Hop growing

[ancjr]

I started 6 rhizomes this past week, 3 Sterling and 3 Liberty. The liberty is already sprouting, but the sterling may take a while. I know I got a late start too, considering my climate here in Zone 6 of Southern Indiana.

Any other hop growers with tips or other anecdotes?

 

[longarm]

It's driving me nuts. I planted 3 rhizomes a few weeks ago and haven't seen a sprout yet. I think I planted them too deep.

 

[ancjr]

I dunno about your weather, but it's been frosty cold & damp here which is a detriment to all spring crops, I assume hops as well. My Liberty are doing well (2"), but my Sterling which are in poor soil and a colder spot have not done a thing. If the Sterling doesn't improve, I'll be planting Clusters next season. By then I'm sure some of the manure compost I put down will have leached in and improved the soil. This is the worst anaerobic clay soil you can imagine, so I'm not suprised at my results. There just wasn't much of a choice in planting areas. :/

 

[lostnbronx]

ancjr,

We'll be moving pretty soon, and probably have a bit of land to play with. It might take a year or two of conditioning the soil, but I think I'd like to try my hand at hops, for the sake of braggots. (I really like beer, but in the end, my heart belongs to mead.) Do you intend to use your crops for beers or braggots, or both maybe? You see, I'm of two minds; on the one hand, I intend to make a small braggot in the near future using some dried hops I already have, and I'd really like to try my hand at this someday with fresh hops; on the other hand, I think I'd really like to take a crack at an ancient approach, utilizing a gruit of various herbs for my braggot. Come to think of it, I could do both on a small scale, before putting in the effort of gardening. The new place will most likely have rocky/clay-filled soil, and producing anything but juniper trees will require year(s) of labor.

-David

 

[ancjr]

We have to large retaining walls that I've always felt needed vines or *something* to cover them (since 1988) so hops was a natural choice since I've started brewing. I've never tried a braggot, so I'll default to intending my hops for beer. Of course, I'll eventually try a braggot... The Liberty are between established rose bushes, so we'll see how that turns out. The Sterling are in thier very own bed.

The soil near our house is very poor. I'm talking crusted over, 0 organic matter, heavy heavy red clay - but with some composted manure, bone meal and daily watering, it appears that the hops should do well.

Additions of manure compost every once in a while should eventually work organic matter into the soil through leeching. Don't use fresh manure - it's way too strong for plants, including hops. Adding compost below ground is a no-no in inorganic, anerobic soil like mine. It will actually ferment below ground and make the soil unfriendly to plants (and stinky too). I'm a lazy farmer. But so is nature!

 

[kace069]

I planted my first hops last year and it took about a month for them to sprout. So don't worry to much Longarm it will come up. In fact I planted a new rhizome (Saaz) at the begining of April and then it snowed a week or two later. But I expect it to sprout sometime towards the end of May. The hops i planted last year are already sprouting. I live in Michigan and the Cascade is really doing well for me, I even had a 3oz harvest last year. ( and I didn't even pick all the cones) My Willamette hasn't done that welll but hopefully better this year. Remeber the first year of hop growing is all about root production. But once it gets established watch out! A few days last year i swear my cascade was growing up to 6 inches a day! For addtional growing tips I would suggest buying The Homebrewers Garden by Fisher&Fisher. It covers everything from preparing soil to drying and pests. It also has a section on brewing herbs and even growing and malting your own barley.

 

[ScottS]

I discovered that chickens really like to eat young hop plants. Mine lasted about 2 days.