Hop Plantation 2005

[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