First yearer here!
are we ready yet in melbourne? it has been very rainy and cold recently.
are we ready yet in melbourne? it has been very rainy and cold recently.
2010 Hop Plantations
- Thread starter JestersDarts
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Steve
On the back bloody porch!
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yeah, chuck em in the dirt it'll be right.
Actually put my Chinook from DrSmurto in the ground last Saturday.
Cheers
Steve
HeavyNova
Well-Known Member
This thread has inspired me to try and grow some hops - looks fun!
They should be arriving any day now -1 cascade and 1 saaz. Location is in Dunsborough, South West WA which should be pretty suitable for them.
They should be arriving any day now -1 cascade and 1 saaz. Location is in Dunsborough, South West WA which should be pretty suitable for them.
I noticed the same with my Poor-POR-in-a-pot from last year, it seemed to hardly grow at all compared to the other plants, and there were no cones, but when I dug it up the root ball was quite large.
Why don't you light some up and see?
Nick JD
Blah Blah Blah
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DUANNE
no chiller and botulism free since 2010
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Yes. I'll sell you an ounce of POR for $350.
jeez i wouldnt pay that for the real thing, the stuff must be realy pricey up that way.
unrealeous
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http://forum.grasscity.com/advanced-growin...ly-amazing.html
Before you get too excited - make sure you read the 2nd post of that thread.
Here is the basis of my 2010-2011 hop plantation, the rhizomes have been stored in the fridge, but were starting to shoot, so it was time to get planting.
Another 1/2 dozen rhizomes are still in my parents fridge, but so far all the rhizomes have survived the 'winter' well and look happy/healthy/ready to grow.
Since mum's vegies didn't grow well last year, the hops had to move, luckily my sister has some room to plant them.
The idea is to have two lines of hops - running north to south - along the western boundary fence and up the hill (to the garden shed in the picture).
The soil is a fertile red clay type (good for growing potatoes it seems) and there is a vineyard/winery just a few km up the road, so hopefully it will be fine for the hops.
Each rhizome will be planted in a hole about 500x500x500mm, back-filled with a mix of native soil and mushroom compost (1/2 cubic m from garden supply place).
At present there are 20 varieties to plant, so they'll take up about 40m of fence-line.
Each row will have 2 plants of the same variety placed 1.5m apart (this year there is only 1 of some varieties).
The cattle press and remaining poles are cemented into the ground and will be removed soon.
Today we planted; Golding, Fuggle, Target, Challenger, Williamette, 2x Mt Hood, Chinook, Liberty, 2x Cascade, 2x Columbus, and by the time it got dark we were almost 1/2 way up the hill:
Next weekend (Fathers day BBQ), hopefully the rest will get planted.
Then on the to-do list:
grass/weed suppressing ground cover/mulch
trellis frame & support wires
automatic drip watering.
Another 1/2 dozen rhizomes are still in my parents fridge, but so far all the rhizomes have survived the 'winter' well and look happy/healthy/ready to grow.
Since mum's vegies didn't grow well last year, the hops had to move, luckily my sister has some room to plant them.
The idea is to have two lines of hops - running north to south - along the western boundary fence and up the hill (to the garden shed in the picture).
The soil is a fertile red clay type (good for growing potatoes it seems) and there is a vineyard/winery just a few km up the road, so hopefully it will be fine for the hops.
Each rhizome will be planted in a hole about 500x500x500mm, back-filled with a mix of native soil and mushroom compost (1/2 cubic m from garden supply place).
At present there are 20 varieties to plant, so they'll take up about 40m of fence-line.
Each row will have 2 plants of the same variety placed 1.5m apart (this year there is only 1 of some varieties).
The cattle press and remaining poles are cemented into the ground and will be removed soon.
Today we planted; Golding, Fuggle, Target, Challenger, Williamette, 2x Mt Hood, Chinook, Liberty, 2x Cascade, 2x Columbus, and by the time it got dark we were almost 1/2 way up the hill:
Next weekend (Fathers day BBQ), hopefully the rest will get planted.
Then on the to-do list:
grass/weed suppressing ground cover/mulch
trellis frame & support wires
automatic drip watering.
drsmurto
Well-Known Member
With all that space Wolfy why plant them so close together?
