2011 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hops!

[kelbygreen]

well I might grow hops this year I put in a dripper system and its on a automatic watering system so it will come on at x time so x amount of time. I also put about 100mm of sugar cain mulch over the bed to retain the moisture its working well as I watered them last night and its still damp.

But now to figure out how often to turn the drippers on and for how long. They are 4lts/h so I am guessing prob 45-60mins every 2 days maybe when it gets hotter might have to do it every day will adjust as needed but be away for 10 days from tomorrow again so wont be able check till I get home.

 

[Fents]

I give them 2 weeks of weather like this and they'll be at the top.

My tetts already at the top of my fence trellis and its got to be double as high as that pic.

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

had crossed my mind but I have to move in 2 months so need to keep it mobile, anyone pruned their hops back before??

 

[Wolfy]

had crossed my mind but I have to move in 2 months so need to keep it mobile, anyone pruned their hops back before??

On one of the brewing podcast/video things in the USA, the guy used a single pole and had a string looped over the top, as the hops grew he lowered the string, thus allowing the hops always to grow 'up' but keeping a fixed pole height (and hence keeping it portable).

 

[Yob]

there was this guy MMMMMMmmmmmm! You can pickle them too!

:blink:

 

[PhantomEasey]

Hey guys, thought I'd add mine to the mix. First crack at growing my own hops, big thanks to Mario for supplying them! All in 52ltr pots from the big green shed, potting mix and a weekly dosage of powerfeed. Since these pics were taken (Friday night) the Hallertauer is over 400mm high. Looks like I need to spend an evening setting up those climbing strings sooner than I thought

Without further ado...
POR


Hallertauer


Tettnanger


Gonna move two of them round the front of the house so they can climb all over the gable. The POR will stay against the fence and be draped along it in a zig-zag effect.

Anyone had success with the electric food driers? My aunty has one that I plan to use cometh the harvest

 

[Fish13]

woohoo my hallertau is on the way!!!

 

[Mitternacht Brauer]

Anyone had success with the electric food driers? My aunty has one that I plan to use cometh the harvest
[/quote]

Hi Fish13, I got a drier from Aldi last year for this purpose but found that I was better off taking a screen off a window and putting it on two saw horses in the shed for a couple of days. All depends how much your plants yield.

Pic from last year to give you an idea.
Note two screens used together.




Good luck

 

[PhantomEasey]

Anyone had success with the electric food driers? My aunty has one that I plan to use cometh the harvest


Hi Fish13, I got a drier from Aldi last year for this purpose but found that I was better off taking a screen off a window and putting it on two saw horses in the shed for a couple of days. All depends how much your plants yield.

Pic from last year to give you an idea.
Note two screens used together.

View attachment 48146


Good luck

Hey Mitternacht (love the name btw)

It was me asking about the drier. Was the issue the time it took to dry them, a negative affect on the quality of the flowers, or simply a capacity issue?

Btw, them are some nice lookin' cones you've got there!

 

[MaestroMatt]

Anyone had success with the electric food driers? My aunty has one that I plan to use cometh the harvest


Hi Fish13, I got a drier from Aldi last year for this purpose but found that I was better off taking a screen off a window and putting it on two saw horses in the shed for a couple of days. All depends how much your plants yield.

Pic from last year to give you an idea.
Note two screens used together.

View attachment 48146


Good luck

How many plants gave you that kind of yield?? Even, dry weight that would have to be a quite a few brews worth there!
Looks great!

 

[drsmurto]

Those little electric driers are good for a few handfuls of hops.

I use one for drying figs but could only fit a fraction of one plants yield in it so i uise a flyscreen as well for drying my hops. But then i am getting in excess of 800g dry from my chinook plants and 300g+ for the others. Dry weight is 10-15% of wet hops.

 

[fcmcg]

Bit of DIY trellis work.......

Is that from the hallertau , i gave you bloke ?

