Hop Irrigation

[DigitalGiraffe]

How does everyone keep their hops thirst quenched? I usually head out of an afternoon and give them a spray with the hose but began thinking that there may be a more efficient way to keep them happy.

Has anyone used drip-lines, sprayers successfully?

 

[sp0rk]

Have a look through last year's hop growing thread, there are plenty of good examples

 

[DigitalGiraffe]

Have a look through last year's hop growing thread, there are plenty of good examples

Cheers, I did a bit of a search but didn't notice any stand alone threads and didn't think to look in there. Will take a look.

 

[barls]

i have a dripper hose in mine it works fine. plus i spray with fertiliser

 

[earle]

I use rainwater and I've read it's best not to use drippers as it runs the pump for extended periods of time. Instead I use a mini bubbler on a matching riser - much better than a misting type head because mist tends to drift away in even the lightest breeze. Click the features button and you'll get an idea of the type of water it throws out.

http://www.popeproducts.com.au/product/15mm-fbsp-mini-bubbler

 

[spog]

For keeping them moist during the day why not use a 2 litre plastic drink bottle,put a pin prick in the bottom then fill it with water and screw the lid on. It'll slowly water during the day,flow rate can be adjusted by loosening the lid.
Might work until you get home to give them a good drink.

 

[Camo6]

Just set up a drip system for the new hop/veggie patch. Using the Pope adjustable drippers so I can tailor it a bit. I'm hoping a gravity feed from the water tank might work but the head isn't very high. Like Earle I don't want to run the pump for long periods at low flow. Hmmm, maybe rig up the Kaixin?

 

[good4whatAlesU]

Don't know about hops but the commercial vegetable growers use buried drip tape (about 10cm deep in the soil) under a semi permeable weed mat. The fertiliser is dissolved in water and fed through the drip tape directly to the plant roots.
The weed mat stops weeds (of course) but also keeps the soil warm and moist. This is for a quick 12 week annual crops, i don't know anything about hops it may not be suitable.

 

[malt junkie]

When I was landscaping, we had a little tree nursery, (about 70 30L bags) what we found was 4 to 6 short applications with drippers a day was better than drowning morning and night. Automation is key 2 minutes 6 times a day and they'll go nuts. You can run your hose flat out for an hour after a hot day and it will have half the effect of those combined 12 minutes. I still have brand new solenoids sitting in the shed but no hops growing..... yet. Setup is pricey but if your doing all your yard, your saving money on water after the second year.

 

[Mardoo]

I set mine up with rings of weeper hose, chained together. I made this up from lengths of weeper hose, lengths of garden hose and Pope T's, elbows and clips from Bunnings. I just used the cheapo Bunnings garden hose, but did get decent hose ends and connectors to limit leakage, which was actually never a worry since there were no discernible leaks over 3 years of use.

I put the weepers on a flow restrictor with low volume from the spigot, giving about 1/8 flow to the weeper hose. I turned it on for often 10 hours whenever they needed moisture. I got the flow low enough that if I went away for a week, I could just leave the water on the whole time and not have to worry about timers or caretakers. It was inexpensive and made watering low maintenance for me.

I could have used a timer and made it no maintenance, but I enjoy paying attention to the plants, so don't mind having a good look every day. Hops are among the most beautiful plants in the world in my book.

(I'll be making up some more rings and a short chain in the next few days, so will try to remember to post pics here.)

 

[AJ80]

Mardoo knows what he is talking about - I followed his advice exactly last year and it worked perfectly:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/87275-2016-hop-plantations-show-us-your-hop-garden/page-11#entry1316873

 

[Mardoo]

Sorry, it took me awhile to get the irrigation bits made. This is the unit I use per barrel/crown. I just use the various Pope connectors with weeper hose and cheap garden hose.

I've always used the clamps on the weeper hose, as you can see I did on the garden hose. However, it's just that much thicker and rougher surfaced than garden hose that it can be a real bitch to get the teeth on the Pope clamps to grab. Yesterday? CBF'd.

I ran a 24-hour trial with the weeper on and no blowouts yet. As I mentioned earlier, I use the weeper at a very low pressure so I can just leave it on for long periods. Fingers crossed it'll keep holding. If not I'll just grab some hose clamps.