2017 Hop Plantations, Show Us Your Hop Garden!

[ScottyDoesntKnow]

Looks like some sort of aphid or stinkbug, they are all over my lemon tree a few meters away from my hops but they don't go anywhere near them.

 

[mofox1]

Have you dried them like that before Mofox? How thick are the cucoons?

Thicker than last year :/

I give them a bop every time I go past. Since they're fairly full I'll probably have to rotate them around at least once.

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

Just picked my Cascade flowers. Not much to brag about this year. They got no lovin at all. But I was wondering what these little buggers are.

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Bit hard to see but there was a heap of them in the bottom of the bucket. They are shiny black and can fly. Almost like baby lady bugs? Wet keg hopped a black IPA before I noticed them so I'll report back how they taste. [emoji12]

They are Stethorus Punctum AKA The Spider Mite Killer. A beneficial bug in any hop field.

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

Nice haul, not sure how you managed to convince the trouble and strife about the flyscreens, but hey... win!

My haul ended up just under 6kg.. around 3kg each from the Chinook and Cascade. Cascade actually took up more volume, which plays into my thinking that I should have harvested it last week.

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They're now up in their gauze curtain cucoons strung up in the shed.

Where did you get those gauze curtain cocoons?

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

Just about to head into day 3 harvesting Chinook. I have not done final numbers, but looks like around 4kgs per plant...roughly 65kgs on 18 plants so far. Hoping to finish and get stuck into a few Victoria or Cascade that are ready.

 

[mofox1]

Where did you get those gauze curtain cocoons?

Just @ spotlight, chief. Normal gauze / swiss voile type stuff. 1.5 / 2m wide. Sew down the side and preferably one end as well.

Don't pack them too tight and you can easily re-distribute by giving it a whack each time you go past. ;-)

*May need quite a few for 65kg!

 

[Mat B]

I'm not sure what this gorgeous beetle is, but it's eating my hops. No biggie, it's almost end of the season. However, I did relocate a preying mantis to that hop. (Not shown on my hops, of course.)

That is a Soldier Beetle. A common sight in my childhood. Often seen walking in pairs with their bums stuck together. I haven't seen one in yonks.

 

[husky]

Just about to head into day 3 harvesting Chinook. I have not done final numbers, but looks like around 4kgs per plant...roughly 65kgs on 18 plants so far. Hoping to finish and get stuck into a few Victoria or Cascade that are ready.

Harvesting all by hand? and air drying?

 

[Camo6]

I'm not sure what this gorgeous beetle is, but it's eating my hops. No biggie, it's almost end of the season. However, I did relocate a preying mantis to that hop. (Not shown on my hops, of course.)

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That is a Soldier Beetle. A common sight in my childhood. Often seen walking in pairs with their bums stuck together. I haven't seen one in yonks.

It's a harlequin bug aka stink bug. Similar to a soldier beetle but a bit squishier.

 

[Mat B]

Once these harvests are all complete, do people on this forum ever engage in trading hops? Having collected about 6kgs of cascade, I'd certainly be happy to trade a few vac sealed bags to get some variety.

 

[pat_00]

I'd be keen, I have a lot of Mt Hood but my other plants didn't do too well.

 

[Benn]

VICTORIA
Gonna be a long night, got 2 more fully loaded fly screen doors to get through.
Keg hopped Black IPA, David Bowie & The Beatles helping me get through it

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

Just @ spotlight, chief. Normal gauze / swiss voile type stuff. 1.5 / 2m wide. Sew down the side and preferably one end as well.

Don't pack them too tight and you can easily re-distribute by giving it a whack each time you go past. ;-)

*May need quite a few for 65kg!

I was thinking of using them as transport bags for wet hops.

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

Harvesting all by hand? and air drying?

Harvesting by hand, I have a drying room that can hold about 100kgs of wet hops at a time.

 

[Benn]

I quickly learnt that harvesting by hand is a *******, especially when your helpers "down tools" half way through and go to the beach.

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

I quickly learnt that harvesting by hand is a *******, especially when your helpers "down tools" half way through and go to the beach.

Yeah, hard to get help and you can see the ones who like it and the ones that want to pack it in pretty quickly, lol. Luckily I have a few guns on board. We picked 100kgs in 3 days and still so much more to pick.

If anyone wants to give us a hand, we'll be picking Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. We're in the Yarra Valley, VIC.

 

[husky]

Vac sealed the last of the Cascade today. Need to get a brew on!

 

[Digga]

I picked most of my first year (in my dirt lol) POR strange that one side flowered and the other didn't. As in I put a few zomes in either side of the veg patch and strung a trellis.
Got 75g wet but I think I may have left them a little long due to the wet week we have had.
My cones don't seem as big and compact as others on here? Hoping that it's just because of the first year and maybe because I didn't give them much in the way of fertilizer? I'll give them more love next season.

 

[Curly79]

Still picking the POR My attention span last about 300g at a time. Reckon ill get 2 or 3 kg hopefully.
Drying them out on the trampoline wrapped in an old tirraline curtain. Working a treat in this hot weather
.

 

[MartinOC]

Wanna hand with that? I'll work for beer...)