2011 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hops!

[drsmurto]

@Kymba - they should feel papery and not spongy when squeezed.

Pick them early and you'll end up with bugger all flavour/aroma.

The larger cone in your picture looks about right.

The wet then warm then wet combination we are getting here in the Adelaide Hills is doing wonders for the garden and the hops are going gangbusters. Every day i am unwinding them from the tomato plants and am struggling to keep the chinook and cascade apart.

Even the Victoria rhizome cuttings i took have gone up a gear and are now making a beeline for the top of the trellis.

Only downside is having to constantly mow the lawm..... <_<

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Canberra hops decimated by hail....

 

[Darkman]

No more potash.

Be very careful with straight potash - I learnt that the hard way last year (burnt the poor beggars). 1 teaspoon at most is the subsequent advice I got. I'd tend to think ash from a fire would be a safer and softer option but someone else with horticultural experience should be able to clarify that.

Potash seemed to burn the lower leaves on my bines. Not such a bad thing as you can strip them off easily so that the bottom part of the bines don't have leaves and this apparently is good to reduce nasty insects getting up into your bines. I think a better proposition if you wanted to do that would be to use secateurs.

If the soil gets too dry I think the bottom leaves on the bines burn (go yellow and then brown off). The growing tips can also burn off too if the soil water is low or the ambient heat is high.

Mottled yellow could be something else such as a deficiency (or perhaps an overload?). You would think a deficiency would affect the whole plant? Just an unqualified hunch: I'd point the finger at loving them too much.

Edit: I had problems last year with catepillars chewing the **** out of the leaves. I squashed as many as I could find and eventually the bines were able to produce more leaves than the catepillars could eat. They seemed to dissapear once the weather warmed up. This year the catepillars have been at it again but I haven't been able to find any to squash them. I used a catepillar specific innoculant (from the big green shed) powder mixed with water and sprayed it on - seemed to do the trick and is not a poison to affect other things.

I'm quite sure potash and ash from the fire are two different things. Ash form a fire is high alkaline from memory and would be used to balance acidic soil rather then a fertaliser.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

noticed a few small green grasshoppers (about 10-15mm) munching on my hops in the last week, any tips on how to control them without wiping out spiders & ladybugs as well?
cheers

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Any ideas what would go for the tips of bines? I broke a few off in the early days training them, but I've been very careful lately. More and more I am giving them an inspection and find that the tips of bines are gone without a trace - too much to chalk it down to snapping in the wind.

It's hard to guage pesting from the leaves since the hail damage, so I thought this might give some indication?

 

[MaltyHops]

Any ideas what would go for the tips of bines? I broke a few off in the early days
training them, but I've been very careful lately. More and more I am giving them
an inspection and find that the tips of bines are gone without a trace - too much
to chalk it down to snapping in the wind. ...

I would cast some suspicion at birds - I've seen sparrows flitting
around my hops & chilli plants and then found cleanly nipped off
shoots.

T.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I just worked out that my plants where suffering form lack of trace elements, not a lack of nitrogen....slow growing, leaves going yellow...

Some lime and trace elements have perked them up

 

[hoppy2B]

noticed a few small green grasshoppers (about 10-15mm) munching on my hops in the last week, any tips on how to control them without wiping out spiders & ladybugs as well?
cheers

I can only think of the obvious, which is to squish them. :lol:

 

[Liam_snorkel]

hehe yeah. I've squished 1-3 every day, might have to train the cat to hunt them or something.

If they start to get out of control I'll have a crack at making some garlic oil spray.

 

[felten]

If bear grylls had grasshoppers on his hops, he'd man up and eat them.

 

[ratchie]

Bush prawns.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

:lol: Haha

 

[bowser]

I think something bit the end off my chinook, is there anyway to cut it to promote further growth or should i just leave it? Its only grown to about 6 foot.

 

[Newbee(r)]

if the lead tip is broken, it won't go any further in my experience - no pruning will bring the tip back - others will keep growing though, so all is not lost.

 

[kelbygreen]

I broke the tip off the top of my biggest shoot when it was 1 foot tall now its about 1 foot above the 4m high trellis but it shot off heaps of others from the same shoot and cant tell much if its the original one or not

 

[bowser]

Ok thanks, it was going great guns there for a while. This is the only bind as well. Hopefully I'll get some more!

 

[kelbygreen]

you will find it will off shoot from that bind the one I broke was about 7-8mm at the base so I think it had enough in it to shoot decent binds of it. Also my chinook is coming up all over the garden bed where the POR all the shoots are within 400m round circle area.

 

[Malted]

you will find it will off shoot from that bind the one I broke was about 7-8mm at the base so I think it had enough in it to shoot decent binds of it. Also my chinook is coming up all over the garden bed where the POR all the shoots are within 400m round circle area.

Seems like the growing tips get snapped off or wither for all sorts of reasons. The laterals (or side shoots) will take offf and go past where the tip left off, or it may throw some new bines from below the soil. I have had some bines do either or even both. Don't get yourself in a bind over it. :lol:
One bine only sounds like a new rhizome; don't set your expectations too high in the first year.

 

[Jim_Levet]

noticed a few small green grasshoppers (about 10-15mm) munching on my hops in the last week, any tips on how to control them without wiping out spiders & ladybugs as well?
cheers

I have been squashing a few spider-mites this week, anyone else found these little buggers munching the leaves?
OK taking a pic before squashing them would have been smart eh!
Jimbo

 

[jyo]

Die you hop pillaging bug. I have a few of these little jumping spiders standing sentry and a few lady bugs joining the good fight too.