2009 Hop Plantations

[drsmurto]

Yeah Looks like the damage Ive had from caterpillars. Bloody things are hard to spot, they camo themselves exactly same colour as the leaves & start off tiny. They grow pretty big if left to chow down.
Ive had success with pyrethrum to kill the damn things.

Pyrethrum works a treat, i have some growing in the garden and crush up a handful of flowers when i make up my chilli/garlic/soap spray.

Just be sure to do it when the air is still, pyrethrum, whilst being organic, kills bees and other good insects.

 

[Cannabaceae]

Hey fellas,

My Hallertauer WAS dooing pretty good, but it's been getting eaten by something recently

It looks to me like caterpillars, but i haven't seen any around the plant or pot. (see pics)
I've also sprayed it with caterpillar killer stuff, so if it is caterpillars, the plant should recover.

Any Ideas?

Cheers
Al

These caterpillars are very hard to spot, they are very small initially and match the leaf colour perfectly.
Here is a mature one that I caught chomping on my hop, I reckon it is around 50 times the size of the little ones.



I checked my leaves for the source of the mysterious damage many times before I found the small caterpillars.

They are always found on the underside of the leaves.

If you find them you could use Dipel made by Yates which contains a bacteria that is poisonous only to caterpillars, very safe and used by organic gardeners. A very cheap caterpillar deterrent is garlic spray.

Regards,
Rupert.

 

[A3k]

Hi Guys,
I managed to find a caterpillar tonight. Exactly the same as yours Cannabaceae. Mine was in a web (see pic). I only found it because two leaves were stuck together.

I'd already sprayed with that Yates Bacteria stuff ages ago, but i went to town on it tonight.

Hopefully it fixes the problem, but i'll give it a dose of chilli and garlic anyway for good measure.

Cheers All

 

[RetsamHsam]

Just got in on the 4 for $48 special!! Let's hope I don't kill the little fellas

 

[drsmurto]

Plenty of good pics here with trellis ideas but it appears most of you have your growing against solid looking fences or up wires/string to higher structures.

I am looking to build something that allows them to grow ca 5-6m straight up. Was thinking 25 mm 'tubular' iron (yes, i am crap at DIY and even worse at describing what to use) that will be bolted to the large perma pine posts that surround the chook yard. Then i can run a wire between the posts. I can then attach wire/string to this that runs down the ground to pegs in the ground next to the hops.

Any ideas how i make sure that the wires that run down to the ground don't slide along the wire between the posts?

 

[sqyre]

Plenty of good pics here with trellis ideas but it appears most of you have your growing against solid looking fences or up wires/string to higher structures.

I am looking to build something that allows them to grow ca 5-6m straight up. Was thinking 25 mm 'tubular' iron (yes, i am crap at DIY and even worse at describing what to use) that will be bolted to the large perma pine posts that surround the chook yard. Then i can run a wire between the posts. I can then attach wire/string to this that runs down the ground to pegs in the ground next to the hops.

Any ideas how i make sure that the wires that run down to the ground don't slide along the wire between the posts?

I supose it going to depend on what wire/rope your going to use...
I would use something a bit chunky for the main line between the posts like Telecom Rope or similar then you coould use any thiner rope or wire to tie on to that...
Using a little bit of fencing wire tighted by twisting over the knots will help "crimp" them in to place.
or even small cable ties woud do a good job...

Ive never grown hops straight up before myself but i'm guessing they would still need to be trained to the wires for most of the journey up.. :huh:
Hope you have a decent ladder...

Sqyre..

 

[Mantis]

Going to see if i can get those lovely plants covering the verandah of my shed for the Swap this year..
So i've taken my Cluster Rhizome which went Nuts last year and chopped it up into 4 chunks and planted it in Bottomless "Pots" under the Shed verandah...
I've run 3 stringers from each "Pot" and will hopefully get it trained up to travel up to the Verandah where it can then branch out sideways..(hopefully)
I was going to do some window box style pots just under the upstairs verandah but i thought i'd give this a go first...

Anyhoo, heres a few pics of whats going on...

