Hop Plantation 2005

[Trough Lolly]

Righto! No more mister nice guy...

I'll strip one of the cuttings of its leaves and see how it goes! There's plenty more cuttings if I kill these ones, but I will be rather pi$$ed off at wasting the last few weeks of careful nurturing if it does cark it!!

The main Goldings plant is budding flowers / cones so I'll send some pics when I get my hands on the camera...


Cheers,
TL

 

[tangent]

mine was doing nothing for about a week, then i read on this about taking the leaves off...BAM!
then after it grew roots, it grew more leaves, off with them, the roots grew even bigger (a bit)
now it's in a little nursery until it's big and strong enough to swap

edit: my cutting fitted perfectly in a pony glass (maybe 50mm long) and it had 2 little leaves

 

[Darren]

couple of leaves is the go

 

[Mr Bond]

Can you grow hops hydroponicly ?

Matt

[post="90772"][/post]​

Hydroponics is not all about indoor and lights.

You can grow out doors or in a glass house using hydro methods just like commercial fruit farms ,Strawberrys etc....

 

[johnno]

I've got a cutting in a pot that is going well despite the youngest tippng it out of its pot twice.
Its the only orange pot and its fair game to the baby. All the black pots with herbs etc are always left alone.

If this one lives it will be a srong one.

Another one died in the pot and i also have some more in water at the moment waiting for roots. (No pun intended)

The main plant in the meantime is starting to go off. I really must find something to support it on.

cheers
johnno

 

[Mr Bond]

couple of leaves is the go

[post="92545"][/post]​

Iv'e not got any hops in this year but planning to get one going next year with the view to propagating/swapping in adelaide with other interested growers.
I am a horticulturalist by trade and have propagated thousands of ornamentals over the years both commercially and privately and can't see much difficulty in striking a weed like hops ( humulus).

When you take a cutting the idea is to reduce the leaf area to a minimum that will still support some photo synthesis and basic plant functions but not require to much energy to sustain life. The point at which the plant is removed from the host is a wound and will be targeted with new cells to repair the wound.If a rooting hormone is applied the cells will form a callous that will become root hairlets and eventually roots.A bottom heat of 25c will encourage and hasten this process ,as will a little humidity around the top(leaves) of the cutting to reduce stress.

If anyone is interested next spring iwould like to form a co-operative of adelaide hop growers and collect asstd cuttings to propagate with a view to sharing amongst all contributors and selling on excess plants to realise fund for the purchase of more varieties to grow within the group.We would in effect become farmer/producers of hops with an ever expanding variety of hops to offer to other brewers.A true cottage industry.

 

[Doc]

I cut 4-5 bines (about 15-20cm long) off my Columbus nearly two weeks ago and put them in a glass of water on the window sill in the kitchen.
They are all starting to develop roots. I changed the water yesterday for the first time. Will see how they progress in the next week and may try to tranplant them back into the pot where they came from (but obviously they will now have their own roots).

Beers,
Doc

 

[Trough Lolly]

Well, the two cuttings have just had a crew cut - I left the topmost pair of minature leaves on and snipped off the rest - and topped up the jar with fresh water.

Here's a couple of pics showing the Goldings - are these buds the beginnings of some hop flowers? :blink:

Here's another shot of another bine from the same plant...


The Cab Sav next door to the Goldings is doing quite nicely too!


Apologies for the picture quality - I took the shots at dusk when I got home from work this arvo...Cheers,
TL

 

[johnno]

TL,
Its too early for them to be coning up.
Here is a piccy of my last crop taken 15 Jan this year.
They were just starting to cone up then.

 

[tangent]

Brauluver, you are on!

 

[apd]

I'm getting a bit jealous of everyone's great progress. My sad little columbus hasn't done much other than grow about 10cm in its first month or so. I suppose it didn't help that I moved it...

It's sitting next to the brick, the strings waiting patiently to carry the bines when they decide they feel like doing some growing.

 

[kungy]

I could swear my plant is beginning to cone up. So far it has gone great guns and covered a sizeable chunk of the back fence in only its second year. The coney things seem to be in the corners of the bines and leaves, similar to what is seen on Sosmans site

http://brewiki.org/wiki/homebrew/attachmen...owers041231.jpg?

I will see what eventuates

Will

 

[altstart]

:beer:
Gooday guys
I live in south Brisbane and realise I cannot grow hops here however the fresh Mangoes are a tradeoff. I have just returned from a visit to my brothers place outside Oberon in NSW and I talked him into growing hops for me. Is this area suitable and for what varieties. What time of year should they be planted out. All info will be most appreciated.
Cheers Altstart

 

[Mr Bond]

I could swear my plant is beginning to cone up. So far it has gone great guns and covered a sizeable chunk of the back fence in only its second year. The coney things seem to be in the corners of the bines and leaves, similar to what is seen on Sosmans site

http://brewiki.org/wiki/homebrew/attachmen...owers041231.jpg?

I will see what eventuates

Will

[post="93095"][/post]​

Flowers at the base of the leaves,is a very good thing!

 

[AndrewQLD]

TL,
Its too early for them to be coning up.
Here is a piccy of my last crop taken 15 Jan this year.
They were just starting to cone up then.

