2013 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

[malt_shovel]

Hey Malt Shovel,

Just wondering how you find growing your hops in Perth? I know I have missed the season this year but I am looking to get setup ready for next year as I have heard over winter is the best time to try find rhizomes.
Good luck with your harvest!

This is my first attempt so I don't have much to compare with but I learnt early on that they need an automated dripper system and some good mulch to prevent the soil drying out. The fuggles were early to sprout but suffered from lack of water and mulch. Other than that everything seems to be fine. The chinook and cascade and saaz seem to be the best performers. Next year should be better with them established. Hopswest in Albany supplied the rhizhomes.

 

[LiquidGold]

I've also found a few grasshoppers on mine over the last week, thinking of making up a chilli and/or garlic spray but not sure how effective it will be.




On a more positive note I'm very stoked to have some flowers forming on one of the 1st year golding, didn't think I'd see any flowers this season.

 

[Christof]

Geez I hope the Victorian hop crop is holding up ok in this heatwave- my stand of Cascade bines has been decimated just when the flowers were starting to mature

 

[Yob]

POR has not survived the heat, it's up against the wall of my shed and I guess with the reflected heat as well as ambient.. by the time I saw it, it's pretty shrivelled..

Hopefully I can save the zome.. its the potted ones that suffer the most in these extreme conditions..

 

[DU99]

my potted plant has suffered the same fate the leaves have shrivelled up...i am still giving it water.

 

[Christof]

yeah mine are all potted- renting...

 

[Christof]

I'll give the flowers a sniff and decide if they're worth using- looking pretty crackly

 

[Rubix]

I've got 11 plants, all of them in pots and this week has seen them go crazy. Sending out new bines, laterals and flowers. I just gave them a good soaking and a good hit of seasol / powerfeed in the days prior to the heat coming and then just a squirt in the mornings.. Mind you, i'm also on Phillip Island so we're a few degrees coolers here as well.

 

[sp0rk]

So glad we're only getting high 20's here in Coffs

 

[Mall]

My Mt Hood have had it, all shrivelled up. My Cascade, in the pot right next to Mt Hood are flourishing....same water care and feeding to both :blink:

The Melbourne heat is a killer.

 

[Spiesy]

Bottom of my Cascade seems to have born the brunt of the white flies and extreme heat that has plagued this year's growing season. Most leaves have disappeared, stalks turned brown - but the tops are doing well, if only I had more vertical support for them to grow.
Soaking every second day in this heat, adding fertiliser every second week.

 

[Christof]

Same- I'm watering morning and night, fertilizing every few weeks. I guess this kind of damage is expected in these conditions, given they are positioned to maximize hours of direct sunlight exposure, and are too tall to throw shade cloth over. Pretty crushing, oh well always next year.
I'm more concerned about the commercial farms - hope their crop survives!

 

[philmud]

Well, heatwave over for now. My chinook still seem OK (some I had in a pot are a bit singed). They are first year hops and I've grown them along a fence, yet despite this they seem to have started flowering during this crazy hot week!

 

[kalbarluke]

I'm finding the heat is particularly getting to my Goldings and Hallertaur. Cascade and Chinook seem to be coping a bit better.

 

[Martrix]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6WszhMurxw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[ian4379]

here's some of mine, my first time growing them. i got some bigger rhizomes off "mmmyummybeer" from this site, they've gone great guns. i got a few smaller rhizomes off an ebay seller, far less growth. i'm in gippsland, vic, mt hood came up first, cascade next than for a while i thought the willamette and POR weren't going to shoot, about a month later they popped up.


mt hood flowers

mt hood

cascade, 2 rhizomes

younger rhizome off ebay, cascade on the left, willamette on the right

will be on the lookout for some centennial and chinook this year

edit: i bought some cheap rope from supercheap and rigged up a "close-line" using old treated pine lying around, i had no idea they would grow so well, will change the set-up next year.

 

[malt_shovel]

First harvest.
Chinook. Two bines that gave 125gm wet.

The Cascade looks to have about twice that off a single bine.

Thinking I will throw some of these in half a batch of APA as a wet / dry hop and dry out the rest.

Anyone else harvesting early?

 

[DU99]

My poor old thing is getting over last heat wave in melbourne,starting to get new leaves and new bines..don't think i will get any crop this year

 

[Yob]

Despite the furnace of last week, the cascade and the chinook seem to be holding up OK

Others dont seem to be as well off.. POR has been decimated. Like DU99, others are sending new shoots, Tett fro example has 3 or 4 new bines erupting, the laterals seem to be having a go, so maybe it'll be ok.. who the hell knows :blink:



Cascade



Chinook

 

[technobabble66]

Houston, we have FLOWERS !!

and several new bines also, but ... flowers!
It's a 1st year Chinook 'zome from DrS, so i didn't think it'd produce. So i'm obviously rather stoked i've got something to harvest. B)

In the 4x 40+°C heatwave from ~10 days ago, i was watering it morning & night - had only 2 tiny laterals lose a few inches from scorching. Pretty happy getting through it unscathed. (commiserations to those not so fortunate!)

