2008 Hop Plantations

[stueywhytcross]

Cascade growers....

Is anyone else finding the cascade rhizomes are a lot more troublesome than the other varities?

My POR, Goldings, Cluster and Chinook are doing very well. I am giving the cascade the exact same treatment yet it seem to be frozen in time. I have one shoot about 10cm out of the ground that looks almost dead. I dug up the rhizome and its seem ok but not exactly healthy.

Am i destined never to grow cascade?

my cascade plant has done nothing over the past few weeks compared to other varieties.

 

[the_fuzz]

my cascade rhizome from rupert has gone from a rhizome to 3 3m high shoots in approx 3 weeks. I swear I can see it growing.

My tetnang has grown to about 20cm high and stopped, but the cascade is just scary

 

[Kleiny]

my hallertau got stood on and put back about 3 weeks by the local water meter reader motherf#@&*r!!!!!!!!! :angry:

I thought about going for damages and loss of production

 

[barls]

this years wurtemburger

my hallertau

my mt hood with a close up of the two separate bug burst

all off to a good start this year with almost all being about a foot high already with the hal already winding itself around the lines without help

 

[Fents]

barls i'd love to see where and what that string goes up to. very neat setup.

 

[domonsura]

barls i'd love to see where and what that string goes up to. very neat setup.

ditto...just looked at that and thought it looked very tidy.......

 

[devo]

Good signs, one of the 3 shoots has begun to find its own way up the wire.

 

[HoppingMad]

Looks like everyone's getting their hop strings/trellises happening - since this is my first year growing what height does everyone recommend building a trellis pole/string to?
I was thinking about putting in some poles and a trellis that I could remove/slide out after the march harvest, but not sure about an ideal height to build to with the set-up I'm planning.

Have seen a trellis design on the net that was 4.4ft high (seems small to me). Is there any height that the more experienced growers think is a goer or have got working? Or is everyone keeping it simple and running them off their sheds and fences? Saw another design that had the hop pole rigged to the side of a chimney - that seems a bit nuts to me.

Hopper.

 

[Fents]

have em as high as you like i reckon but just remember the higher you have them the higher you have to climb to harvest. 4.4ft sounds like the perfect height to harvest for this short ass.

 

[SteveSA]

Climb to harvest? Just cut them down and harvest on the ground.

 

[drsmurto]

So now that most of the hops are up and running...

Is anyone able to answer my question from a few pages ago? How many shoots should we allow to grow to maximise cone formation? I have read 4 per plant but i am not sure whether that refers to 1st year plants or not. Like many of you, my 2nd year plants have too many shoots to count.

 

[Bizier]

I plan to have mine on large (3m?) gal poles this weekend with strings coming down to the ground. I want to be able to give them the maximum light exposure and surface area possible, but also be able to lay them down to harvest.

I have had no activity from my chinook or goldings, though the stems are green and not rotted, which shows that they might be thinking of a move. Cluster + Hersbruk from ebay are moving fast because they came well packed and advanced, POR and Columbus are maybe 500mm. I'll take pics when I am tending to them this weekend.

 

[Bizier]

So now that most of the hops are up and running...

Is anyone able to answer my question from a few pages ago? How many shoots should we allow to grow to maximise cone formation? I have read 4 per plant but i am not sure whether that refers to 1st year plants or not. Like many of you, my 2nd year plants have too many shoots to count.

I have read commercial guys do 3 leaders, but for 1st year plants leave everything there to focus on establishing better 2nd year rhizomes.

 

[drsmurto]

From here

When the young vines are about 1 foot long, two to six vigorous vines are selected for each hill and the rest are removed. One to three vines are trained clockwise on a string which has been staked to the hill. Hops mainly grow vertically, but lateral sidearms extend from the main vine and produce flowers. The main concern is to support the vines and prevent the sidearms from tangling. Most cones are produced on the upper part of the plant.

In July, the lowest four feet of foliage and lateral branches can be removed to aid in air circulation and reduce disease development. The removal of lower leaves (stripping) must be done carefully to avoid breaking or kinking the main stem. In August allow additional bottom growth to remain to promote hardiness of the crown and plant vigor for next year.

At the end of the season you can bury healthy bottom vines for propagating new plants the next spring. Simply bury the vines in a shallow trench and mark their location. In spring dig them up and cut them into pieces about 4 inches long. Make sure each new cutting has an eye or bud.

The months are out of whack due to it being a seppo link but this was the idea i followed last year. I let my bines climb up a garden obelisk that is ~80cm high and then run across to the fence. I strip all the leaves up to the top of the obelisk as mentioned in the above link.

Whats interesting is how to use the off shoots from the bottom to grow new rhizomes. I also read elsewhere that instead of cutting off the excess shoots that yo dont allow to climb, you can fold them over to the ground and cover them in soil/compost/mulch etc to allow them to develop into rhizomes, grow roots and a few shoots. Might be an easy way for us to share our hops around next year?

 

[Fourstar]

Whats interesting is how to use the off shoots from the bottom to grow new rhizomes. I also read elsewhere that instead of cutting off the excess shoots that yo dont allow to climb, you can fold them over to the ground and cover them in soil/compost/mulch etc to allow them to develop into rhizomes, grow roots and a few shoots. Might be an easy way for us to share our hops around next year?

That was my plan. I think we will have allot of us trading chinook and cluster thou as allot of us did a buy up on ebay recently.

 

[drsmurto]

That was my plan. I think we will have allot of us trading chinook and cluster thou as allot of us did a buy up on ebay recently.

CHinook and cluster. Pfffffft!

POR is where it at :super:

 

[Bizier]

I'd actually be interested in trading enough cones of a common variety to make a brew with someone, just to compare how they differ for soil types, temperature, latitude etc.

EDIT: Assuming I get some hops in a timely fashion

 

[HoppingMad]

I plan to have mine on large (3m?) gal poles this weekend with strings coming down to the ground. I want to be able to give them the maximum light exposure and surface area possible, but also be able to lay them down to harvest.

I have had no activity from my chinook or goldings, though the stems are green and not rotted, which shows that they might be thinking of a move. Cluster + Hersbruk from ebay are moving fast because they came well packed and advanced, POR and Columbus are maybe 500mm. I'll take pics when I am tending to them this weekend.

3m sounds good. Might go something similar. Am thinking of some kind of setup so I can unhook the string/wire at the top from a hook and lay them out flat on the ground when harvesting. Read that Chinooks as a variety are quite vigorous so when it grows you can get up to 3 harvests off them as they flower heaps. That's more than many of the others from what I've read, but I'm sure it comes down to growing conditions with all these things. Dunno, if that means in the first growing season though the info I has doesn't say - but once established they're supposed to be a pretty good variety for big cone harvests.

I don't have any Chinooks but have two Goldings. They have been very slow on the uptake but are now getting more height than my other hop varieties (hence the question about trellis). Sounds like you've got good shoots on yours so should be right. I dropped a little fertiliser in under the rhizome when I planted (dynamic lifter, some are using seasol - the yank forums I've read use miracle grow). This seems to encourage them.

Hopper.

 

[raven19]

Really enjoying seeing the pics of the hopes & rhizomes everyone.

I look forward to hearing how harvesting goes and how many kilos of cones you all get.

I shall hve to get into this also... once we get a house...

Cheers.

 

[drsmurto]

Really enjoying seeing the pics of the hopes & rhizomes everyone.

I look forward to hearing how harvesting goes and how many kilos of cones you all get.

I shall hve to get into this also... once we get a house...

Cheers.

Plant them in pots