2011 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hops!

[kelbygreen]

Wow nice beer.what the hell did you put on them? That's a massive crop for first year

 

[drsmurto]

@ Beer4U - first year harvest of how much? :blink:

You must have some amazing soil and the perfect growing conditions! :beerbang:

 

[Steve@PMF82]

Wow nice beer.what the hell did you put on them? That's a massive crop for first year

@ Beer4U - first year harvest of how much?

You must have some amazing soil and the perfect growing conditions!

Cheers, yeah i was quite surprised by how many i have got so far, the POR is still pushing out a few small late bloomers as well. I think the conditions here are very suited to weeds, something unfortunately i know too well about

They are in a plot about 4 square meters, about 3/4 of that is soil a bit over a foot deep, with a drainage channel behind. Underneath its a bit of gritty stuff mostly lots of gypsum which i put there, as its solid clay after that, hence the concrete around the house, it goes to shit when it rains.

I have a massive compost pile that everything goes on, i feed it at one end and take from the other, so its constantly going through a cycle. Any non meat kitchen scraps, grass clippings, horse shit, used bedding hay- mostly from geese, any crap i get out of the gutters, dead plants anything that will rot.

I used mostly compost then thinned it out with a few bags of the cheapest generic soil i could find at bunnings.
A sprinkling of lime when mixing.
I mulched with more used bedding hay, 3 times over the course of the growing cycle mostly grass and some weeds would take over the soil surface, i gently dug all this up then piled it back on around the base of the hops.
I actually was a bit lazy at one stage and was chucking kitchen compost with any sweepings, leaves, dirt ect from around the house in the drainage channel which rotted pretty quick(lots of worms) and would mix that in when i dug the weeds and grass.
In essence there was always a cycle of decaying organic matter happening, so the soil is "alive"

In reality i really did not do much at all other than put up a few half arsed strings for them to climb, just left them to do their thing, no pest sprays, no fertilizers, i had some aphids in the early stages but the hops grew to quick for them to do any damage, then beneficial insects took up residence and they out-competed any bad bugs. I felt bad i de- homed a lot of spiders.

Overall i quite like the big green factor they add to around the house, its a shame they have to die off over winter
All these hops are a big bonus, looking forward to making an ALL AUSSIE ale, Aussie malt, maybe coopers yeast?, home grown POR lots of late additions!

 

[Liam_snorkel]

that's it. I'm getting a compost bin.

 

[drsmurto]

I put a bag of horse manure on top of them every year several cms thick and I don't get that sort of yield from first year plants.....

How big were the rhizomes?

Despite having 2 compost bins and 2 extra compost piles none of the compost has ever made it on to the hops, i use that for vegies and new plants. Meat composts just as an FYI as do crab shells. Only thing that doesn't (that i have tried) are oyster shells.

 

[Steve@PMF82]

I put a bag of horse manure on top of them every year several cms thick and I don't get that sort of yield from first year plants.....

How big were the rhizomes?

Despite having 2 compost bins and 2 extra compost piles none of the compost has ever made it on to the hops, i use that for vegies and new plants. Meat composts just as an FYI as do crab shells. Only thing that doesn't (that i have tried) are oyster shells.

The POR was one straight piece id guess about 25cm length, with many shoots a few cm long coming from it.
The chinook was much bigger, many more shoots but in a gnarled ball, looks like i will get plenty from it, but not sure if will be near the same weight, depends how big the cones end up i guess?

Yeah i primarily don't like putting meat scraps outside because it attracts the foxes, any dead animals here get buried quite deep.

EDIT: FWIW - horse manure on its own is lacking in most elements, makes a good soil conditioner / Filler. Cow and chicken manure is much better for adding nutrients.
Also if anyone is interested i planted my rhizomes on 15th August 2011.

 

[chefeffect]

Growing good .

Mt Hood and Cascade

Look great!! Mine are finally on the go, I have a few cones on the Cascade you gave me and the Mt Hood are starting to get some good root growth!!!

