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GROWING HOPS
I tried growing hops here in minnesota and they grew great, but cutworms love the dang things and got them all in one night.
DC
brewchez wrote:
Just an FYI.
My willamet hops didn't come back this year for some reason. I think I over composted them and they couldn't push through. Regardless, I don't get enough sun in my yard, I am almost entirely surrounded by larger mature trees. Its great for my lawn but I can't grow tomoatoes, cukes or HOPS!!! My bines never really put out many cones. Maybe just 20-30.
Anyhow, I was so disgusted with the poor growing conditions and the failure of my Willies to come back that I never stung up or pruned my cascade plant.
The FYI is that I let it grow wildy on the ground near the patio and it never sporuted any flowers. I am not surprised and this is what I expected.
Next year the wife and I are moving to a new place and there will be plenty of growth opportunity at the new place. I plan to get some more cascade and willamet as well as maybe something else. I will go hog wild next year. Start my own little hop farm.
You need to give them some kind of support to travel up on. The will go pretty dang high. I saw a brew pub that grew some on a telephone pole outside the pub and went all the way t o the top of the pole. Trellis them and things should be better. They need all sun also. Some types are harder to grow than others.
good luck
DC
I'm dragging this one back up.
We are converting one of the tomato beds (8' x 16') to hops this spring. It looks like room for 15 or more plants. I'm thinking a real heavy duty trellis about 8' high. Got a lot of treated lumber & posts.
So, I guess my questions are:
What would grow the best in NW Missouri?
Which of those would be the most flexible? Note: I don't do a lot of super hoppy beers.
Any recomendations on suppliers? All we have are a few seed catalogs that list 3 or 4 types.
Thanks.
For a supplier check out freshhops,com. For other info ,Yahoo has a group called Grow-Hops that may be able to offer some advice on what will grow where. I'm in the research stage myself.
Most of the homebrew shops will have rhizomes in the spring and you may rethink 8 ft. as being high enough........the first year mine were over 14 ft and this past year were closer to 25 ft......I had to run them vertically out a line to give them room to grow.......
Thanks guys,
The reason I'm thinking about 8' high is that I saw a bunch of hop yards in the Pacific Northwest & that's what they seem to be doing, & I really don't want to climb a ladder 15' or 20' on a trellis that I build. I would much rather walk blissfully along underneath and reach up to pick them. Maybe a step ladder.
I've checked the yahoo group, but haven't joined it yet. Off to check freshhops.com
This is my first attempt at growing hops so I'm not sure if I'm just being over paranoid, but its been 3 - 3.5 weeks since I planted my rhizomes and I'm still not seeing anything sprouting. Before I planted them they were in the fridge for 2 weeks. I planted them in my grandparents garden which they've been using for 40 years so I know they're in good soil. So I'm wondering if I planted too early for where I live (southeast MA), maybe there's something else wrong with them or that I just need to give them more time..
my 1st year wasnt impressive at all, i had no cones, but so far this year they seem to be growing better than last year.
Mine were in the fridge for 2 months, planted them last Sun and Thurs. 4 of the 6 had sprouts. SE IA here and it's been a cooler but damp spring for us. I did bring the rhizomes to about the same temp as the soil before I planted them so as not to shock them. I wish I could give some advice towards growing but this is also my first attempt.
I live on the North shore of Massachusetts, and I put mine in the last weekend of April. I did this in about 15 minutes, just dug the holes, and dropped them it. I thought about where to position them for maximum sun, but that's about it. I planted 4 kinds. Cascade centennial, Liberty, and sterling. All of them are growing great, but the centennial has really taken off, it's over a foot now. This soil hasn't had anything in it in about 20 years, and is real rich and dark with a lot of worms in it for some reason. I'm really pumped with the centennial, because that's what I'd be using most. Maybe Ill have enough to do a batch at the end of the season.