2017 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

[MartinOC]

Lucky you only picked 5% of the potential hervest, eh?

 

[Benn]

My cascade has plenty of cones ready to pick, which will happen today. Those cones are all pretty big. It also has a lot of smaller cones that appear to be close to ready, but they're about half the size of the others. Does anyone know if this is normal? Will the plant produce a range of flower sizes, and can smaller ones mature at that size?

I'm interested in an answer to this question if someone could comment?

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Yes. Smaller cones mature just the same. Maybe a tad of Sulphate of Potash to regular watering from when they just starting to bur can get fatter flowering/fruiting. Or the small ones just haven't grown out fully yet?

 

[Mardoo]

Happens all the time to me. Yes, hop plants can produce many sized flowers. My Chinook a few years ago had ones in the 12-15cm range, and ones 3-4cm long too. The all ripened, not necessarily at the same time as the ones of the same size. So yes, they can also mature at the small size.

 

[Mat B]

Yeah the smaller ones look like they're maturing at the same rate as the bigger ones. Regarding my 5% harvest that's too young....can I use this for bittering? I've got them in the dehydrator. Wondering if I can still use them.

 

[Mardoo]

See how they smell when they're done drying. You can always pop them in a glass of beer just for a bump of flavour, see how that goes. Bittering is an unknown quantity with homegrown hops. Have a look inside and see how much of the bright yellow lupulin has developed. My guess is not much since the hairs of the burr were still on them in your original photo. If there is a decent amount of lupulin, low-ball toward the bottom end of the particular hop species AA% and use them for bittering based on that amount. At least that's how I do it, and so far it's worked pretty well.

 

[Mat B]

See how they smell when they're done drying. You can always pop them in a glass of beer just for a bump of flavour, see how that goes. Bittering is an unknown quantity with homegrown hops. Have a look inside and see how much of the bright yellow lupulin has developed. My guess is not much since the hairs of the burr were still on them in your original photo. If there is a decent amount of lupulin, low-ball toward the bottom end of the particular hop species AA% and use them for bittering based on that amount. At least that's how I do it, and so far it's worked pretty well.

Thanks Mardoo. Looks like plenty of lupulin in there, so I'll give it a crack.

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

The weather has been all over the place this Spring and Summer. The hops don't seem to mind too much after a late start. The killer has been wind and it's definitely affected yield. Still, I'm happy with what's up there. Hopefully the windbreak I am growing will be at a respectable height for next season.

 

[Mardoo]

Based on your photos I'd hate to see a heavy yield. You will though. You will...

 

[Rocker1986]

I wish mine were producing like that! Ah well, I still have plenty from my Cascade for at least 3 batches of APA so far. Some of the cones on it look rather odd though, like the bracts(?) are sort of curled upwards a bit rather than straight down or slightly curled downwards into the cone like the first two harvests. I'll grab a photo tomorrow but I'm wondering whether these have been affected by the herbicide in the same way that some of the leaves were earlier on. They also don't seem to dry out on the bine the same as the 'normal' ones do so it's hard to know when to pick them. I pulled one off today and it had plenty of lupulin in it and smelt pretty normal so I dunno. :unsure:

 

[AJ80]

I wish mine were producing like that! Ah well, I still have plenty from my Cascade for at least 3 batches of APA so far. Some of the cones on it look rather odd though, like the bracts(?) are sort of curled upwards a bit rather than straight down or slightly curled downwards into the cone like the first two harvests. I'll grab a photo tomorrow but I'm wondering whether these have been affected by the herbicide in the same way that some of the leaves were earlier on. They also don't seem to dry out on the bine the same as the 'normal' ones do so it's hard to know when to pick them. I pulled one off today and it had plenty of lupulin in it and smelt pretty normal so I dunno. :unsure:

I've got a few flowers doing this as well (but on my mt hood). Lupulin is still forming, but I'm a ways off harvesting so yet to see if they dry out differently.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

The weather has been all over the place this Spring and Summer. The hops don't seem to mind too much after a late start. The killer has been wind and it's definitely affected yield. Still, I'm happy with what's up there. Hopefully the windbreak I am growing will be at a respectable height for next season.

That is a flower fat crop there. Well done. Gotta love it when its like bunches of grapes. :icon_drool2:

 

[mondestrunken]

Apologies for the sh*tty colour exposure here.

Are these brown patches from the heat last weekend or nutrient deficiency?