My chinook has sent out shoots more than 2m from where i planted the rhizome. Its more than 3m from the nearest other rhizome but each year they seem to shoot closer together.
Very keen to see what you do for a trellis, I measured the spot up yesterday trying to work out how to best tackle this.
Have asked on more than one occasion if my partners parents could let me use a small portion of just one of their paddocks for a hop plantation but the effort in keeping the goats out would be more hassle than its worth.
My chinook has sent out shoots more than 2m from where i planted the rhizome. Its more than 3m from the nearest other rhizome but each year they seem to shoot closer together.
Very keen to see what you do for a trellis, I measured the spot up yesterday trying to work out how to best tackle this.
Have asked on more than one occasion if my partners parents could let me use a small portion of just one of their paddocks for a hop plantation but the effort in keeping the goats out would be more hassle than its worth.
Malted
Humdinger
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Got my hops (Bought on Ebay from Wagga NSW) planted in half wine barrels ($40 each at Paramont Browns on Cavan Road) in potting mix (bought a trailer load as it is 170 litres per pot).
Left to right: Chinook, POR, Saaz, Hersbrucker. The Saaz and Hersbrucker will probably get a bit of shade from the tree but I figure since they don't like it too hot this will be good for them.
The trellis is only 9 foot above the pavers due to the neighbours tree (which I've hacked into already). Effectively the top lines would only be 7 foot above the pot soil surface so I might run some horizontal lines back to the house (at left) if I have to. I have used tie wire on it to stop it blowing over until I make some stainless cables & turnbuckles. There are two wires at the top and one wire on each end bracing it back to the fence. I have written on the pots what is in them AND also nailed the aluminium tags to the horizontal beam on the fence. Bolting the trellis uprights straight to the pots seemed to put them on the perfect angle!
When I drilled drainage holes in the pots it smelled so good that I kept the shavings for smoking meats! A double layer of shadecloth went in before the potting mix (which had some water crystals stirred in by me). I will also have to mulch them soon.
Left to right: Chinook, POR, Saaz, Hersbrucker. The Saaz and Hersbrucker will probably get a bit of shade from the tree but I figure since they don't like it too hot this will be good for them.
The trellis is only 9 foot above the pavers due to the neighbours tree (which I've hacked into already). Effectively the top lines would only be 7 foot above the pot soil surface so I might run some horizontal lines back to the house (at left) if I have to. I have used tie wire on it to stop it blowing over until I make some stainless cables & turnbuckles. There are two wires at the top and one wire on each end bracing it back to the fence. I have written on the pots what is in them AND also nailed the aluminium tags to the horizontal beam on the fence. Bolting the trellis uprights straight to the pots seemed to put them on the perfect angle!
When I drilled drainage holes in the pots it smelled so good that I kept the shavings for smoking meats! A double layer of shadecloth went in before the potting mix (which had some water crystals stirred in by me). I will also have to mulch them soon.
There is lots of space, but she is still worried about how the hops will 'look' especially with a 5m trellis and all the associated wires etc, as you can see the block is quite open, and has a fairly good view, and a view to it from elsewhere, so they have to be 'neat'.
The biggest worry I have is water over the summer, there is a huge tank behind the shed in the pictures, so with an automated trickle watering system, I hope they will be fine (but I don't expect her to hand water or really care about the hops), so if they were positioned elsewhere, they would be very difficult to water.
I did want 3x 'colums' placed 2m apart, but she suggested that would take up too much room (and had other ideas) so now the plan is to let the hops in each 'row' grow together as they wish, and so there will just be a 'row' of each variety, rather than individual plants, but between the rows, I'll remove the rhizomes/roots and keep each variety separate.
In the pictures (along the fence line) you can see some gal-pipe-stuff, like what flag-poles are made from, hopefully we can arrange something in a TT type shape, and run the wires along those - thats the plan at this stage.
LOL, cows have short necks and they are being planted 1m in from the fence, so they *should* be OK, I hope.
Speaking of which, my cascade has about 4 shoots I beleive. I'm a little confused with what happens next. I'm following the advice/technique of having the timber stake in a pot and growing a single shoot up a bine which I'll lower down when it gets near the top. What do I do with the other shoots? Keep cutting them off?