View attachment 30534View attachment 30533
3 stringers for each Plant..
View attachment 30532View attachment 30535
Should make a nice covered area too.. hopefully the Summer storms wont destroy it..
(ran out of string.. 4 more to go up when Renae gets back from the Hardware.. )
View attachment 30536View attachment 30537
Little Fella sprouting after only 4 days being out of the fridge....

Sqyre..

That looks like a fantastic setup Sqyre. Bottomless pots work a treat for me with my tomatoes
:super:

 

[~MikE]

Smurto, grow them at an angle and you won't need the posts to be as high to get the same length of bine.

 

[newguy]

My first year growing hops and I'm pretty happy with the results.



This is a picture of the back of the house with a Centennial, Willamette and Cascade from L-R. I just harvested the cones from the Centennial and Willamette today. The Cascade has a lot of cones but they're still pretty small right now. The aroma of fresh Centennial on my fingers was heavenly. I have an APA planned for them. :icon_drool2:



Mt Hood winding its way up the arbour with the Cascade in the background. It has quite a few burrs (no cones yet).



A Golding. No cones at all, but that's not surprising.



Fuggle on the left and Hallertauer on the right. I harvested the Hallertauer last week and got 140g dried. I just picked the cones off of the Fuggle today and there wasn't much. Maybe 30 - 50g once they're dry. The Hallertauer is missing the bottom leaves due to a massive spider mite infestation. Once I finished picking the cones, I sprayed it with Sevin and that seems to have knocked them back.



My Sterling - the runt of the litter. From what I've read, this is supposed to be normal for their first year.



Another Centennial. It didn't do as well as the other one at the back of the house but it still produced cones. I just picked them today.

Things I've learned:
- I should be more patient. I dug up the Mt Hood, Sterling and the smaller Centennial because they were taking so long to come up. I broke shoots off of the rhizomes when I did.
- Aphids need to attacked as soon as I discover them. I made my own nicotine spray from boiled pipe tobacco and some dish soap and it worked very well to at least slow them down enough for the ladybugs to catch up.
- Spider mites are real bastards. They also need to be attacked early by removal of the affected leaves.
- I need to lay off the fertiliser. I actually slightly burned the Golding and Hallertauer by overfertilising. Luckily I caught the signs of damage early and watered the hell out of them which kept the burning to a minimum.
- I have to hang the hops using a detachable clasp so that I can lower the entire plant to the ground for picking, then raise it again.

 

[drsmurto]

I supose it going to depend on what wire/rope your going to use...
I would use something a bit chunky for the main line between the posts like Telecom Rope or similar then you coould use any thiner rope or wire to tie on to that...
Using a little bit of fencing wire tighted by twisting over the knots will help "crimp" them in to place.
or even small cable ties woud do a good job...

Ive never grown hops straight up before myself but i'm guessing they would still need to be trained to the wires for most of the journey up.. :huh:
Hope you have a decent ladder...

Sqyre..

They seemed to wind themselves up the strings last year. All of 2m. Ladder is good but was hoping i could either build something that detaches or i could pull the bines down come harvest time.

Cheers for the tips though. I like the crimping idea. Can i use plain fencing wire for the vertical wire or does it need to be rough so the plant has somehting to grip?

Smurto, grow them at an angle and you won't need the posts to be as high to get the same length of bine.

Ok, so its not perfectly vertical. The peg in the ground next to the rhizome is ~1m from the fence line.

With the goldings already unfurling leaves its time to pull the finger out, make a decision and just do it.

 

[BennyBrewster]

My setup for this year.

There is a stainless cable across the top that runs over a pully and down to a tensioner bloted to the sleeper on the left hand side. The poles have a little flex though it seems to help keep the cable nice a taught.

Pride of Ringwood

The POR took off fast but has not grown much this week.

Chinook

Fast catching the POR even though it started 2 weeks later.

Hallertauer

Just starting to get going. Rhizome was alot smaller than the others.

 

[drsmurto]

Love the setup Benny, thats pretty much what i am looking at doing.

Was is the rope/wire that runs down to the ground for the hops to climb up?

