I found this and think this may be something of interest for 2010's harvest.
Showing posts with label Growing Hops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Growing Hops. Show all posts
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Monday, September 28, 2009
Thinking of "Growing your Own"?
Here are some rough notes I have taken over the last year while putting our garden together...
Growing Hops
Cascade grow great everywhere
Plant with early spring Peas
Can withstand a little frost
If planted early, then throw a bit of mulch, leaves, or ground cover to protect from frost
Plant rhizomes immediately after arrival
Up to 6 rhizomes (actually this count is for the nodes) in one hole to make sure one yields
Mound in hills
Roots grow 12’ deep (yes, FEET) and can be very difficult to get rid of if desired. They die back every winter under the ground and then returns in the spring.
Never have standing water at the base
YES to compost
Won’t produce cones under if growth is 5’
Vertical Growth is the best, but Horizontal is ok.
Don’t overcomplicate
Bines (not vines) can climb up string even wire (twine is great) but not a wall.
They grow clockwise
Wrap them 2 times at base and it should continue
MAX Sunlight
15-18 hours is great
some varieties are less tolerable to heat
high bittering = more tolerable
less bittering = less tolerable
2-3 bines per string
6 best bines per plant
cut back the bush @ the soil which will grow @ the base to prevent fungul diseases
prune 2-3’ from the base up the bine
Bines can grow to 1” diam. Thick
We set up a 1000 gallon rain barrel at the base of the barn and would fill it with a descent amount of rainfall in a single day! A sump pump was placed inside and would run constantly with a drip line that carried the rain water to the garden. We spent a day trenching the line and have an automated watering system at a rate of less than? must confirm with literature.
Heavy watering the first year but not to the point of damp soil
No sprinkler (wet foliage)
Use watering can/bucket
Can water hops with spent chiller water
Fungal Disease / Pests
Powdery mildew kills hops (looks like powdered sugar) Can be pruned piece by piece but remove it from the growth site entirely
Spider-mites
Aphids (lady bugs will kill the aphids)
Harvest Time
Too early = really grassy (Green)
Too late = skunky (brown)
Very mature on the top
New Growth on the bottom
2 week window period for picking duration
look for the yellow glands = prime = very pungent , cone drys out and becomes papery drys out a bit. Don’t pick them all…pick some and leave some during the first year to get a feel for what is prime growth. Experiment the first year and be prepared to make mistakes.
“go to your friends garden and squeeze their cones” learn the right feel/touch
Don’t under-dry
Don’t over-dry (yellow glands should still hold together)
At dying season, cut back (they will appear dead at this point) after being cut they will suck back in to the ground and return in the spring.
DRYING
100-140^ f > below 10% moisture to prevent mildew
weigh before and after (try to over dry vs under-dry)
maybe try a few and find a crumbling point.
dry in dark to prevent oxidization (out of sunlight)
about 24 hours at approx. summer weather day with circulating air (garage, with screened frame, and fans)
plant horizontal (it’s the way they were growing naturally)
Don't even think about taking our hops....we have a big Guard Dog!
Before you know it...Hops you will be a baggn!
Growing Hops
Cascade grow great everywhere
Plant with early spring Peas
Can withstand a little frost
If planted early, then throw a bit of mulch, leaves, or ground cover to protect from frost
Plant rhizomes immediately after arrival
Up to 6 rhizomes (actually this count is for the nodes) in one hole to make sure one yields
Mound in hills
Roots grow 12’ deep (yes, FEET) and can be very difficult to get rid of if desired. They die back every winter under the ground and then returns in the spring.
Never have standing water at the base
YES to compost
Won’t produce cones under if growth is 5’
Vertical Growth is the best, but Horizontal is ok.
Don’t overcomplicate
Bines (not vines) can climb up string even wire (twine is great) but not a wall.
They grow clockwise
Wrap them 2 times at base and it should continue
MAX Sunlight
15-18 hours is great
some varieties are less tolerable to heat
high bittering = more tolerable
less bittering = less tolerable
2-3 bines per string
6 best bines per plant
cut back the bush @ the soil which will grow @ the base to prevent fungul diseases
prune 2-3’ from the base up the bine
Bines can grow to 1” diam. Thick
We set up a 1000 gallon rain barrel at the base of the barn and would fill it with a descent amount of rainfall in a single day! A sump pump was placed inside and would run constantly with a drip line that carried the rain water to the garden. We spent a day trenching the line and have an automated watering system at a rate of less than? must confirm with literature.
