2013 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

[dubbadan]

Hi all,

Time for an update. My second year hops are going well.

Chinook - almost at the top and has some large cones
Cluster (dwarf?) - 3 meters and cones ready to pick
Saaz - 6 meters and cones starting to form
Golding - was the first to shoot but stalled for a while but it has started to grow again recently.

20131221_082302.jpg

Awesome. My Chinook are monsters too.

 

[gava]

Chinook : Not going to good because I trimmed it to early and too much, Its coming back but i think its too late.
Eastkent : Going off, got three bines eaching the top.
Hersbruka : Going pretty good, got a few bines to the top but not as good as my Eastkent.

Pretty much seeing how I go might get a few more next year maybe cascade or something..

Cheers

 

[malt_shovel]

How do you know when is a good time to pick the cones.

Here is a picture of the first year Chinook I have going at the moment. The cones are a variety of sizes from those pictured to very small flowers still emerging.

Cheers

 

[KingKong]

These are my first year Hops. Cluster,Golding, Tett, Saaz and PoR (from left to right). Very happy with the progress. Every two weeks they get 30ml of Powerfeed and 30ml of Seasol. Watered every few days or more when hot. North facing and partial shade of an afternoon. Mulched with lucerne. I dont think I would do much differently, followed the good advice from here. If I had a regulated watering system I would move them to full sun, but I dont so some shade of an afternoon is good because I can be away for a few days here and they dont dry out too quickly.

Thanks H2B for the zomes. They are killing it.

 

[Yob]

How do you know when is a good time to pick the cones.

Here is a picture of the first year Chinook I have going at the moment. The cones are a variety of sizes from those pictured to very small flowers still emerging.

Cheers

20131223_183133 (768x1024).jpg

They'll start to change colour, Brown a little at the edges and feel papery a bit.. Pull one apart and rub it into your palm.. Aromatic? The lupulin should be turning almost orange and be sticky as baby shit..

Cheers

 

[Phoney]

3 x Chinook and 2x Cascade. Growing up the NSW mid north coast.

 

[Yob]

Got back yesterday from a week in Brisbane.. had a house sitter who I gave specific watering instructions to..

:angry2:

Dry crinkly leaves on some, severely dehydrated... tis a sad time indeed, they were kicking along sooooo well...

will drench them over the next few days repeatedly and see if I can nurse them back to health.

<_<

 

[unclebarrel]

My cascade has gone off, grown a lot this last week ! One bine is about 3m. Got 5 healthy bines all shooting up very quickly.
Chinook not far behind.
Poor old Columbus is about 600mm at best, has multiple bines but just hadn't recovered from the downy mildew tragedy of November 2013.

 

[Camo6]

My chinook is powering away but my cascade and goldings which get more sun have stalled a fair bit.

I feel your pain Yob. I went away last year before my POR was ready for picking and had a heatwave for a week. My neighbour did water them but nowhere near enough. I still managed to salvage a good haul of hops but they'd browned off a fair bit.

 

[Weizguy]

Garden flowering now ...



Perle flowering - still small yet, but numerous



Chinook cones



Chinook (zoomed in) - Pretty!

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

My cascade that started flowering in November was well overdue when I came back from NYE. Burnt on all cones and some quite brown. Stupid unseasonably early harvest.

 

[Mardoo]

Got back yesterday from a week in Brisbane.. had a house sitter who I gave specific watering instructions to..

:angry2:

Dry crinkly leaves on some, severely dehydrated... tis a sad time indeed, they were kicking along sooooo well...

That. Totally. Sucks. Next year get yourself some soaker hose and a timer. I did that this year knowing we'd be gone for over a week and I'm real happy I spent that $60. My plants are all close together so I just needed one length of hose but you could easily graft the soaker and some normal hose together to suit your setup.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Is anyone else harvesting full cones yet? I remember proudly posting back here on the nats weekend that I already had flowers on my Cascade. Those same flowers were browning off when I posted the other day. Not sure if its a result of being overipe or inconsistent watering while I was away over NYE - thoughts?

I dried the slightly brown hops and they're now packed. No cheese and still a pleasant smell, so what they hey?

Today, I was looking up and its baby flowers, but through the sunset I spied for the first time a heap of mature cones. They were very close to the bine and had been missed. I pulled the rigging down and got a handful of very dry cones infested with what I think is spider mites: http://instagram.com/p/ivRju3S7rN/#

I've re-rigged and given the bines a little shower which will hopefully upset the spider mites (who like dry IIRC) but should dry off before rotting any hops. The infested and very dry hops I'll keep in the roof for potential lambic or berlinerweiss down the track. Anyone else get spider mites?

This is all a bit meandering, so for quoting and TL;DR purposes:

Does anyone have a harvest yet? Particularly a 'past it' harvest?
Would the cones be browning and drying out through lack of watering or simply leaving on too long? (I don't think I've underwatered save a day or two here and there)
Spider mites - do you get them? How do you treat them?

 

[waggastew]

Its been a warm year weather wise so if your hops took off in Sept/Oct theoretically some of the hops may be mature.

My Chinook took off very late (late Nov) but already has some full size hop cones with lupilin developing while other bracts are just forming. The commercial guys get around all this buy giving the plant a chop to ground level a few weeks after it springs so that the main hop bines all start at the same time.

Only real way to tell is to test the cones for ripeness (papery, smell like hops not grass clippings, lowest part of bract come off easily, lupilin glands are large and oily etc). In my few years experience I think you are better leaving them on a (tiny) bit too long rather than harvesting early.

Stew

 

[carniebrew]

Anyone in Melbourne seeing cones as yet? It hasn't been hot here at all, and none of my varieties are showing any signs of flowering as yet.

 

[unclebarrel]

I thought for a little bit I was getting cones developing, but I think its just laterals branching out ?!?!? :huh:

IIRC someone in melbs has cones appearing, don't remember who.


Could be waaaaaaay off.

UB

 

[Mardoo]

Not mine.

 

[unclebarrel]

Well, next week has a string of warm days….bring it on !!

:beerbang:

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

I'd feel privileged if I hadn't browned out the lot.

 

[Marybrew]

[SIZE=11pt]I am in Richmond, Melbourne Vic. and I have a 2 year old [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Wurtemberger hop growing well with many cones forming.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]It grew well last year also so this variety must like the Melbourne climate.[/SIZE]