2017 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

[Benn]

Commiserations, That sux DansCB,
Foliar spray with Seasol? It stinks.

 

[fdsaasdf]

Possums are pricks. I've not heard of many people successfully using aromatic repellents.

Unrelated to hops but a few years ago I managed to keep them away from my cable/power line into the house using a large plastic drum lid (~18inch diameter) suspended on the line so they can't easily swing past. Stopped them from making a noise on my roof. Maybe you can do something similar?

 

[Mardoo]

Yeah I've got the Dynamic lifter in socks at all structural access points and in the foliage as well. All around the bases etc. I thought that did the trick but it now doesn't deter them. They must literally step over it. I wet them to make them stink more but it just seems to only be an unpleasant smell to me all around my garden. Fecking possums there's a million other trees for them to eat I cant understand why they're so hell bent on my hops.
My idea of spraying them with skat is so the foliage tastes like shit and they wont eat it. I've tried wire mesh barriers, spikes, a $300 something sonic deterrent. Pretty deflating on the gardening efforts. I really cant see what will work if they really want to eat them they will. Even to climb down the fence, along the ground and up another way. These things are relentless this year more than ever. I've spent a wack on wire mesh to cage up everything else I grow but I cant cage up the entire backyard.
I just don't know. The fecking things are beating me this year.

Bugger, that's shit. Tried fox urine? I've also heard that works, but haven't tried it. It can bring more foxes though, so if you have cats or chickens, not the best idea.

 

[Rocker1986]

Jeez, I thought we had the bloody things bad living under the house, knocking shit over and sometimes breaking it every time they come in and out. Actually it is pretty ******* annoying, but I'd probably be more pissed off if they ruined my hops plants. So far they haven't gone near any of them, either this season or last season.

I climbed up on the Cascade planter box earlier and picked one of the cones. It wasn't ready yet, but I just wanted to see how big it was. Probably about 4cm long or so.

There are a number of these clumps of cones or burrs on the plant now too, so I've started using the flowering fertiliser on them.

 

[drsmurto]

Yesterday on the left, Dec 13 on the right. Covered in burrs. Going to be an epic crop.

Re - fertilising. I add horse manure over winter. This is the first year i added any fertiliser in the growing season. Started adding dynamic lifter every 4 weeks once the first shoot appeared. Switched to potash once burrs formed.

 

[BottloBill]

Yesterday on the left, Dec 13 on the right. Covered in burrs. Going to be an epic crop.

Re - fertilising. I add horse manure over winter. This is the first year i added any fertiliser in the growing season. Started adding dynamic lifter every 4 weeks once the first shoot appeared. Switched to potash once burrs formed.

your going to be very busy with that lot

 

[Benn]

Smurto, do you do the commercial thing and limit overall bine numbers (per plant) by cutting back excess bines early on in the season or do you let them all grow freely?

 

[Curly79]

Yesterday on the left, Dec 13 on the right. Covered in burrs. Going to be an epic crop.

Re - fertilising. I add horse manure over winter. This is the first year i added any fertiliser in the growing season. Started adding dynamic lifter every 4 weeks once the first shoot appeared. Switched to potash once burrs formed.

When you fertilise with manure Smurfo do you just dump it on top of the cut back bines or do you spread it around the edges? Then cover the whole lot with mulch?

 

[drsmurto]

Smurto, do you do the commercial thing and limit overall bine numbers (per plant) by cutting back excess bines early on in the season or do you let them all grow freely?

No cutting back. They do as they please.

When you fertilise with manure Smurfo do you just dump it on top of the cut back bines or do you spread it around the edges? Then cover the whole lot with mulch?

Cut back then cover the whole area with a thick layer of horse manure.

For those not aware, the first of the Chinook rhizomes was planted mid 2007 so they are very well established.

 

[AJ80]

No cutting back. They do as they please.


Cut back then cover the whole area with a thick layer of horse manure.

For those not aware, the first of the Chinook rhizomes was planted mid 2007 so they are very well established.

I'd love to know just how many Chinook plants growing around Australia are descended from yours...I'm tipping it'd be a lot.

 

[Robbieb]

My Chinook is sprouting a few laterals, no signs of flowers yet though.
I've been training it daily to grow horizontally. The one day I didn't, a bine grew up to the hot tin roof which burnt the head right off.


Hops frame the view from my bedroom window now which is nice!

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

Hops are starting to fill out now. Laterals everywhere, Cluster in flower phase, Chinook with loads of burrs, Cascade and Victoria just starting to burr and the Centennial has come on strong for 1st year rhizomes. I do have some hermaphrodite in some of the Cluster...now 2 years in a row. There's nothing Dwarf about this Cluster in it's second year, easily over the 5 meter top wire and looking to grow higher like all the other varieties, and, throwing out some sizable cones.

 

[Nullnvoid]

Not sure if this is a "how long is a piece of string" question, but how often should I be watering my plants. Once a day, twice a day? And obviously that don't like to sit in water but they need a fair bit?

Cheers

 

[Nullnvoid]

Not sure if this is a "how long is a piece of string" question, but how often should I be watering my plants. Once a day, twice a day? And obviously that don't like to sit in water but they need a fair bit?

Cheers

 

[Mardoo]

I'd say once a day, unless we're having a string of hot days and then twice a day. Yes, in peak growth season they need a fair bit, around 10L a plant, or more even. Not precisely sure as I use weeper hoses. I usually do weepers on very low overnight in max growth season - which is now. But the amount they need is directly tied to their stage of growth. In winter/hibernation I don't water at all here in Melbourne. I did a relatively detailed post about watering in the first few pages of this thread. Don't feel like repeating the whole thing at the moment, but I can tell you next time we catch up, if you can't find it.

 

[Benn]

I have 9 plants and nothing setup in terms of auto/semi auto watering. Every 2-3 days I use the garden hose to slowly soak all the plants, if there's a particularly hot day(s) forecast I'll give them all an extra drink the night before. In between watering, so almost daily, I check the soil moisture by fingering it so as not to dry them out unknowingly.
Not an ideal situation with 9 plants but it'll get me through this season.

Edit: Mine are planted in the ground, last year I had 2 plants growing in pots and watered morning and evening.

 

[Nullnvoid]

I'd say once a day, unless we're having a string of hot days and then twice a day. Yes, in peak growth season they need a fair bit, around 10L a plant, or more even. Not precisely sure as I use weeper hoses. I usually do weepers on very low overnight in max growth season - which is now. But the amount they need is directly tied to their stage of growth. In winter/hibernation I don't water at all here in Melbourne. I did a relatively detailed post about watering in the first few pages of this thread. Don't feel like repeating the whole thing at the moment, but I can tell you next time we catch up, if you can't find it.

Thanks! I'll go back and look! One of the plants has a drip feeder and the other is just in a pot. Ironically it's doing the best, but it is a different variety.

I check the soil moisture by fingering it

I hope you buy it dinner first

 

[Rocker1986]

I've got one of those soaker sprinklers, it's about 15m long and it runs from one planter box to the other and back 3 times. The holes in it are faced down towards the soil and the hose is connected to a timer at the tap. I just give them 20-25 minutes each morning when I leave for work, and the one in the pot gets a watering can full every morning. Seems to work well, they're certainly looking pretty happy at the moment. In the dormant season I don't really water them much at all.

 

[Mardoo]

I did a relatively detailed post about watering in the first few pages of this thread.

OK, I was tripping. It was last year's plantation thread.

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/87275-2016-hop-plantations-show-us-your-hop-garden/?p=1316873

 

[Nullnvoid]

Awesome! Thanks I had started looking, but only got up to page three so far. It was interesting reading up to that point