Heavy watering the first year but not to the point of damp soil
No sprinkler (wet foliage)
Use watering can/bucket
Can water hops with spent chiller water
Fungal Disease / Pests
Powdery mildew kills hops (looks like powdered sugar) Can be pruned piece by piece but remove it from the growth site entirely
Spider-mites
Aphids (lady bugs will kill the aphids)
Harvest Time
Too early = really grassy (Green)
Too late = skunky (brown)
Very mature on the top
New Growth on the bottom
2 week window period for picking duration
look for the yellow glands = prime = very pungent , cone drys out and becomes papery drys out a bit. Don’t pick them all…pick some and leave some during the first year to get a feel for what is prime growth. Experiment the first year and be prepared to make mistakes.
“go to your friends garden and squeeze their cones” learn the right feel/touch
Don’t under-dry
Don’t over-dry (yellow glands should still hold together)
At dying season, cut back (they will appear dead at this point) after being cut they will suck back in to the ground and return in the spring.
DRYING
100-140^ f > below 10% moisture to prevent mildew
weigh before and after (try to over dry vs under-dry)
maybe try a few and find a crumbling point.
dry in dark to prevent oxidization (out of sunlight)
about 24 hours at approx. summer weather day with circulating air (garage, with screened frame, and fans)
plant horizontal (it’s the way they were growing naturally)
Don't even think about taking our hops....we have a big Guard Dog!
Before you know it...Hops you will be a baggn!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
HOPS FARM
So we have been pretty busy getting our hops in order and preparing for a great crop in the future!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
HOPS
Hop Rhizomes Plants that we will put in to the ground this weekend! I can't wait for the HARVEST next year!
5 Cascade
5 Centennial
2 Nugget
2 East Kent Goldings
2 Brewers Gold
1 Mt. Hood
great resource
http://oregonhops.org/culture2.html
5 Cascade
5 Centennial
2 Nugget
2 East Kent Goldings
2 Brewers Gold
1 Mt. Hood
great resource
http://oregonhops.org/culture2.html
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Hops, Hops, and MORE Hops!
This is our goal anyhow. I found this nice chunk of info to grow hops at:
PicoBrewery
Hops Garden Pics
Hops Garden Pics
Back to Ask the Brewmaster.
Question: : How do I grow hops?
Answer: Growing hops can be a fun way to get outdoors this summer. With a couple of plants, you can grow all the hops your homebrew will need. In the meantime, they'll be a pleasant herbal addition to your back yard. To see what you're in for, check out my hop garden at: http://www.picobrewery.com/hopgardn.html.Hops grow from root cuttings known as rhizomes. They are perennial, so once they get started, they'll come back year after year. You can buy rhizomes at the shop, or you can get them mail order. Hop plants have distinct male or female characteristics. Hop cones, the part that is used in brewing, only come from the female plants. Whenever you buy rhizomes, you can rest assured that they are female. Unless you come across some native hop plants, male plants are generally only found at agricultural breeding facilities. Commercial hop growers (and homebrewers) generally don't want the hop cones to be fertilized, so the males are rooted out. The first thing to do is plan out your growing space. Hop plants are tall climbing vines. They'll need a tall trellis to be able to do their thing. Plan on allowing sixteen feet upwards at least, and 20 feet if room is available. The plants will need to be spaced about 5 feet apart. I've discovered that my garden, with plants at three-foot intervals, suffers from root competition. Also, with time, the rhizomes start to spread laterally. If they are too close together, they can get mixed up, so you won't know which is which. Before you plant, you should build your trellis. Hops like lots of sun, so pick a place accordingly. The easiest thing to do is use a tall south-facing wall and put up some stringer-hooks, like they did at the shop. Craig Corley built his trellis using his garage as a base. I didn't have a good south wall, so I built a free-standing frame out of sixteen-foot 2 x 4's. The vines climb up strings, which I secure with hooks. I arranged the strings so that at harvest time, I can lower the vines down. Hops like soil that is fairly light and well-drained. Typically, making some small hills help with the drainage. They also need plenty of fertilizer. Garden-variety potting soil works pretty good.The next thing to do is select the type of rhizome you want. The modern American hybrids such as Cascade and Nugget tend to grow the best in Southern California. I haven't had much luck with the traditional English or German varieties. I suspect part of the reason is that they came from more northerly latitudes, where the summer days are longer. For variety, I recommend that you select a mix of bittering and a flavoring hops. One plant will produce all you need of a given type for a year, so use your space for variety, rather than quantity. The time to plant is now. Rhizomes naturally send up fresh shoots in March. Make sure the soil is well spaded. Dig a hole a bit deeper than the length of the rhizome. When you get your rhizomes, look for the white growths. These will be the shoots, so point these up. Gently pack soil around the rhizome, so that the shoots are about an inch below ground. Keep the soil well moistened for the first month or two. The roots are fairly fragile for a while, so they are prone to dryness. For well-established plants, hops will reach a few feet tall by April. Make sure the shoots find a string to climb on. They'll continue to spiral upward as long as the strings are close to vertical. In May, they rocket upwards several inches in a day! They tend to reach the top of the trellis in June. About that time, they start producing cones. A healthy vibrant plant will produce some cones the first year. However, many do not, so don't be disappointed if your first year is a bust. The cones will be ripe in July and August. By September, they'll be done, and starting to pull back for winter. The energy in the vines gets sucked back into the rhizome, so leave the dying vines intact until the stems are fully dried and brittle.In their second year, the rhizomes tend to send out large number of shoots. For best yield, you want to cut most of these off, leaving about four to eight shoots per rhizome. This will allow the plant to focus its energy into cone production. A modest yield will be half a pound. A strong producer will yield well over a pound. Assuming your plants do well, you'll have to harvest, dry and package the cones. You'll also have to estimate their bittering content. I'll cover that in an article later this summer.
