Growing Hops

[hamstringsally]

my parents have some land and the old boy is retired and tried some of my all grain for the first time and was impressed. he said he would be happy to grow some hops for me. i jumped at it and said ill do some research. the only hops i know of is the pellets i buy from the shop with my milled grain.

can anyone point me in the right direction or some advice on what grows well in melbourne conditions and where would be a good place to start

cheers

hammo

 

[felten]

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...;showarticle=91

lots of links at the bottom as well, also there is a basic brewing radio interview with the guy that runs freshops, its very good

 

[hamstringsally]

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...;showarticle=91

lots of links at the bottom as well, also there is a basic brewing radio interview with the guy that runs freshops, its very good

thanks felten ill check it out

cheers

 

[t2000kw]

We have a group on Yahoo dedicated to growing hops and brewing herbs/grains (almost all discussions are about hops). It's here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grow-Hops/


Donald

my parents have some land and the old boy is retired and tried some of my all grain for the first time and was impressed. he said he would be happy to grow some hops for me. i jumped at it and said ill do some research. the only hops i know of is the pellets i buy from the shop with my milled grain.

can anyone point me in the right direction or some advice on what grows well in melbourne conditions and where would be a good place to start

cheers

hammo

 

[therocko]

hop rhizomes available for sale on ebay

 

[big78sam]

I also got this email the other day (no affiliation, you can contact hopco direct if you're interested).

"Dear Hop growers

I have decided not to wait any longer for the remainder of the rhizomes to come in. One of my growers is taking too long and I think he may be trying to sell them all for more money.

As a result I will only have the following varieties;

Cascade
Chinook
Perle
Hallertau
Hersbrucker
Golding
Fuggle

I may have a few of the other varieties in a few weeks but for now I need to start clearing the shed.

The best way to do this is as follows;

Send an email with your order stating what you want. Make sure you have your address on the order.

The costs will be $27.50 per rhizome plus $8 for freight if ordering 2 or less and $12 for 3 or more.

I only take direct deposit to the following account (which is different from last year)
Account name: Hopco Pty Ltd
BSB: 067102
ACC Number: 10135954

Make sure your name goes on the deposit details so I know who has paid.

Do your payment asap so I can send the hops quickly. Those that pay first will get their hops first.

Make sure when you order that you don't have all our conversations on the bottom of the page. I want to be able to hit the print button and only get one page.

For those that have big orders - I will work out your price when I hear from you. Those just ordering a few can work the price out themselves.

I have about 150 orders so that's the reason for the instructions.


Kind regards


Sandy Ross
Managing Director
Hopco Pty Ltd
Ph: +61 3 62435960
Fax: +61 3 62435397
www.hopco.com.au"

There are also threads in the retail section where members are selling rhizomes so you can look there as well.

 

[the_yobbo]

Ooh, home grown hops. Sounds interesting.

(Disclaimer, I've learnt a few words in recent research which I'm bound to use below, hopefully I use them correctly).

After a bit of reading up, I've still got a few questions regarding hop plants.
1) It seems like you setup a bine (or multiple bines?) for each hop plant to climb up. Any idea how many meters of bine are required to produce x grams of hops per year. ie, assume 80g of hops = 1 brew, and if I want to do 4 home grown hop brews a year, I should therefore allow for at least x meters of hop bine.
2) How soon can you normally harvest enough hops for a brew after planting? I see that they climb quite tall very quickly.
3) They are described as being a weed/pest of a plant. How do they propogate (dropping seed or underground creeper) and how rapidly? After planting one in the back yard, will I start finding shoots appearing within Xm of the plant within a year or two, or ever? I'm currently battling onion grass in the backyard, I don't really want something else trying to take over my garden beds and manicured lawns.
4) Does the hop plant just keep growing up the bine each season getting taller and taller, or do you cut it back to a base plant each season?


This video (http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=march-24-2009-homegrown-barley-and-container-hops) makes growing hops seem very easy. A large pot, a tall timber stake with an eyelet near the top and a long bit of bine that can be released each time the plant reaches the top. Anyone in Australia tried this method? Would this method work with the heat waves in a Perth summer if the potplant was on the driveway?

Ohh, so many questions.

 

[Wolfy]

After a bit of reading up, I've still got a few questions regarding hop plants.
1) It seems like you setup a bine (or multiple bines?) for each hop plant to climb up. Any idea how many meters of bine are required to produce x grams of hops per year. ie, assume 80g of hops = 1 brew, and if I want to do 4 home grown hop brews a year, I should therefore allow for at least x meters of hop bine.
2) How soon can you normally harvest enough hops for a brew after planting? I see that they climb quite tall very quickly.
3) They are described as being a weed/pest of a plant. How do they propogate (dropping seed or underground creeper) and how rapidly? After planting one in the back yard, will I start finding shoots appearing within Xm of the plant within a year or two, or ever? I'm currently battling onion grass in the backyard, I don't really want something else trying to take over my garden beds and manicured lawns.
4) Does the hop plant just keep growing up the bine each season getting taller and taller, or do you cut it back to a base plant each season

1) Healthy plants can grow up to 5-6m high, it's best to leave multiple bines, sometimes even all of them in a home situation. However crop size depends on many factors (climate, fertalizer, number of plants etc), and would virtually impossible to predict in a home-grown situation. Look at the "Hop Plantation 2009" thread and you will get an idea of how much people harvested on their crops last year.
2) I harvested more than 1kg of hops from my first year plants, but some produced none, again it depends on many factors, including the size/health of the rhizome you plant.
3) Once established they do 'grow like weeds' but they are not impossible to control (like blackberry for example), the roots can go down up to 2.5m and the rhizomes can spread about 1-1.5m out from the crown of the plant, but the rhizomes are usually close to the surface so with a little maintenance are easy to control.
4) The plant will die back each year, and you cut it off at the ground, next year it will grow from the roots/rhizome, sometimes as quickly as 1ft a day.

 

[the_yobbo]

Thanks for the quick response. I'll read through that thread shortly. (Linked here for others benefit http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=31752)

I might have to give the large pot method a go I reckon. That should minimise spreading of the weed, and I do like the concept of the reverse flagpole method from the earlier link. (Reverse flagpole name just made up, I wonder if it'll catch on).

 

[thanme]

@The_Muzz: I'm embarking on this very journey this year. Quite literally attempting in a pot, in my driveway in Perth. I found a blog of a guy who was growing hops in pots in Texas, and he's managing just fine. I'll dig out the link for you.

 

[bullsneck]

I've got some Cascade rhizomes here if anyone would like to purchase. PM me.