2016 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

perko8 · 23/1/16

My first year super alpha is yellowing a bit on lower leaves. Seems happy enough up top, plenty of burrs growing into flowers.

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1453504185.206511.jpg

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neal32 · 23/1/16

Variety : Smurto Chinook
Medium : Coco
Container : 60L black bin
Nutrients : Maxibloom, Maxigrow
Location : Gold Coast

These are my first year Chinooks from DrSmurto. Is anyone else growing them and could give me their opinion on the aroma/bitterness? They don't seem to be ready to harvest yet (any guesses as to when they will be ready?).

The aroma is atypical of Chinook, which is a good thing for me because Chinook is not one of my favourite hop varieties. For me they smell like passionfruit and tropical fruits.

There is probably over a hundred flowers atm so the yield should be decent.

Also I'm thinking of drying them and then dumping them into a double batch 1.055ish ale, at 5 min with a 30 minute hop stand. I'll aim for around 25-30ibus and dry hopped as well. Something like 80 pils/20 wheat with a split of wlp644 and maybe 1272. I was planning on a wet hop ale but due to the pleasant aroma, I'm going to give them a chance to shine without the flavour notes that wet hopping adds.

Cheers.

Mardoo · 23/1/16

Those are some nice looking Chinook cones. Definitely one of the best you can grow at home in my opinion.

Curly79 · 23/1/16

perko8 said:
My first year super alpha is yellowing a bit on lower leaves. Seems happy enough up top, plenty of burrs growing into flowers.

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1453504185.206511.jpg

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1453504263.385405.jpg

My victoria does that too. I guess it's the plants way of saying "I don't need these any more, I'll put all my energy into flowering".

Matplat · 24/1/16

neal32 said:
Variety : Smurto Chinook
Medium : Coco
Container : 60L black bin
Nutrients : Maxibloom, Maxigrow
Location : Gold Coast

These are my first year Chinooks from DrSmurto. Is anyone else growing them and could give me their opinion on the aroma/bitterness? They don't seem to be ready to harvest yet (any guesses as to when they will be ready?).

The aroma is atypical of Chinook, which is a good thing for me because Chinook is not one of my favourite hop varieties. For me they smell like passionfruit and tropical fruits.

There is probably over a hundred flowers atm so the yield should be decent.

Also I'm thinking of drying them and then dumping them into a double batch 1.055ish ale, at 5 min with a 30 minute hop stand. I'll aim for around 25-30ibus and dry hopped as well. Something like 80 pils/20 wheat with a split of wlp644 and maybe 1272. I was planning on a wet hop ale but due to the pleasant aroma, I'm going to give them a chance to shine without the flavour notes that wet hopping adds.

Cheers.

That is a shitload of cones on a first year plant.... Blows me out of the water! Il take note of your fertilisers and use them next year...

Hang on, what is coco growing medium?

BottloBill · 24/1/16

Matplat said:
That is a shitload of cones on a first year plant.... Blows me out of the water! Il take note of your fertilisers and use them next year...

Hang on, what is coco growing medium?

My guess is that it is like the coco coir bricks that you can get from the big green shed. If my memory serves me correctly, place it in a bucket of water and watch it expand to ten times its original size. I used it many moons ago mixed through soil to aid in water retention.

neal32 · 24/1/16

Matplat said:
That is a shitload of cones on a first year plant.... Blows me out of the water! Il take note of your fertilisers and use them next year...

Hang on, what is coco growing medium?

Yeah, google growing in coco. I buy the $2 bricks from Masters. The advantage over soil is that you can adjust the feed and ph exactly how the plant likes it as the coco has no nutrients and is pH neutral. I could've been more on top of it but hops seem pretty forgiving.

When I move into my own house however I'll be putting in soil and prepping the soil organically just to save money on nutrients.

blotto · 24/1/16

Here are my hops, 2nd year Red Earth on the left 1st year Victoria on the right. They are a bit close together so I'll be separating them next season, I never expected the Victoria to get that big in it's first year. Fortunately they are so different so if one makes it over to the other next year I'll be able to tell them apart easy.

These are cones on the Victoria

And the last cutting I took, it struggled at first but is starting to take off now.

Nizmoose · 25/1/16

After a bit of help here guys, this is my first real year growing hops and for some reason my cascade and hallertau are going much better than I had expected given a poor attempt on my part at a hop growing season last year however my Columbus seems to be struggling a lot. Any ideas why? I've attached a picture of the hops and then the Columbus in question (don't even mention the string design it was not made with any forward thinking at all and I genuinely expected a pretty dismal amount of growth). The ones on the left and middle are cascade and hallertau and they're going well as you can see, the Columbus however has one okay ish bine up and the other two are regrowing from ones that already threw in the towel. Oh same pots, same potting mix and same watering regime btw

wide eyed and legless · 25/1/16

The basics of producing healthy plants you need 4 things, sunlight, air, water and nutrients, the roots of a plant need to breathe, so a good potting mix is essential to allow the roots to breathe, the right dosage of nutrients and the right pH to allow the plant to take up the nutrients,not to much water or the growing medium can compact not allowing the roots to breathe.
That potting mix you have there Nizmoose is it sandy? In the pic it looks like it is and the leaves aren't a lush green, could be nitrogen deficient also with the growth as part of the factor could also point to that.
I doubt if you will be getting any bud on that plant this year, I would be trying to source the problem and getting it right for next year, get a cheapish pH meter and some distilled water and check the pH of the medium that is as good a place to start to find the problem with that plant.

Nizmoose · 25/1/16

wide eyed and legless said:
The basics of producing healthy plants you need 4 things, sunlight, air, water and nutrients, the roots of a plant need to breathe, so a good potting mix is essential to allow the roots to breathe, the right dosage of nutrients and the right pH to allow the plant to take up the nutrients,not to much water or the growing medium can compact not allowing the roots to breathe.
That potting mix you have there Nizmoose is it sandy? In the pic it looks like it is and the leaves aren't a lush green, could be nitrogen deficient also with the growth as part of the factor could also point to that.
I doubt if you will be getting any bud on that plant this year, I would be trying to source the problem and getting it right for next year, get a cheapish pH meter and some distilled water and check the pH of the medium that is as good a place to start to find the problem with that plant.

Thanks for this,the mix is somewhat sandy but not overly so, the lower leaves on pretty much all the older bines are sort of yellowing and falling off but I attributed this to a shift in resources to the newer higher leaves. I suppose my main confusion comes from the fact that the other two plants which are in the exact same potting mix are doing much better, but perhaps this is a function of the variety?

blotto · 25/1/16

Have you changed the soil in the 2nd year plant? Maybe it used up all the good stuff in the first year. I put a half a bag of cow poo and half a bag of chook poo on my plants in the off season to try get the soil ready for the growing season. Mine are in the ground so you might not want that much in each pot.

Mardoo has a really good post around here somewhere with his soil mix for pots and watering schedules and I've used something very similar for my pots that my cuttings go in and also when I'm prepping the ground.

Mardoo's hop potting mix = 2 parts mountain soil, 2 parts mushroom compost, 1 part composted sheep manure, 1 part composted chicken manure, ½ part sand – all from Bunnings. Seems to be working great.

Rocker1986 · 25/1/16

Nizmoose said:
I suppose my main confusion comes from the fact that the other two plants which are in the exact same potting mix are doing much better, but perhaps this is a function of the variety?

Wouldn't have thought it would be that badly off just from being a different variety though. I also have a Hallertau plant, and the other one I have is Fuggle. They are both in exactly the same potting mix with exactly the same nutrients and watering. The Hallertau took off and has had much more growth (and flowering) than the Fuggle, but it's still growing fine and has a few bines up to the top of my 2.5 metre mesh framework setup.

Nizmoose · 25/1/16

Wort said:
Have you changed the soil in the 2nd year plant? Maybe it used up all the good stuff in the first year. I put a half a bag of cow poo and half a bag of chook poo on my plants in the off season to try get the soil ready for the growing season. Mine are in the ground so you might not want that much in each pot.

Mardoo has a really good post around here somewhere with his soil mix for pots and watering schedules and I've used something very similar for my pots that my cuttings go in and also when I'm prepping the ground.