 

[BennyBrewster]

Love the setup Benny, thats pretty much what i am looking at doing.

Was is the rope/wire that runs down to the ground for the hops to climb up?

Cheers Smurto, I hope it fills to a solid wall of hops!

It's Sisal twine that I got from bunnings. I havent used it before however the "Small Scale & Organic Hops Production" book has reference to it and says that it works quite well as long as you dont bury it as it is biodegradable and will rot.

 

[Jye]

First yr columbus with 6 shoots. The tallest is about 40 cm and within 24 hrs of hooking up the string it has wrapped around twice... fast growing/moving little buggers

 

[winkle]

I was going to use a poly pipe arch (3.3 meter lenght 50mm Poly pipe wedged on 2 x 6ft star iron pickerts times 4 along the west side of the house) but ran out of poly pipe halfway through . The bloody hop shoot has shrivelled up too - I'd better repot the bugger with some fresh soil.

 

[Bizier]

Killer stuff Benny! You will definitely reap something.

My city chinook + some tiny POR plants are taking off here in the recent warm. The speed is scary considering how tiny the twig was.

 

[Pennywise]

My Chinook has been in the pot for 2 1/2 weeks, nothing yet . Hopefully she comes out to play soon.

Yay, I have a sprout. Bloody quick buggers aren't they, yesterday morning there was nothing, now I have a sprout about 5cm long. looks like I'll be building something for it to climb up this weekend before it gets too big.

 

[Fents]

note to self must plant chinook zomes this weekend.

 

[fraser_john]

Upgraded trellis system this year. POR has jumped out of the ground, other hops are Tettnang and Goldings. For both of these, I have already had to start pinching off the excess shoots, probably 20 pinched off the Goldings already.

Trellis is now about 18 feet tall, plenty of grow room! Each of my five hops now has this extended pole system. Each cross beam has a loop at the end, onto which I shall hang a string via a hook. To harvest I should be able to just unhook it and then lay the bine on the ground to harvest. Hmmm......"should".

This idea come from the hop growing guide.

 

[devo]

Come back home after 4 weeks holiday to find encouraging signs of things to come for 2009. This is the second year since planting this Tettnang rhizome and the shoots are noticeably more robust in appearance than the previous year.



Fingers crossed :unsure:

 

[manticle]

Tettnanger has sprouted two shoots. Still waiting on any sign of activity from my chinook.

Spent grain makes good mulch.

 

[matt white]

Chinook usually shoots late, and then....kaboom....the most vigorous of them all!!!

 

[notung]

Chinook usually shoots late, and then....kaboom....the most vigorous of them all!!!

I put in 3 cascade, 1 goldings and a hersbrucker rhizome a week ago - still understandably no activity from them. A shoot from last year's chinook has just broken the surface. (May have done so sooner if I hadn't shoveled a pile of compost on top of it last Friday.) Looking forward to cones this year, hopefully...

 

[Fourstar]

My chinook are beginning to sprout. the wired thing is the sprouts are eggplant purple! WTF?!?!

 

[Bizier]

My chinook are beginning to sprout. the wired thing is the sprouts are eggplant purple! WTF?!?!

That is normal.

My (purple stemmed) chinook is starting to go off, and is looking for my non-existent trellis.

 

[white.grant]

Potted my Por, Tett and Hallertau 2 weeks ago and now have 5 cm sprouting above the pea strw mulch on all of them.
Gardening is great.

cheers

grant



edit spell

 

[Mantis]

My chinook are beginning to sprout. the wired thing is the sprouts are eggplant purple! WTF?!?!

Ditto here 4* :blink:

 

[Fourstar]

Ditto here 4* :blink:

Going to hit em with a great big boost of powerfeed and seasol later on... hoping to awake to jack and the beanstalk! :lol:

 

[Maschenbrau]

Getting ahead a bit I know, but who has advice on storing hops once they've harvested them? Freeze 'em? Vacuum seal em? What's the go?!

 

[~MikE]

dry them, then bag them and freeze them. vacuum seal is good if you have it

EDIT: just to clarify, you don't want to freeze them if you haven't dried them so i hear.