2010 Hop Plantations

[Bribie G]

Good timing Nick, mine popped up as well today



And the hops



B)

 

[bradsbrew]

My Vienna gold has popped it head out and sprung some leaves. My cascade is being a bit shy though.

 

[MarkBastard]

My Chinook only really fully died back about a month ago hahaha...

I wonder when it will start growing this year, given that fact?

I better hurry up and re-pot it I guess.

 

[Bribie G]

I was reading a US site about hop growing, and they said to wait for a few shoots to come through then chop off the first two and go with the rest, as the first two will not be as robust. Is this common practice?

 

[the_yobbo]

I was reading a US site about hop growing, and they said to wait for a few shoots to come through then chop off the first two and go with the rest, as the first two will not be as robust. Is this common practice?

I don't know, but that's kinda what I did. I thought it was shooting too early so I cut off all the shoots (5 of them). Buggered if I know if what I've done is right or wrong, but more shoots (about another 5) are growing so I haven't killed it. It's a 1st year cascade.

 

[keifer33]

Well for my first year of growing my Cascade is flying along. About 2 Weeks ago a few shoots came up then bam all of these appeared. I can almost watch it grow. My other 2 hops have gone nowhere at all (Wuert).

 

[Florian]

Mine are doing quite well.

Got them from DrSmurto a while back, chucked them into the lagering fridge and forgot about them. I still did not remember them when I turned the fridge off as no beer was there to lager. A few weeks later I cleaned the fridge out and found the rizhomes. Because it had become warm they had started sprouting, but due to the lack of light, all sprouts were white. I put them into the soil and covered them completely, and a few days later they appeared.

I have now trained them around some 3m long wooden sticks, and have the potential to extend them to 6m. If I'm game enough that is. So far SWMBO hasn't discovered them... I have a fair idea of what she would think of them growing 6m up our walls...



POR, actually four of them, the three smaller ones trained around only one stick.



One Chinook, the other one got his head chopped off. POR in the background


Florian

 

[MarkBastard]

I was reading a US site about hop growing, and they said to wait for a few shoots to come through then chop off the first two and go with the rest, as the first two will not be as robust. Is this common practice?

Careful. With regards to hop growing you get even more bad advice than home brewing if you ask too many questions!!!

They grow like weeds. Don't do anything you don't absolutely have to do IMO. The only thing you really risk doing is too much.

My best plant only actually created one shoot.

 

[Wolfy]

I was reading a US site about hop growing, and they said to wait for a few shoots to come through then chop off the first two and go with the rest, as the first two will not be as robust. Is this common practice?

It's common practice for commercial hop growers.
Usually they will mow or cut back the first shoots in early spring, since this allows them to control all subsequent growth, have all the bines the same age, and most importantly, harvest the entire crop at the same time - all very useful in a commercial situation.

However, it's debatable if any of these benefits are useful to home-grown hops, and looking at my own plants there is nothing to suggest that the first few shoots will not be as robust/strong/whatever as any of the other shoots. Especially if you have a new hop rhizome that's been recently planted, I think that chopping the first few shoots will do more harm than good, however for later years growth, I don't think it really matters, but I don't see any benefit to it.
If you don't trim back the shoots and they all grow at different rates your hop plant will most likely have 'multiple' or 'extended' harvests, the harvest time being related to the time it takes the bines to grow, if you do trim them you can harvest them all mostly at the same time.

 

[Leigh]

Looks like gardening is on my to-do list this weekend...hops, asparagus, citrus all into pots :beer:

 

[dcx3]

I was reading a US site about hop growing, and they said to wait for a few shoots to come through then chop off the first two and go with the rest, as the first two will not be as robust. Is this common practice?

Ive read this, ive also read that the Romans used to regard the "spring shoots" as a delicacy so they always chopped them off and cooked them up.

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

Didn't know the Romans knew about, or cultivated hops.

 

[dcx3]

Didn't know the Romans knew about, or cultivated hops.

Im not sure how true that is its something i read when researching hop cultivation
Hops and dope are also related so they have both been around for a while but only recently been mass produced by humanity.
Here's a pdf on hops

View attachment HopsManual.pdf

 

[matho]

Thought i would post the link to the AHB hop growing article for those that dont know it exists.

cheer's matho

 

[cdbrown]

I think matho broke the website.....

 

[arogers]

Good news, I've got nearly 100pc strike rate this year - all 9 have popped their head up (except for the Chinook, still waiting there).

Will take some pics tomorrow I think.

 

[jyo]

Second year Cascade popped up today. Hoping for a cracker of a year.

 

[arogers]

OK, here is some pics this morning...

 

[Jye]

Just saw that my 2nd yr Columbus has broken through with a few tiny leaves.

 

[white.grant]

Crikey, with all this action I thought I'd better transfer my rhizomes out of last years pots and into the ground.

It was my first year last year and was happy to get a handful of flowers from my POR and just leaves from my Hallertau and tettnang but at least I didn't kill them.

I wasn't expecting much really, so when I shook them out of the pots I could not believe how much the rhizomes have grown. All of them were quite seriously pot bound (40cm pots) and the Tett had escaped out of the drain hole and into the ground. So I got out the big shovel and they're now safely planted, watered and fed.

Lots of young shoots coming through, so I'd better get cracking on the trellis this weekend.