Hop Rhizomes

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yaturaz
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Post by yaturaz »

I am going to try and grow hops again this year. I wasted money on it last year :( I am going to get the hops growing in a pot in the house this year. I think that will help out a bunch.

I'll be joining that group bill :)
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Legman
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Hop Rhizomes are here!

Post by Legman »

Got my first bunch of rhizomes today! I've still got 8 more coming from another source that haven't got here yet. I can't wait to get these going. I hope all goes well. :D

I've got to get off my butt and finish my hop garden soon!
I'm planting 4-Kent Goldings, 4-Willamette, 2-Tettnanger, and 2-Horizon. This is gonna be so cool! :mrgreen:

What's everyone else planting this year?
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Suthrncomfrt1884
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Post by Suthrncomfrt1884 »

I got mine about two weeks ago. I was a little upset that Freshops.com sent them out as soon as I purchased instead of waiting until planting season.

Anyhow...I can't wait to get them in the ground. Cascade, Mt. Hood, Nugget, and Magnum.
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jawbox
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Post by jawbox »

they are ok wrapped in damp cloth in the refrigerator.
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mule
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Post by mule »

If you guys are growing in pots - or not, there was a great article in BYO this month on a lay down 4"x4" post design. I'm going to be trying it myself..... It's not on line though, so you will have to find the mag or wait for me to take pics on mine.....

BTW, my LHBS has almost 10 varieties in stock here in CO. I found out there are quite a few people growing them in the Front Range area. One thing I noticed is that his are starting to grow in the bags while IN his cooler unit. The two rhizomes I got from him (Willamette & Glacier) had 3 to 5 runners starting.
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Legman
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Hop Garden

Post by Legman »

Finally just about got the rest of my hop garden all finish. Man that was a lot of work. I've got really !@#$ soil at my house. It's pretty much all clay and that suck for growing anything.
So what I did was dig out a whole about the size of a 5 gallon bucket and then filled it back up with a layer of straw on the bottom and the rest with a 50/50 mushroom compost and cow manure mix, with a bit of 10/10/10 fertilizer and lime.
I got 4 of my rhizomes last week and went ahead and put them in the ground and covered them with mulch really good. My other 8 rhizomes should be here this week. I'll pop those in the ground as soon as they get here as well. :mrgreen:

Does anyone know about how long before you start to see any hops sprout from the ground after planting? I'm sure it depends on temps and what not, but I was just curious if there was a general guideline for this.
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billvelek
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Sprouting time depends ...

Post by billvelek »

As you stated, temperature is a factor. Also whether you already have some shoots on your rhizome and how long they are. And how deep you plant. And the variety seems to make a difference, along with the health of the rhizome. I'd say that if you already have shoots (the white growth on the rhizome aside from any small roots), and you plant the rhizome a couple of inches deep with the shoots directed upward, and you have warm weather, you could conceivably see a sprout within just a matter of days if the shoot is already close to the surface. There are just too many factors to give a good answer. The last rhizomes I planted were three fairly small Cascade rhizomes and one JUMBO Centennial rhizome that was actually more like a large section of crown that could easily have been divided into five or six large rhizomes. Two of the three Cascade came up within a week, and the other Cascade and Centennial after about 12 days (which really surprised me). But we had pretty warm and sunny weather during that first week and then it turned cold and we had a LOT of rain during the next week. I have also had some rhizomes take two weeks or longer.

Cheers.
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Post by mule »

Here is my happenings so far.
I had some tiny shoots on my Mt. Hood and planted it two weeks ago in the pot. We had two snow storms since then and some warm days. As of today, it has two shoots about 1/4" out of the ground. I planted it 1.5-2" deep.
The other 8 rhizomes haven't sent anything up yet, but all had little shoots on them when I planted them.
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Waiting for shoots

Post by shaggyt »

I just planted my rhizomes after storing them for two weeks in the fridge due to a cold spell.

I have 5 rhizomes in the ground about 3 days though my concern is this:

What would be the maximum depth at which to plant the rhizomes?

My fear is that I planted them a little too deep, maybe 6 inches or so, but I'm hesitant to disturb them.

Any thoughts out there?

PS-Bill, I'm a member your Yahoo Grow-Hops group, though it's rather intimidating. As time allows, I can check there as well.
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billvelek
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Rhizome planting depth

Post by billvelek »

I don't think you should plant any deeper than 2", and 6" is definitely too deep in my opinion, and I'd be afraid that they might not make it unless you had really healthy and large rhizomes with the energy to push all the way to the top without any sunlight. In addition, how high are your mounds? If they are only 6" high, rain water is not going to drain real well away from the rhizomes and roots; better that the rhizome is higher than the surrounding ground. Since yours have been in the ground for only 3 days, this is probably easy to fix. First, if your mounds are high enough that the rhizome will still be elevated even after you remove about 4" of soil from the top, I would carefully do that -- keeping watch for the white colored shoots that should be forming. When you see a shoot, especially if you're sure you're still a couple of inches from the rhizome, just sprinkle a quarter of an inch of soil on top of it and you should be good to go. It might even be okay to just leave it exposed, but I don't know enough about biology to know what happens to convert the shoot into a bine right below the surface; the difference is that the shoots growing from the rhizome are white without a tip, per se, while the sprouts are green and have a tip similar to an asparagus even as they first emerge from the soil.

If you dig down and reach the rhizome and don't find any shoots, you have three options:
1 - leave the rhizome alone and just don't put more than 2" of dirt back on top;
2 - use a large spade or two hands at once and grab a 'ball' of dirt around and beneath the rhizome and lift it out, put dirt in the hole, and put your 'ball' back on top; this is to raise the rhizome if it is not elevated enough relative to the rest of the ground;
3 - just pick the rhizome up, add some dirt to the hole, and replant it; this risks breaking little rootlets that might have formed, but with just three days growth, the rhizome probably still has enough energy to survive -- but this would be my last choice.

Or you can just wait and see. My concern with 6" of depth is that it takes longer for the soil to warm up that deep to encourage growth, the soil stays wet longer after a rain possibly promoting mold or rot, and it takes more energy to push a shoot up through that much soil.

Hope that helps.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
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shaggyt
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Depth fix

Post by shaggyt »

Thanks for the input Bill...I'll post the findings/results in a week or so.
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Legman
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Hop Garden

Post by Legman »

Well, I got my other 8 rhizomes yesterday and today I finally finished the hop garden and got all the rhizomes in the ground. That was a lot of work, but I can't wait to see them growing! :D
Hopefully they all take root and do well. Time will tell.
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Suthrncomfrt1884
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Post by Suthrncomfrt1884 »

I'm getting jealous of all you guys down South who are already planting. It's still only around 40 degrees overnight here in Northern IL. I'll probably be waiting another two weeks at least until I can plant.
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jawbox
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Post by jawbox »

Southern,

I'm close to you and my hops have already got shoots, maybe 6".

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Legman
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planting

Post by Legman »

Suthrn, I live in Western NC and it's still down in the 40-50's at night. Go ahead and put them in the ground. I don't think it will hurt them a bit. They're not going to pop up out of the ground until the temp is right anyways. If you're storing them in the fridge, it's about the same temp, right? The instructions that came with my rhizomes said to plant them by May.

I was reading some blogs about some guys growing hops up in Michigan and Wisconsin. They have a pretty long cold season there and they stated that rhizomes can with stand up to 20F without being damaged.

What part of Northern Ill. you at? I grew up in Southern Ill. around Carbondale (Southern Ill. University).
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