[post="92576"][/post]​

I have just had a look at my victory plant, and I am sure it is starting to flower. All up the bine, at the base of each leaf is a shoot, about 2cm long with a bud at the end. Today i noticed the shoots closest to the top of the bine (About 7mt high) are starting to develop what looks to me like a cone. I am so excited, I wanted to take a piccy for you guys to see but we are about to have a huge storm and I am not putting up an extension ladder in a Qld storm :blink: . I will take a photo tomorrow and if you can let me know if it is flowering it would be appreciated.
Cheers
Andrew

 

[sosman]

My 2nd season hallertau is going berserk (aka weird). At the top it has flowers which are as mature as ones I photographed last Jan.

edit: climbed a ladder for posterity:

These are around 6 metres up. Photo taken 27-Nov-2005.

 

[Doc]

My hops have barely grown in the last three weeks.
I cut four bines off one plant in an effort to get some more growth. Those bines I've had in a glass of water on the window sill. They've all grown roots, so I'm going to transplant them back into the pot.

Beers,
Doc

 

[pbrosnan]

Hi all

Had these PORs in the ground since August. Going vertical is going to be a problem so I'm attemptind to train them along the fence. Anyone had experience with horizontal hop cultivation?

 

[Chatty]

Brauluver - I would be aware of Plant Breeders Rights that may be pending on some varieties of hops. I'm not sure what the status of the varieties are in the market place at the moment but I know that in broadacre crops (my industry) at the moment the intellectual property holders are just busting to take someone to court over this.

Although what you're proposing is only a backyard industry this forum is a relatively public place for this discussion and may attract unwanted attention.

Just a thought, sobering though it is

Chatty

 

[Doc]

Finally managed to get out and check mine out yesterday and bines are growing out from the bottom of the main bine and overtaking the original shoot.
Replanted the shoots I had cut off previously, so as long as they survive tonights storm I might get a few cones.

Doc

 

[sosman]

Its too early for them to be coning up.
Here is a piccy of my last crop taken 15 Jan this year.
They were just starting to cone up then.

[post="92576"][/post]​

Johnno, I am afraid I have to disagree. Is anyone else in Melbourne having a triffid summer?

 

[AndrewQLD]

Its too early for them to be coning up.
Here is a piccy of my last crop taken 15 Jan this year.
They were just starting to cone up then.

[post="92576"][/post]​

Johnno, I am afraid I have to disagree. Is anyone else in Melbourne having a triffid summer?

[post="95170"][/post]​

Well, i'm not in Melbourne, but my hops in bundy are definately starting to flower. So far I have 23 flowers and more starting to emerge further down the bine. Even if this is just a fluke, I'm happy, I never thought I would get any hop cones on plants up here.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[johnno]

Ok. I stand to be corrected.
And I was only going by what happened to mine last year. I am no expert at horticulture.

Maybe somebody with a horticultural background/experience may care to comment?

chatty?
braulover?


This is cool.
Hops already!

johnno

 

[AndrewQLD]

Ok. I stand to be corrected.
And I was only going by what happened to mine last year. I am no expert at horticulture.

Maybe somebody with a horticultural background/experience may care to comment?

chatty?
braulover?


This is cool.
Hops already!

johnno

[post="95177"][/post]​

Johnno, I was surprised mine flowered at all, let alone this early in the season, goes against everything I have read about hops. Is this a sign of the changing enviroment?

Cheers
Andrew

 

[mikem108]

Mine are coming along nicely although 1500k's away in a back yard in Adelaide

 

[Gout]

My Goldings are going crazy!, POR next to nothing, and hellertau took off months ago but stopped dead in its tracks.

the goldings have climd to roof hight, then fallen back on it self and grown to the top again!

 

[Martin]

Has anyone got a close-up photo of what a cone looks like at the right time to harvest it?

My second-season plant is enormous, it reached top-of-roof height a couple of months ago so I trimmed the tips and it put out lots of side shoots. It's had flowers on it for quite some time now. I didn't do any harvesting in its first season because I was letting it get established. I'm just not sure when to harvest!

 

[Chatty]

Johnno, I'm no hop physiology expert but I would suspect that there would be some sort of temperature requirement before initiation of flowering. What this involves is a pretty simple calculation along the lines of;

Temp(Degree Days) = Sum(Average daily temp - threshold temp)

Over a period, the amount of time that the weather is above a certain threshold temperature accumulates and at a certain Degree Day flowering is initiated.

Just had a look at the Bureau of Meteorology website at these two charts.

Minimum Anomaly

Maximum Anomaly

The thing they both agree on is that it has been on a rough average 1.5 degrees warmer than the mean over the last 6 months. If any WA hop growers read this who have grown hops previously could you please post your thoughts on whether you reckon your plants are flowering earlier or later than usual. Considering that WA has been about 0.5 - 1.5 degrees cooler you would expect that to correlate to delayed flowering.

Long winded I know...

Chatty

 

[johnno]

Has anyone got a close-up photo of what a cone looks like at the right time to harvest it?

My second-season plant is enormous, it reached top-of-roof height a couple of months ago so I trimmed the tips and it put out lots of side shoots. It's had flowers on it for quite some time now. I didn't do any harvesting in its first season because I was letting it get established. I'm just not sure when to harvest!

[post="98000"][/post]​

Martin there is a discussion here about this.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/How_...-t4292-s30.html

Thanks for the update chatty.

johnno

 

[philski]

Hey everyone, I've been reading through these stories about hop plantations and I'm keen to give it a try - where did everyone buy their plants from originally?? (I'm in Melbourne by the way if that helps)

Cheers

Phil