I've been using blood & bone every month or so since September.

I really want to get some hops this year!!!

 

[drsmurto]

I've posted a partial 360 view image on the South Australian Brewing Club's Facebook page of my hop plantation. I can't seem to upload that type of image to this forum but the Facebook page is public so you can all see it. It gives a great perspective on just how much the hops have taken over that area of the yard.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sabrew/789412717875629/?notif_t=like&notif_id=1487120820074186

 

[Rocker1986]

This is a picture of what I was describing in my last post. The two cones here are clearly different, with the left one clearly deformed compared to a normal one on the right. Its bracts seem to have curled upwards but also inwards, i.e. not flattened out properly - similar to how the leaves were behaving earlier when they were rolled up rather than flat like normal. The feel of it is different as well, it doesn't feel papery like the normal ones, but it doesn't feel moist like they do when they're not ready either. It's kind of soft but stiff at the same time, hard to describe. These deformed cones still have plenty of lupulin and smell pretty much the same as normal ones too.

There are quite a number of cones on the plant that look like this, although most aren't as badly deformed as that one. They appear to be going back more to what they'd normally look like but still retain some of this deformity.

I'm hoping this is just a phase it's going through, like it did with the leaves. New leaves began appearing rolled up not long after I killed off some weeds with broadleaf weed killer and managed to hit literally a couple of really low hop leaves with it, but then after a short while this stopped happening and all the new leaves since have been normal. These cones are obviously coming from the same bines that exhibited the rolled up leaves. I guess time will tell, and especially next season when it regenerates after winter, that first growth will give me an idea if this stupid poison is still causing issues.

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

This is a picture of what I was describing in my last post. The two cones here are clearly different, with the left one clearly deformed compared to a normal one on the right. Its bracts seem to have curled upwards but also inwards, i.e. not flattened out properly - similar to how the leaves were behaving earlier when they were rolled up rather than flat like normal. The feel of it is different as well, it doesn't feel papery like the normal ones, but it doesn't feel moist like they do when they're not ready either. It's kind of soft but stiff at the same time, hard to describe. These deformed cones still have plenty of lupulin and smell pretty much the same as normal ones too.

There are quite a number of cones on the plant that look like this, although most aren't as badly deformed as that one. They appear to be going back more to what they'd normally look like but still retain some of this deformity.

I'm hoping this is just a phase it's going through, like it did with the leaves. New leaves began appearing rolled up not long after I killed off some weeds with broadleaf weed killer and managed to hit literally a couple of really low hop leaves with it, but then after a short while this stopped happening and all the new leaves since have been normal. These cones are obviously coming from the same bines that exhibited the rolled up leaves. I guess time will tell, and especially next season when it regenerates after winter, that first growth will give me an idea if this stupid poison is still causing issues.

I personally would not use them, even though a lot of the hops coming out of the US have tested positive for traces of glyphosate.

 

[Rocker1986]

So far I haven't used any of these deformed cones, or rather dried and packaged them. I have picked some to get rid of them though and make it easier to find the normal ones. I'll wait and see what this next lot of burrs ends up looking like; ones as badly deformed as the one in the picture I'll most likely throw away but if they're only a tiny bit odd and feel like they should then I'll probably give them a go. I've still got 100g of dried normal ones in the freezer, so plenty for a couple of batches at least. Better than a kick up the arse :lol:

 

[N3MIS15]

First year grower here, any input appreciated.
Do you guys think these look ready? I spotted a couple cones (and only a couple) browning.
h

 

[drsmurto]

It's difficult to tell if a hop cone is ready to pick by looking at it although. You need to give them a squeeze. If they sound like scrunching paper then they are ready. Also, pick one and rip it in half, there should be plenty of golden yellow lupilin inside it.

First year grower here, any input appreciated.
Do you guys think these look ready? I spotted a couple cones (and only a couple) browning.
h

 

[Mat B]

Scroll back a few pages and you'll see I picked a big bowl of hops that were at about the same stage as that. Felt papery to me (but I'm a first time grower, so got nothing to compare it too) and they had lots of yellow lupulin. I thought they smelled hoppy when I was picking, but then decided they smelled grassy. I dried them - smelled like lawn clippings. Everyone seemed to agree they weren't ready.

First year grower here, any input appreciated.
Do you guys think these look ready? I spotted a couple cones (and only a couple) browning.
h