2011 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hops!

[Batz]

It seems that the QLD hops growers seem to have harvested their hops earlier but with a (what appears to be) lower yield compared to the NSW and Victorian growers. Has this been the case in previous years?

Daylight hours obviously have some sort of effect in hop plant growth. Does anyone have any research or evidence if higher heat/humidity/UV levels affects lupulin or oil levels in hop cones?

Hops grow well in colder climates like Tassie ,Vic, SA and N.Z. , I think it's just a location thing. Bananas, pineapples etc don't do so well in hop growing regions.

Batz

 

[phoenixdigital]

And interesting read on why us Northerners are not getting good yields (I have zero flowers)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoperiodism
and
http://tinyurl.com/72bgdsl

So its not the number of daylight hours. The plants are detecting the shortness of the night.

I might try to fool one of my hops plants with light next year. Probably a total waste of electricity compared to buying hops though. The book mentions you only need a few minutes of light at night to make the plant think it is in short nights.

A question for other northerners. What have your hop yields been like?

Looks like we need some genetic engineering to make hops Day-neutral.

 

[kymba]

i was considering fkn around with lights, but that is whack

anyways, from what i have read you can trick them with some 660nm for a couple of hours each night, and you can stop with the light once they start to flower

apart from that, if you want more hops up here you just have to plant more

 

[Wolfy]

I might try to fool one of my hops plants with light next year. Probably a total waste of electricity compared to buying hops though.

Commercial farms (in South Africa and other places) have tried/used lights to simulate longer day-light hours.
But you're probably right about it not being cost-effective for a home-situation.

 

[DJR]

Commercial farms (in South Africa and other places) have tried/used lights to simulate longer day-light hours.
But you're probably right about it not being cost-effective for a home-situation.

If you did it with a 660nm LEDs you might have some luck, you'd have to make sure it was weatherproof IP66 or something, power would be cheap but purchasing all the LEDs may get expensive.

e.g. http://www.livingapartment.com.au/Products...W-96W-144W-288W

Commercial hops are pretty cheap really

 

[phoenixdigital]

What sort of strength light I wonder?

Would your standard backyard light work?

I think due to the plants size/length those LEDs or anything small would be next to useless.

Maybe next summer I will put our backyard light on for an hour a night around 10pm.

 

[kelbygreen]

things its got more to do with wave length then the size of light.

 

[GrainStain]

Whoever sold you the chinook is an idiot who should charge far more for their rhizomes :icon_cheers:

Yeah - Some hillbilly

 

[GrainStain]

And this is from a first year cascade grown in a pot.

Can't be unhappy with that!

 

[Tony]

better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

 

[drsmurto]

160g of dried Cascade vac packed this evening, ~80g dry equivalent still on the bines.

Hours later i am still sniffing my fingers :huh: :lol:

 

[Lecterfan]

It's been ups and downs with my lot this year, but today - out of sheer spite - I knocked out a 'wet-hop-harvest ale'...

While the boil was on I just went out and picked a heap that I had on the bine longer than last year in order to develop more lupulin and the papery feel etc...some of the hops are a bit small due to all my bullshit a few months ago (which came down to simply not giving them enough water), but they are full of yellow goodness, and some of the more sun exposed ones are a bit brown on the edges.

200 gms of cascade flowers, 250 gms colombus (wet/fresh from the bine):



Ran off the kettle into two of the old stovetop-boil pots (I still left %80 of hot break and the NS bittering hop debris behind but wasn't too stressed as the flowers act as brilliant organic filters when straining into the fermenter and I won't reuse the yeast):


Now in the icebath.

I rescued 2 bugs from the hot wort of doom, not sure how many others perished haha...bit of extra protein, all good.

 

[Stinger]

Commercial farms (in South Africa and other places) have tried/used lights to simulate longer day-light hours.
But you're probably right about it not being cost-effective for a home-situation.

Thats the trick though Wolfy, it would be cheaper to just buy commercial hops. Growing them is the challenge!

I vote getting some solar powered christmas lights and hang them up on the bush. They automatically turn on and last out the length of the battery at night.
If it also fools your hops into flowering more then Awesome, otherwise it will look very cool at night!

 

[phoenixdigital]

I vote getting some solar powered christmas lights and hang them up on the bush.

Why hang them on the bush... make them the stringer that the hops grow on.

 

[Malted]

Why hang them on the bush... make them the stringer that the hops grow on.

When they are dried off it could be a PITA to get them off the lights

 

[Malted]

Second and final pick of the first year Cascade: 1.3kg fresh green weight (in this picture) plus 450g fresh weight previosly for a total of 1.75 kg wet weight in it's first season


1.25m spirit level to the side. They're layered 4-5 deep in the middle.


A few maybe a bit too dry or a little scortched


Not monster sized but plenty big enough

 

[Stinger]

Why hang them on the bush... make them the stringer that the hops grow on.

I like your thinking Phoenix, could add up the cost a little but if your dead keen on growing hops in northern parts it could be just the thing to crank productivity!



Malted, definite PITA so when harvesting just cut them off top and bottom and dispose of once hops harvested. not as environmentally friendly approach as some but at what cost absolutely fresh home grown hops to play with. local terroir is cool as your hops will be subtly different to the commercial produced varieties depending on soil type etc definitely fun to play with.

 

[the_new_darren]

Second and final pick of the first year Cascade: 1.3kg fresh green weight (in this picture) plus 450g fresh weight previosly for a total of 1.75 kg wet weight in it's first season

View attachment 52850
1.25m spirit level to the side. They're layered 4-5 deep in the middle.

View attachment 52851
A few maybe a bit too dry or a little scortched

View attachment 52852
Not monster sized but plenty big enough

Do they smell like cascade?

tnd

 

[Malted]

Do they smell like cascade?

tnd

Short answer: My nose doesn't work very well.

Long answer: Actually the cones are not hugely pungent. I rubbed some lupulin from the Goldings (still on the bines) between my fingers this morning and despite the cones not being pungent, my yellow, sticky, finger tips smelt good and characteristic of the variety. I'll rub another one off this afternoon, of the drying cascade that is... h34r: to see if the rubbed lupulin is more aromatic than the cones.
Probably the most pungent cones (without having to rub them) I have encountered in my yard so far was my hersbrucker last year.

I'd say the homegrown cascade taste like it 'should' but can't be sure of that. I did a wet hops brew and there was that characteristic cascade flavour in it but it was a reasonably busy hop schedule (homegrown cascade, chinook, victoria) plus commercial magnum with commercial cascade, amarillo & citra in dry hopping too.
I am considering a SMASH, or single hop brew, with them to give them a good test.

 

[PranK]

View attachment 52852
Not monster sized but plenty big enough

Thats too awesome. Whats the size of the tree?