 

[PhantomEasey]

They're some handy quantities Doc, I can see why systematically drying them in small batches would be pain in the arse. To be honest I'm not sure what the capacity is for the one I'd be borrowing, but I know they do lots of dried apples/pears/apricots and whatever they have on their hobby farm, so I'm hoping it's got a decent capacity.

That said, these are first year rhizomes so I'm not expecting a bumper harvest.

 

[drsmurto]

The one i use has 10 trays so does a lot of halved figs. Several kg.

Several kg of wet hops is a lot, I doubt the drier could hold more than 1/2kg tops.

Some people get a lot off their 1st year plants.

I got nothing.

My 2nd year crop was only enough for a single batch (60-70g dry) per variety.

After that though it has taken off and i now get more than i need.

 

[newguy]

I reckon something strong on your horizontals and then jute (or similar) string running down to the ground. Jute being a fibre string will be good for the hops to grip onto.

The biggest reason for using jute (or similar) is that when the hops die off, you just cut the string and bine at top and bottom and put the whole lot in the bin, easy. Think about it; if you want to recycle the vertical strings then if the vertical strings are 'grippy' then you're going to have trouble getting the bines off them when dead. Make it easier on yourself, use disposable vertical strings.

I used jute the first 2 years but the only jute twine I could find wasn't very thick stuff. In my experience, about 50% would break when the plant started to "bush" out. All it takes is for the twine to get wet, then a small breeze will usually put the works in a heap on the ground.

This year I opted for 1/2" (~12mm) nylon rope with "dog collar" steel quick connects on each end, and heavy duty steel eyelets to hook the quick connects to. When it's harvest time, all I have to do is unhook the quick connect to lay the vine down. Once it's time to cut the thing back to the ground, removing the thing from a sturdy nylon rope won't be difficult. I found it quite difficult removing the vines from the jute twine as the twine just kept breaking. This was a pain as I simply laid the vines out on the lawn and then ran them over with the lawnmower a few times (I wanted to return the nutrients to the soil) and I had to remove all the twine first. It took forever.

 

[bowser]

My Chinook and POR rhizomes are finally starting to poke through the soil after being in the ground for about 5 weeks.

I was getting worried there for a little while.

 

[Malted]

I used jute the first 2 years but the only jute twine I could find wasn't very thick stuff. In my experience, about 50% would break when the plant started to "bush" out. All it takes is for the twine to get wet, then a small breeze will usually put the works in a heap on the ground.

This year I opted for 1/2" (~12mm) nylon rope with "dog collar" steel quick connects on each end, and heavy duty steel eyelets to hook the quick connects to. When it's harvest time, all I have to do is unhook the quick connect to lay the vine down. Once it's time to cut the thing back to the ground, removing the thing from a sturdy nylon rope won't be difficult. I found it quite difficult removing the vines from the jute twine as the twine just kept breaking. This was a pain as I simply laid the vines out on the lawn and then ran them over with the lawnmower a few times (I wanted to return the nutrients to the soil) and I had to remove all the twine first. It took forever.

Thanks newguy, once again an informative post. I am not concerned about returning the hop nutrients to the soil, I use seaweed & fish and chicken poo fertilisers.
I plan on either throwing the whole lot (bines and twines) into a green waste bin or composting it and expect that jute or similar would be suitable for either. I ran my bines up ~12mm synthetic rope last season and it seemed to me to be a PITA (maybe I am just lazy) to get the dried bines off the rope so I am going the opposite way to you. Good point about the thickness of the jute, I couldn't get particulalry robust stuff either. I had been thinking of twisting a few together and will definately do that now, thanks.

 

[MaltyHops]

Well, here're mine ... hoping for a better crop than last season's three cones
(used as decoration in kitchen area) after they got wind whipped in a trailer
while moving house and almost not getting any water during the peak growth
period (result of a brain fade moment).

T.

 

[kymba]

plants - L -> R goldings, POR, cascade, chinook


where they will be going


just got to finish fabbing up the 4.5m poles and away we go!

 

[going down a hill]

That's a good looking set of hop boxes you have there kymba. Nice work.