2013 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

[Spiesy]

Got back from overseas and my cascade has just begun flowering!

 

[Camo6]

I reckon they'd strip it bare Shaunous. Especially in summer once the grass has dried out and lost its flavour but there's your tasty chinook lovingly watered every day. Nothing that a few star stakes and a 12v fencer wouldn't fix though.

 

[shaunous]

I reckon they'd strip it bare Shaunous. Especially in summer once the grass has dried out and lost its flavour but there's your tasty chinook lovingly watered every day. Nothing that a few star stakes and a 12v fencer wouldn't fix though.

True dat!

 

[sp0rk]

Grasshoppers are still punishing my Hallertauer and I still don't have any burrs showing up
Not holding out much hope for this season

 

[DU99]

This my hops at the moment..starting to get some new growths

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

My cascade is showing a second lot of burrs. I missed the ideal harvest on the first lot, so this pleases me.

 

[carniebrew]

Here's a shot of one of my little branches full of burrs. Both the (potted in eco kegs) Hersbrucker and Cascade are swimming in them, albeit the top half of all the bines only. This is on the Cascade:

 

[Danwood]

I have been accused of both silliness and being unhelpful. Unfortunately, I don't have much evidence to refute these libellous slurs.

Oh well, here's the hops.

Cascade (2nd year star performer), foreground first pic and burr shot.

Goldings (2nd year) middle ground. Doing ok, no burrs yet.

Fuggles (1st year) at the back. Struggling, might do better next year.

 

[HBHB]

Following weeks of relentless wind (typical Hervey Bay) i'd almost given up on anything from mine. Then the grasshoppers arrived. Hungry. One chinook was eaten back to bare stems. Followed by a cascade. Not 1 shred of leaf, flower or cone left. Trimmed the chinook back to ground level gave them a hit of Liquid fertilizer and they've hit the turbo button again, growing at over 10cm per day since. Not hopeful of any harvest this year.

That said, hops are bloody hardy and amazing growers. Impressive recovery. I'll sit here now with dry lagoons surrounding and await the inevitable wet season.

Must be time for a beer i reckon.
Martin

 

[hoppy2B]

Don't give up on them just yet Martin, you may still get some late cones. How tall are the new bines?

 

[booargy]

weeds i say weeds bloody nice family of weeds at that.
hersbrucker

 

[HBHB]

Don't give up on them just yet Martin, you may still get some late cones. How tall are the new bines?

1.8m from top of the pot mate. They'll be 1.9 by tomorrow morning :blink: average growth is currently about 10-12 cm per day for each Bine :super: . Hops will surely rule the world along with cockroaches one day.

 

[waggastew]

First harvest of 3rd year Chinook. Picked about 1/10th of the hops on the bines, just the hops at the top that were fully mature. I left them a bit longer this year and the aroma is much stronger. Pungent grapefruit/mandarin aroma when rubbed. Ended up with about 800g wet, should dry down to about 150-200g.

Will go nicely as a massive 0min addition in a Harvest Pale Ale

 

[flano]

mate that is awesome.
How do I know when to pick mine?
First time Ive tried and I have a few on my cascade...not as many as yours though.

 

[unclebarrel]

I am pretty happy with the progress of mine here.
I have cascade, chinook and Columbus. The close up is of cascade and does not even show half the burrs !
I won't get a massive haul but I am wrapped all the same.especially as they only get half day of sun. And as you can see due to space limitations I had to train them diagonally downwards toward the fence ! That was a daily effort of tying them off ! What a pain ! Haha

 

[sp0rk]

still no burrs and other than a few lateral bines, I haven't seen any growth in the last few weeks
Guess I'll stop holding out hope for a harvest this year
I'm thinking I'll build a raised garden bed later this year for there to be a nice big area for root growth for the next season

 

[hoppy2B]

Nice pics waggastew.

 

[carniebrew]

still no burrs and other than a few lateral bines, I haven't seen any growth in the last few weeks
Guess I'll stop holding out hope for a harvest this year
I'm thinking I'll build a raised garden bed later this year for there to be a nice big area for root growth for the next season

I reckon that's what helped me...the two varieties I planted in pots (kegs) have gone nuts, as I've shown earlier in this topic. But the ones I put in the ground, where all I did was dig a bit of a hole, mix in some mushroom compost with the dug dirt, filled the hole and planted the rhizome....have stopped growing and are showing no burrs at all. I think the roots grew in the removed/replaced dirt, but then hit the solid ground where I didn't dig and just stopped. I think next year I'll dig a much larger hole and put potting mix in it, then plant in that.

 

[unclebarrel]

Interesting theory Carnie.
I have also got mine in a raised planter, each in its own box of approx 600 long, by 400 wide and 400 high.
Once I get into a larger property I am looking at planting in raised beds…..big ones !!!
Also building tall towers so I don't have to tend to the bones every day ! Although it has been fun getting out there and faffing about with a beer in hand each evening.


Has anyone dried their hops in a food dehydrator ? If so, how long and what method (e.g. tray switching)
I hope I haven't missed that in earlier discussions somewhere.
I had flyscreens but gave them away !haha

By the way, waggastew thats awesome mate ! As hoppy2B said, great pics.

 

[waggastew]

mate that is awesome.
How do I know when to pick mine?
First time Ive tried and I have a few on my cascade...not as many as yours though.

I am in no way an expert but from my experience the best way to know is your nose.

In previous years I have focussed on how dry they feel, browning etc. I think this led me to picking my hops too early resulting in hops that lacked resin aroma/flavour and strong grass clipping/tea aroma/flavour.

This year I waited until they smelt strongly of resin aroma when rubbed. Basically pick the biggest hop you can find and rub it vigourously between your hands then smell. It should smell strongly of resin/aroma with only a faint grassy/chlorophyll smell if any. By the time most of the hops are at this stage you will have some that have browned off completely and should be discarded.

Another thing to remember is that unless your bones all grew at the same time you may have mature and immature hops at the same time. Commercial growers wait for the first bines to grow and then mow them to the ground again. That results in new bines that all grow and mature at about the same time.

When i picked yesterday it was only really the hops at the top of the plant that were fully mature. The rest I left on and will pick later (if I can be bothered as I have more than enough for what I need) when they ripen. Even some of the laterals that I picked had both mature and immature hops on the same bit of stem. Any hops that looked too light in colour (pale white green) or were too light in mass I chucked. Again the big commercial growers get around this by the method described above and also having a lot of hops that are on average perfectly ripe with the odd under/over cooked hop.

There are some resources on the net that have some nice photos off the progress of hops from mature to overcooked. I might try and take a photo myself and post it if I have time.

Sorry long answer to a short question.