PicoBrewery
Hops Garden Pics
Hops Garden Pics
Back to Ask the Brewmaster.
Question: : How do I grow hops?
Answer: Growing hops can be a fun way to get outdoors this summer. With a couple of plants, you can grow all the hops your homebrew will need. In the meantime, they'll be a pleasant herbal addition to your back yard. To see what you're in for, check out my hop garden at: http://www.picobrewery.com/hopgardn.html.Hops grow from root cuttings known as rhizomes. They are perennial, so once they get started, they'll come back year after year. You can buy rhizomes at the shop, or you can get them mail order. Hop plants have distinct male or female characteristics. Hop cones, the part that is used in brewing, only come from the female plants. Whenever you buy rhizomes, you can rest assured that they are female. Unless you come across some native hop plants, male plants are generally only found at agricultural breeding facilities. Commercial hop growers (and homebrewers) generally don't want the hop cones to be fertilized, so the males are rooted out. The first thing to do is plan out your growing space. Hop plants are tall climbing vines. They'll need a tall trellis to be able to do their thing. Plan on allowing sixteen feet upwards at least, and 20 feet if room is available. The plants will need to be spaced about 5 feet apart. I've discovered that my garden, with plants at three-foot intervals, suffers from root competition. Also, with time, the rhizomes start to spread laterally. If they are too close together, they can get mixed up, so you won't know which is which. Before you plant, you should build your trellis. Hops like lots of sun, so pick a place accordingly. The easiest thing to do is use a tall south-facing wall and put up some stringer-hooks, like they did at the shop. Craig Corley built his trellis using his garage as a base. I didn't have a good south wall, so I built a free-standing frame out of sixteen-foot 2 x 4's. The vines climb up strings, which I secure with hooks. I arranged the strings so that at harvest time, I can lower the vines down. Hops like soil that is fairly light and well-drained. Typically, making some small hills help with the drainage. They also need plenty of fertilizer. Garden-variety potting soil works pretty good.The next thing to do is select the type of rhizome you want. The modern American hybrids such as Cascade and Nugget tend to grow the best in Southern California. I haven't had much luck with the traditional English or German varieties. I suspect part of the reason is that they came from more northerly latitudes, where the summer days are longer. For variety, I recommend that you select a mix of bittering and a flavoring hops. One plant will produce all you need of a given type for a year, so use your space for variety, rather than quantity. The time to plant is now. Rhizomes naturally send up fresh shoots in March. Make sure the soil is well spaded. Dig a hole a bit deeper than the length of the rhizome. When you get your rhizomes, look for the white growths. These will be the shoots, so point these up. Gently pack soil around the rhizome, so that the shoots are about an inch below ground. Keep the soil well moistened for the first month or two. The roots are fairly fragile for a while, so they are prone to dryness. For well-established plants, hops will reach a few feet tall by April. Make sure the shoots find a string to climb on. They'll continue to spiral upward as long as the strings are close to vertical. In May, they rocket upwards several inches in a day! They tend to reach the top of the trellis in June. About that time, they start producing cones. A healthy vibrant plant will produce some cones the first year. However, many do not, so don't be disappointed if your first year is a bust. The cones will be ripe in July and August. By September, they'll be done, and starting to pull back for winter. The energy in the vines gets sucked back into the rhizome, so leave the dying vines intact until the stems are fully dried and brittle.In their second year, the rhizomes tend to send out large number of shoots. For best yield, you want to cut most of these off, leaving about four to eight shoots per rhizome. This will allow the plant to focus its energy into cone production. A modest yield will be half a pound. A strong producer will yield well over a pound. Assuming your plants do well, you'll have to harvest, dry and package the cones. You'll also have to estimate their bittering content. I'll cover that in an article later this summer.
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