2017 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

Rocker1986 · 21/9/16

Mine are all climbing well, the 2nd year Fuggle plant is very bushy, heaps of shoots coming up from it. The 2nd year Hallertau is growing rather interestingly though, there is one bine that has almost made it to the top of that ~3m trellis, another one beside it that would have been not far behind it if not for some arsehole critter chopping the end off it. The other 3 or 4 shoots that came up though have kind of stalled at about 20-30cm out of the ground. What's the reason for this?

Brett05 · 21/9/16

1st year hops have sprouted (3 of 4), (x3) from Hopco in Tassie & (x1) from Diggers Club in Victoria...Starting in pots as have limited space,they have just sprouted but this cool SA weather hasn't helped either...Fuggles,Cascade(US) & Pride of Ringwood.
Still got Golding's to go,will upload pics later...All planted in aged chook poo,cow poo and potting mix and a watering of Seasol for good measure....and now we wait..

A.B. · 21/9/16

so much rain here in CBR, my (DrSmurto) chinooks are almost under water, yet I swear the growth doubled today, cant wait for some warmer weather...

bevan · 21/9/16

Has anyone's chinooks in Victoria poked its head out yet?

ScottyDoesntKnow · 21/9/16

Spent a bit of time building a ghetto trellis along the back fence today, mostly out of stuff I had lying around in the garage. Cut up a few bits of treated pine, ropes pulled back to star pickets in the ground next to the plants.

One of my 3 chinooks, they have all sprouted similar and noticed there are a few more poking their heads through.

Benn · 22/9/16

My second year Chinnok is slowwwwly poking it's head out but I think it would prefer a sleep in. All the rain we've had has left it with wet feet I'm afraid.

razzmeister · 22/9/16

My Chinooks are pretty similar - just starting to shoot up from the soil. Couple of them maybe one or two inches so far.
Guess they are maybe just one of the slower varieties to get going?

Belgrave Brewer · 22/9/16

Just starting to come out this week. Chinook are late starters.

Stu Brew · 22/9/16

Rain aint bad for hops boys.....they just dont like being left in stagnant water. Mine literally grow in a creek all winter. Creek = flowing water, flowing water = dissolved oxygen. Just like all plants roots do not like to be drowned in warm oxygen depleted water. Cold rain, and flowing water in winter shouldnt be any problem for anyones hops! If anything they should actually enjoy it...the higher above the 35th the more you will need to worry about things like 'wet feet' because its the warm rain that will cause you problems not the cold winter rains! Hope that helps a few people.

Stu Brew · 22/9/16

Still got them in my fridge. Ive got shoots on everything you sent me. Halletau, Red Earth and Perle so cheers. Im starting to think the ssp of the hops is what will mean they start early or late. I would assume that the varieties will all perform a bit differently.

So a var. cordifolius from Eastern Asian origins will be a pretty different type of rhizome than for example a var. neomexicanus from western North America. Im hoping to get my hands onto the Washington State open source microsattelie data of hops rhizome genetics. We will be sending them off to get checked on as soon as we have a database for comparison. See where all the Aussie hops have actually come from in the first place. Im pretty interested in finding out!

Danscraftbeer · 22/9/16

My Chinooks are the only ones that haven't popped up yet. 2nd season. They were the first to pop up last year.

Stu Brew · 22/9/16

Our soil temps going up and down like a yoyo atm. Lots that came up two weeks ago has stopped moving now. There is a specific soil temp there once hit they will start to move really fast. Ive been experimenting again this year. Everything in the hothouse is very happy...everything outside is ok but the big swings in temp from warm to cold are playing with them a bit. We had good sun for a bit then it dropped off....this late frost stuff will stop them growing. They will perk up as soon as the soil warms up again though.

bevan · 22/9/16

Thanks for the info, nothing happening with my chinook. It looked pretty sad when I re potted it (pot was broken) in june. Got it for free off AHB. Was hoping it would spring back to life with a good water, see how it goes over the next month I guess.

Stu Brew · 22/9/16

No worries. Smurto should back me up on this. Dissolved oxygen starts to drop off in water at 16° somewhere between 12-16 is perfect for most plants.....Its all a balancing act though. Soil pH, Sunlight hours, Water ppm, These are the usual things we look at for plants. I have run and experiment for close to a year now with hollow water, as in soft as *****. 10-40ppm no nutrients and lots of dissolved oxygen. This system has kept a chillie plant alive over winter, when the chillies in the soil have all rotted out in the middle due to the soil temp getting too low!

Dissolved oxygen is the friend of the hops farmer....probably more so than daylight, pH, soil etc.....im am convinced on this...and yes i will have to experiment more, and do it all properly. However in this first year i am very happy with the results from my original hypothesis to do with growing hops in literally just water and no nutrients. :super:

AJ80 · 22/9/16

To join the chorus, my chinook was last up last year and same again this year. It's interesting to note the different growth rates in my hops. Victoria, goldings and Canterbury goldings are are growing like the clappers while Mt Hood (my best producer last year) and cascade are only just breaking the surface with two bines each. Fascinating plant.

fdsaasdf · 23/9/16

First time grower with a Victoria plant in Brisbane that I'm led to believe is 2 years old. Currently potted in a 0.75m^3 vessel; transferred into that vessel and harvested 6 rhizomes off it about a month ago.

My plant has about 25 shoots, most are about an inch or so long and about 5 are around 4 inches long. Plenty of sunlight, excellent drainage and daily watering. Growth has occurred over the last 2-3 weeks - not really moving yet.

None of the harvested rhizomes have shot yet but I'm not expecting much of them - any growth will be a bonus so I can give plants away to friends in future.

I have read conflicting advice on how to manage the growth. At what stage should I trim the shoots back? How many bines should I be aiming for?

Rocker1986 · 23/9/16

I don't know if it's best practice or not, but I just leave mine to do whatever the **** they want...

Pogierob · 23/9/16

Rocker1986 · 23/9/16

This Hallertau bine is almost at the top already, while the other ones near the ground are growing very slowly. Weird.

Stu Brew · 23/9/16

Yep id say let them go. The main reason they chop back in commercial situations is for picking. Certain machines can take certain sizes, lots of growers dont like fiddling with their machines between crops so they'll try and grow to a size the machine can easily handle. When you have a ton of space you can do things like that. In a backyard....just let them go nuts! More leaves mean more photosynthsis which means more flower bracts which means more flowers!!

2017 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

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