FWIW, i've grown mine in a large planter box, where the bines grow up about 1.8m then extend horizontally another metre or 3. So the horizontal thing doesn't seem to affect them too detrimentally, though obviously you never know if they'd be twice as prolific if i'd grown them 100% vertically. The flowers are mainly across the horizontal (upper) section, with a few on laterals of the lower vertical section.
Just putting this out there in response to some interest in training the vines horizontally/espalier (from earlier this last year in this thread).

PS: Happy Australia Day !! :kooi:

PPS: those chinook & cascade are lookin good, Yob!

 

[Rubix]

Just a quick update from the Island.


The Chinook is kicking along nicely


First year Goldings also coming along.




Pride of Ringwood starting to invade the front deck.



First year Saaz is going great as well.

I also have flowers on the Fuggles, Cascade and Hersbrucker. So far the only plant not to produce any of the goods is the Perle.

 

[Poobah]

You guys inspired me to have a crack at this caper and I thought it was about time I shared my hops with you. I got my hands on 5 rhizomes - Saaz, Cascade, Hersbrucker, Super Alpha and Red Earth - pretty late in the season. It was almost October if memory serves me correctly. I didn't have a great spot in the garden so 4 of the 5 are in self watering pots down the north side of the house. As you can see they have done okay.



There have been a few challenges, like marauding chickens scratching up young shoots and the Melbourne heatwave, but I've managed to keep them alive. I've now got a fair few flowers and I'm pretty chuffed. The most progressed is the Red Earth. It looks like I should get an okay first year crop.



The next is the Hersbrucker. It probably has the most flowers of them all.



The Saaz was the early performer, and is the bushiest of the lot, but doesn't have as many flowers yet. It's also a bit tangled up with the Hersbrucker. I won't put them so close together next year.



The Cascade was the first to break the dirt but then it just sat there. Some of the others had hit the gutters before it decided to climb. It grew pretty quick but it has no way near as many laterals as the others. I should get a few flowers though.



Last but not least is the Super Alpha. It was against the side of the shed and just didn't have enough height to grow. I'll get a handful of flowers though. I might just feed them to the chooks. Apparently hop flowers are pretty good for them. Almost as effective as antibiotics for keeping bugs at bay.



I feel like I'm in the home stretch now. If I keep doing what I'm doing (like giving them lots of water in this hot weather) and pick them at the right time, I should get more hops than I can use (I'm the only one that drinks beer in this house and I only do small batches).

Thanks guys for all your help.

 

[carniebrew]

Sorry for the 'new to hop growing' question, but I've noticed my Cascade and Hersbrucker have both started sprouting what I'm guessing might be the beginning of their actual hop flowers. Both of them are producing heaps of these little flowery looking items, but only in the top maybe half of each bine, the lower part of the bines don't have any. Are these little spiky green fellas you can see amongst the leaves what will eventually turn into cones?

 

[technobabble66]

I've just started to get the same, CB.
I'm assuming they're flowers in blissful ignorance. They certainly look like flowers. Though they don't look very cone-like to me...

 

[Yob]

You have flowers forming

 

[Camo6]

That's the flowers alright. Came back from almost a week down at Lake Tyers to find my cascade covered in them. Was beginning to worry.

 

[carniebrew]

Excellent! So for anyone who's seen this before, do all flowers usually become cones? Or does this happen with only some?

It's both of my potted hops (Hersbrucker & Cascade) that have a proliferation of those flowers. The two I planted in the ground out the front of the house...well the Columbus is dead, and the Chinook, despite starting strong, has stalled at just over a metre high well over a month ago. I think I didn't do enough to prepare the soil for those, will do a bit more with those spots next year. The drainage is pretty ordinary in that space, even half a bucket of water leaves a puddle that sits around for quite a while.

 

[hoppy2B]

I think the technical name for your hop flowers is 'burrs' carnie. Most should turn into cones. A few will dry and shrivel if they don't get enough water or if they become knocked around by the wind.

 

[gunbrew]

5th year Chinook, with the smaller 2nd year Cascade next to it.

 

[shaunous]

You cut that 5th year back to nothing every year gunbrew???

Anyone know if cattle eat hop bines, or they should be safe to plant in open paddock, considering they are basically a weed.
My current spot on the hill near my house has smashed my first attempt at hops with wind. tallest is about 3 feet, but rest snapped off in winds and just kept growing smaller shoots from the rhizome. Think about throwing some down near the creek were we dont see much wind, but not sure if cattle will eat them up.