These are my Saaz going awesome better that the other 5 varieties:

 

[chefeffect]

Close up of the Saaz, not sure how to put multiple photos up?

 

[Tony]

Picked most of my goldings today..... they only seem to flower on the side that gets sun. Will need to move them to get a good yield next year i think.

Still got about 100g.

Below is 60g once dried, and i picked a heap a week ago and kegged my IPA onto them. Its nice too

260g wet goldings hops

they are a good looking hop!

 

[matho]

looks good tony, you can really see why the are called goldings

 

[kelbygreen]

Got home today and my plants have about 30 more shoots each they are climbing them selfs, other plants, the ground and anything they can get hold of most the shoots like 4 foot long already! only been 8 days lol

 

[oaf]

:icon_cheers:

Wow Chefeffect, your Saaz cones are heaps different than mine! Mine didn't balloon like most other hops I've seen and hid behind most of the leaves when growing... They look healthy though.
I definately know mine are saaz though, just dry hopped a keg of Pilsner and can't stop pouring another!

Checked out my bines today and am wondering if I should pull down the flowered and plucked (used) bines and let the new growth take over? The shoots are 4 - 5 feet long and battling for space...

Do bines of matured and harvested flowers grow new buds, or just stay bines with leaves?

Cheers!

:icon_cheers:

 

[chefeffect]

:icon_cheers:

Wow Chefeffect, your Saaz cones are heaps different than mine! Mine didn't balloon like most other hops I've seen and hid behind most of the leaves when growing... They look healthy though.
I definately know mine are saaz though, just dry hopped a keg of Pilsner and can't stop pouring another!

Checked out my bines today and am wondering if I should pull down the flowered and plucked (used) bines and let the new growth take over? The shoots are 4 - 5 feet long and battling for space...

Do bines of matured and harvested flowers grow new buds, or just stay bines with leaves?

Cheers!

:icon_cheers:

The hops just got big in the last week I went out to check them today and was blowen away at how quick they had gone from little buds to full on cones. Can't wait to get these sucker in a Pil I'm jealous... This is my first year for growing hops so I can't really answer your question with any experience, but I would assume that they probably wont grow more cones till next year, after they die back and grow again?? I may be wrong so you might have to wait for someone else to answer that one..

 

[Tony]

Got home today and my plants have about 30 more shoots each they are climbing them selfs, other plants, the ground and anything they can get hold of most the shoots like 4 foot long already! only been 8 days lol

Mine too..... new shoots and a new crop of Goldings cones starting on the way.

The POR has about 2 kg of wets on the plant...... will probably start picking them next weekend, maybe some tomorrow.

cheers

 

[felten]

Checked out my bines today and am wondering if I should pull down the flowered and plucked (used) bines and let the new growth take over? The shoots are 4 - 5 feet long and battling for space...

Do bines of matured and harvested flowers grow new buds, or just stay bines with leaves?

Pretty sure they flower once and that's it, at least that's what mine have done.

IMO I would leave them up though, they'll die off of their own accord, but while they're alive they should be absorbing sunlight and helping the plant out.

 

[hoppy2B]

Goldings cones are so light, loose and fluffy. :mellow:

 

[raven19]

Just the one plant flowering for me - Victoria.

Starting to get a slight papery feel, might need the good DrS to pop around to check if they are ready to pick though!

 

[hoppy2B]

Looks good Raven. :beer:

You can pick them a little green. If left too long they go brown.

 

[Doubleplugga]

3rd and final harvest of my 1st year cascades today, (2vines) 2.2 kilos today for a total of 2.8kilos from both plants (wet). pretty stoked with the amount for the first year as i wasn't expecting much at all. hopefully will be able to get 2 or 3 experimental brews done using these hops to test their flavour, bitterness etc. fingers where very sticky at the end of harvest, thanks to SWMBO also as she did half for me!!

 

[Yob]

Latest Brewstrong - Wet Hops

Seems relevant :icon_drunk: listening to it ATM.. already had a few giggles... but I may under the influence of wet hops :lol:

Ive gone cascade and chinook flowers in a glass this afternoon :super: