2016 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

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This is my current hop plantation. It all got recycled into a basket.
Not super pretty, but not too bad for a first attempt.

AHB.... Aussie Home Basketmaking?
IMG_3495.jpg IMG_3497.jpg
 
Got about 85 grams off my small plant..got them drying...

Dried them Got 34 grams use in next beer
 
Alex.Tas said:
Any idea what these are?
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knobbly bits.jpg
Not 100% sure, but they look a bit like male flowers. Apparently hop plants can go hermaphrodite. I would chop them off. You don't want them fertilizing your hop cones, they are no good for brewing once they go to seed. You could do that on purpose and get some seeds, but 50% of the seedlings will be male, and again, you don't want them hanging around fertilizing your (and any neighbors) female plants. Be a responsible hop grower and spade and neuter your hop plants. haha.
 
goatus said:
Not 100% sure, but they look a bit like male flowers. Apparently hop plants can go hermaphrodite. I would chop them off. You don't want them fertilizing your hop cones, they are no good for brewing once they go to seed. You could do that on purpose and get some seeds, but 50% of the seedlings will be male, and again, you don't want them hanging around fertilizing your (and any neighbors) female plants. Be a responsible hop grower and spade and neuter your hop plants. haha.
All good, I turned them into baskets!
 
goatus said:
Not 100% sure, but they look a bit like male flowers. Apparently hop plants can go hermaphrodite. I would chop them off. You don't want them fertilizing your hop cones, they are no good for brewing once they go to seed. You could do that on purpose and get some seeds, but 50% of the seedlings will be male, and again, you don't want them hanging around fertilizing your (and any neighbors) female plants. Be a responsible hop grower and spade and neuter your hop plants. haha.
Yep, definitely Hermaphrodite. I have one as well, but have yet to find any seeds. Still looking into it, but apparently the seeds will be sterile. Damn...wanted some seeds to play with.
 
What's next? I picked my hops the other day, the vines seem to be fading off a bit, do I continue to fertilise them with Seasol/power feed & or potash or is there a better product for this stage of their cycle? They're first year plants in pots but I'm going to plant them in the ground for next season.
Cheers.
 
You would have to check Benn (which lime)but the Kent hop growers throw down lime when the season finishes just to sweeten the soil then later add the compost. I think the liming was in a thread I posted about the American hop growers too.
 
2016 Harvest of hops: Saturday 18th March 2016. Frankston Victoria.

2nd season Cascade Hops. 1st Season Victoria Hops. 1st Season Chinook Hops.


Victoria on the growth, biggest flowers of the three breeds.




Victoria over Chilli's.


Victoria invading the adjacent greenhouse.


Chinook 2 of 1st season Ryzolme. 1 of two ryzolmes failed. It jumped the gun and sprung up eagerly in winter shortly after I planted it. It suffered and died off.
Note to growing hops in Victoria. Early starters are enthusiastic and exciting but can die off. Its later starters that really produce. Better to plant late winter maybe. Its a little confusing now days.





Cascade (added pics in the past) they are harder to photograph they are a canopy over the vegie garden. All picked now. First season I got 1.2kg wet. This season I got 1.56kg wet. They grow in wicking beds shared with subtoranian vegies.



Vacuum sealed packs of either wet Hops or Dried hops.


As for quoting the yield weights: with some gardeners enthusiasm it produced around 3.5kg wet hops in a scrawny backyard mostly shaded other than summer months. The hops are a side project anyhow.

PS.
I never believed I could grow organically for myself in such a small space but you want to see thefood I also grow in this scrawny little backyard.

Press on! its so good for you.
 
Just finished vac sealing my flowers and noticed a few of the Victoria's had a bit of mould. Do you think the fact that they will be boiled should sort out any nasties? Because I had so many i was a bit slack during the drying process. I'll have to get a proper drying frame before next year.
 
Curly79 said:
Just finished vac sealing my flowers and noticed a few of the Victoria's had a bit of mould. Do you think the fact that they will be boiled should sort out any nasties? Because I had so many i was a bit slack during the drying process. I'll have to get a proper drying frame before next year.
No way would I use them. Hops are used in a big part for their aromatics. I don't want a moldy smelling beer.

Write off $5 of hops or potentially a batch of beer?
 
Hi guys.

Is there, or where is the thread to help aspiring home hop growers?

Thanks in advance
 
This is pretty much the one, although there are a couple different hop growing threads. This seems to be the primary one. There's some great advice in here.

What are your questions?
 
Got my final harvest off the Hallertau plant the other day, was about 82/83g wet, which dried out to around 22-23g. All up over the season I've ended up with about ~30g dried flowers, which I'm going to use as a late addition in a lager brew that I'll be doing after a stout which I'm brewing on Saturday.

Looking forward to seeing how a brew with my own grown hops turns out since it'll be the first one I've ever done. :D
 
Anyone got any advise on what to feed hop root system though winter. My bines are still quite green, but starting to yellow in parts. Is there any benefit in giving them some nutrients that might help out the root system over winter for next year? Or just leave it alone now?
 
just compost mulch them.. they'll be good to go in spring.

just make sure they don't dry out too much or stay excessively wet over winter or they'll suffer.
 
Its the time of year to add long term fertilizers to soil like blood and bone, manures, Dinamic lifter pellets. It take months for that stuff to break down into something plants can use when spring comes around again. Added with compost as well is best.
 

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