Mardoo's hop potting mix = 2 parts mountain soil, 2 parts mushroom compost, 1 part composted sheep manure, 1 part composted chicken manure, ½ part sand – all from Bunnings. Seems to be working great.

Sorry I should have been clearer! The plants I had last year are not in this bunch, gave them to a friend who really wanted some to grow. All three of these guys are new for me this year and I'm pretty sure they're the same age too. I'll have a hunt for mardoo's watering schedule thanks!

Rocker1986 said:
Wouldn't have thought it would be that badly off just from being a different variety though. I also have a Hallertau plant, and the other one I have is Fuggle. They are both in exactly the same potting mix with exactly the same nutrients and watering. The Hallertau took off and has had much more growth (and flowering) than the Fuggle, but it's still growing fine and has a few bines up to the top of my 2.5 metre mesh framework setup.

Yeah I wouldnt have thought so either!

Danscraftbeer · 25/1/16

Victoria. Two 1st season rhizomes just starting to flower. Invading into the greenhouse as well.

This tangle mess is one 1st season Chinook rhizolme. The other died or just wimped out this season.
I wanted it to grow more before flowering but it makes up for it in density. This is going heavy on the flowers.

Trusses? Clusters? Bunches? a fluff ball of hops this is going to be. :icon_drool2:

2nd Season Cascade. They haven't started flowering yet. I harvested them late march last year. Growing in wicking beds to become a canopy shade for other vegies that I haven't got around to. The hop roots will spread all through these beds actually. They are cut down IBC tanks, etc

Aquaponics here ya go. I took this little cutting of the Cascade 2 months ago. Planted in the gravel of my Aquaponics system just for kicks. It started growing again after a week. I new it would but didn't expect to get a harvest off it this year etc. Now I am. B)

From this

To this from a cutting I took 2 months ago. More Laterals than long I have to train them all outside the cage it goes everywhere. So it will be close to 4 months from cutting to harvest. :huh:

Cascade was all from little pots I bought from Diggers. Victoria and Chinook was supplied by mail from Dr Smurto.

Cheers. :chug:

BottloBill · 25/1/16

Danscraftbeer said:
Victoria. Two 1st season rhizomes just starting to flower. Invading into the greenhouse as well.

This tangle mess is one 1st season Chinook rhizolme. The other died or just wimped out this season.
I wanted it to grow more before flowering but it makes up for it in density. This is going heavy on the flowers.

Trusses? Clusters? Bunches? a fluff ball of hops this is going to be. :icon_drool2:

2nd Season Cascade. They haven't started flowering yet. I harvested them late march last year. Growing in wicking beds to become a canopy shade for other vegies that I haven't got around to. The hop roots will spread all through these beds actually. They are cut down IBC tanks, etc

Aquaponics here ya go. I took this little cutting of the Cascade 2 months ago. Planted in the gravel of my Aquaponics system just for kicks. It started growing again after a week. I new it would but didn't expect to get a harvest off it this year etc. Now I am. B)

From this

To this from a cutting I took 2 months ago. More Laterals than long I have to train them all outside the cage it goes everywhere. So it will be close to 4 months from cutting to harvest. :huh:

Cascade was all from little pots I bought from Diggers. Victoria and Chinook was supplied by mail from Dr Smurto.

Cheers. :chug:

Those burs are epic mate

Danscraftbeer · 25/1/16

Burs! that's what I meant. :chug:

Benn · 26/1/16

Chinook unhappily making it's way down the other side.
Hopefully I'll be in a different house next season and can give it more than 3m of climbing height.

wide eyed and legless · 27/1/16

A really informative lecture delivered by a hop farmer from the Yakima Valley, a few things in there I have wondered about and now I know the answer. (especially the liming issue)
http://www.uvm.edu/extension/cropsoil/wp-content/uploads/jason-perrault-transcript.pdf

Belgrave Brewer · 28/1/16

1st year Chinook and Victoria performing beyond my expectations. It would have been even better but had some wind damage from a storm in December that probably knocked off 20% of the growth. I'm going to have to get a windbreak on the Southern side.