guess that the part of the hop left above ground will be killed meaning that it would start to grow from the ground. There's no use leaving any above ground if this is the case.

Hope this helps.

 

[T.D.]

Thanks newguy, that's helps a lot! :beer:

I guess I can try a couple of different methods with the pruning and just see what works best.

 

[crells]

I was hoping a green thumb out there could help me with my german wurtem....?

The leaves are going grey/dying, some of them have like a spider web type film in them, and some of them have little black things on them.

I was wondering if there's anything I can do ?


Its not all bad, the POW are going guns & the wurten... plant still has some cones on them. I suspect though the vine hasn't reached its full potential & that the yield will be pretty low.

Some pics:

 

[crells]

On a more positive note - a picture of the cones

 

[Steve]

It could be dust mites crells? Why dont you take a couple of leaves to your local nursery shop for them to identify it. They will then give you some spray for the plant.
Cheers
Steve

 

[crells]

Thanks Steve I might have to. It looks fairly serious.

 

[apd]

TD,

Like newguy said, the new sprouts come from the rhizome underground, not last year's dead bines, so you should cut back to ground level.

Also, on the harvesting method, the commercial growers, AFAIK, harvest once because it's easier/more efficient/less costly/etc. On a small scale, however, we have the luxury of manually harvesting and getting a couple or more harvests from the plant. If you go the way you mentioned with laying down the plant on the ground to harvest, you might damage the bine and not get a second harvest.

I don't speak from much experience as my one and only hop plant is on just coming into flower in its second year.

 

[Simon W]

crells, any interest in breeding crosses/hybridising?
Your cones are primed for fertilising, there's pistils hanging out everywhere!

 

[T.D.]

TD,

Like newguy said, the new sprouts come from the rhizome underground, not last year's dead bines, so you should cut back to ground level.

Also, on the harvesting method, the commercial growers, AFAIK, harvest once because it's easier/more efficient/less costly/etc. On a small scale, however, we have the luxury of manually harvesting and getting a couple or more harvests from the plant. If you go the way you mentioned with laying down the plant on the ground to harvest, you might damage the bine and not get a second harvest.

I don't speak from much experience as my one and only hop plant is on just coming into flower in its second year.

Thanks apd. So new shoots won't sprout from last years growth? This is the info I was after. No point in training them to a lower wire then.

Cheers :beer:

 

[crells]

crells, any interest in breeding crosses/hybridising?
Your cones are primed for fertilising, there's pistils hanging out everywhere!

How do xbreed ?