Hop Rhizomes

General brewing information, questions and discussion. Topics that do not seem to fit elsewhere.

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slothrob
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cold hops

Post by slothrob »

Come on up to Boston!
The entire month of June we've rarely got above 70oF. (Ignore the fact that it's also rained almost every day for about 3 weeks.) Of course the trade-off is that any day now it will probably shoot up to 85-90oF with 85-90% humidity.
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Legman
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Preparing for battle!

Post by Legman »

Man the guns.....prepare for attack!!!!
!@#$ Japanese Beetles are here!!!!!
Found 5 beetles on my hops today for the first time this year. I've been waiting and watching for them, and now they've arrived. I hate them !@#$.

Let the killing spree begin! :x :x :x :x :x :x
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Suthrncomfrt1884
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Post by Suthrncomfrt1884 »

Thanks for the early warning. I'd imagine I'll see them in a few days now.
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Legman
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Japanese Beetles

Post by Legman »

Yeah, they're running late this year. Usually by now they're here in droves. Maybe this year they won't be as bad.
Supposedly Neem oil kills them on contact and also dters them from munching on your plants. I've started appling a weekly spray of this. We'll see how it goes. Japanese Beetles probably do the most damage out of all the problem insects. They can devour you plants down to nothing.
Keep an eye out!
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Legman
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Propagation

Post by Legman »

Well, since I had a bit of a rough start this year with my rhizomes, I thought I'd try to propagate a few from some of my healthy plants. I took several pots and ran some bines up through the bottom. I pulled off all of the leaves except the ones sticking out of the top of the pot and filled it will potting soil.
Keeping it moist for 1 month, I cut the bines from the main plant and transplanted them into their new home. The pots were full of roots and could support the bines coming from the pot.

It worked out better than I thought it would! Very easy way to propagate hop plants! :mrgreen:
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Suthrncomfrt1884
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Post by Suthrncomfrt1884 »

So how are everyone's hops doing? I think I see what may be flowers on mine, but if they are, they're extremely small and dissappointing.

Mine are all around 15' high and first years. Next year I will have to completely rethink my approach to hanging them up. They grew way past what I had originally thought they would. I also used ceiling tile wire to support the twine so they could grow upwards....bad idea. My cascade hit that wire and after a few more feet of growth with nothing to support it...the vine split at the wire.
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Secondary - Cherry Lambic
Bottled - Bourbon Barrel Coffee Porter, Double Chocolate Raspberry Stout, Imperial Nut Brown, Apfelwein, American Amber Ale w/Homegrown Hops, Breakfast Stout
Kegged - Bass Clone, ESB
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Post by Legman »

Wow, 15'. That's pretty good Suthrn. I think my tallest is only about 8' and the shortest is still trying to sprout. :cry: But all of the smaller plants pictured are the transplants that I propagated, and they're doing well.
I'm growing mine on 10' poles. I'll see how that does and extend them if I need to. I've read that once they've run out of room to grow up, they get bushy. So that's what I'm shooting for.
I'm not to concerned this year about how tall they get. I just want to get some good roots established for next year.

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Post by slothrob »

Suthrncomfrt1884 wrote:So how are everyone's hops doing? I think I see what may be flowers on mine, but if they are, they're extremely small and dissappointing.

Mine are all around 15' high and first years. Next year I will have to completely rethink my approach to hanging them up. They grew way past what I had originally thought they would. I also used ceiling tile wire to support the twine so they could grow upwards....bad idea. My cascade hit that wire and after a few more feet of growth with nothing to support it...the vine split at the wire.
It's possible you are just looking at the flower spurs, which is where mine are now. They are small, maybe 1/4", and will eventually develop into much larger cones.
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Post by Legman »

I saw a few hop spurs on mine today. They're maybe an 1/8". Pretty small still.
Next year will be much better. I can't wait to see how well they do.
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Post by Suthrncomfrt1884 »

Legman, I agree. I would rather have them get good roots. They actually tried to grow farther than what I had available to them. I think I planted them too close to eachother, and because of that they are all innerweaved. They have gotten bushy at the bottom, but not a whole lot. I'll try to post pictures tonight.
Primary - Belgian Dubbel, Belgian IPA
Secondary - Cherry Lambic
Bottled - Bourbon Barrel Coffee Porter, Double Chocolate Raspberry Stout, Imperial Nut Brown, Apfelwein, American Amber Ale w/Homegrown Hops, Breakfast Stout
Kegged - Bass Clone, ESB
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Post by Suthrncomfrt1884 »

These were taken a few weeks ago and are bad pictures, but as you can see, my support system was sort of thrown up in a hurry. Next year I will be using something more permanant since I know that the hops will do well here. Both of the middle shoots have bines from two different rhizomes...again...I didn't think things through.

Image


Image


Here's a few I snapped tonight. Haven't had much time lately to groom them, but I figure I'll let them be until next year since I'm assuming I won't get much of a crop from them this year.

Image

Image

Image

That last one concerns me a bit. All of my plants seem to be dying at the bottom of the vines. Is this just because more nutrients are needed at the top half to produce hops? Or have I overcrowded them? I'm thinking next year I may pull the Nugget out and use a big barrel to plant it in. Also, I will be doing something to seperate them better so come harvest time I wont have to follow vines to see which type of hop it is.
Primary - Belgian Dubbel, Belgian IPA
Secondary - Cherry Lambic
Bottled - Bourbon Barrel Coffee Porter, Double Chocolate Raspberry Stout, Imperial Nut Brown, Apfelwein, American Amber Ale w/Homegrown Hops, Breakfast Stout
Kegged - Bass Clone, ESB
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Spurs too!

Post by shaggyt »

One of my Horizon plants is showing tiny spurs as well and lots of them(enter sigh of relief here). I almost did a cartwheel but my senses kicked in (way too out of shape).

Seems we all have our challenges this year...today for example, I came to the realization that my soaker hose was WAY TOO FAR away from the roots, roughly 12" diameter circling the rhizome...I too did not think that one through enough.

Anywho, thanks for the pics gents...go roots go.
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An outsider looking in and wanting to get started

Post by kevponce »

OK I don't grow my own hops but I just took my above ground pool down and the wifey wants to start a garden. We'll if she grows I'm growing.

This was on of the most entertaining topics I have ever read. Legman I know the neighbor blues man. We have a woman we call the wicked witch of the west. What a shrew. Your energy is great though. if you are ever in North Jersey...

So how do i get started growing hops, preparing soil, what is "oast"? Bill Velek can you link me to a beginners article. Treat me like a second grader type of stuff?
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RE: Getting started

Post by Legman »

Kev, well your a little late to get going this year. You can only buy hop rhizomes (roots) in the spring. Everyone is completely sold out at this point.
But one of the things you can start doing is preparing a spot and building some kind of trellis for them to grow on.

Here's a little intro from Freshops. http://www.freshops.com/hop-growing/hop-gardening
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Re: Getting Started

Post by shaggyt »

kevponce...good decision to grow your own, and to be honest, it's a great time to make that decision.

You've got plenty of time to spend on soil prep during this growing season which can give your potential plants a much higher chance of success for next year. That's the one area I would have paid more attention to in hindsight.

I put a lot of research into trellis designs early on, which becomes rather insignificant when the plants don't thrive as expected. I thought they'd all be 15+ feet tall by now...not so much.

Good luck...
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