About a year ago (Fall 2020) I took a new job and moved from OH to PA. As part of the move I bought my first house and decided that I wanted to grow hops to compliment my interest in brewing. Research suggested that it took a few years for hops plants to mature so I planted rhizomes this spring even though I will not be brewing immediately. I brewed with several friends in OH that have equipment so I will need to acquire my own setup, probably some time this winter or early 2022. Anyways, I thought I would share my totally novice hops growing experience.

The first beer I ever brewed was an Irish red ale partial extract kit that we called "Fuggin Red Ale" because the hops packed was only marked "fug". I later learned that this was to identify the variety of hops, Fuggle, and thought that this would be a good candidate for my first hops attempt. Fortunately the Fuggle variety is also tolerant of cooler, moister climates which makes it suitable for my current location. I chose to plant six rhizomes near a utility pole for convenience but I may move them to a sunnier spot in the future. I saw lots of different suggestions on planting rhizomes but decided to plant them individually to see how many would sprout. After 3-4 weeks I was very pleased to see that all six had sprouted - this is an example of a young plant on May 23rd.



This image shows all six plants on my makeshift trellis on June 21st. The spacing is probably messed up because I planted them mostly horizontal. Next time I would plant them in a more vertical manner (or perhaps buy plants to give them a head start).



Mature hops can grow 25+ ft but I figured I would be happy if most of the rhizomes sprouted, established some roots, and grew 5-6 ft. As it turns out my ~8 ft trellis was not adequate since the first plant hit the top by June 30th. Next year I will have to design a more elaborate trellis.



By July 16th half of the plants had outgrown the trellis and were making their way up the guy wire.



Since it takes ~3 years for plants to mature I did not expect many, if any, hops this year. To my surprise there were a significant number of hops cones toward the top of the largest plants by July 30th.





Thoughts and observations:

• Some people are very specific about trellis material (coconut hop twine) but I used regular twine and was surprised to see the plants climb the wire rope guys on my utility pole. I will probably use thicker twine next year to support the weight of taller plants and may even experiment with other materials.


• When the plants were young I was concerned that not all of my rhizomes were the same variety because some of them had different shaped leaves. As they grew I noticed that the different leaf shapes even appeared on the same plants.


• There is a lot of guidance on trimming bull shoots (early sprouts) and limiting the number of bines per plant. Since they were new I did not trim any of the early shoots because I did not want to risk killing a plant. Some plants had several shoots from the start but others had one or two early on. I did not limit the number of bines per plant but I may do that in the future.


• One or two of the largest plants are producing a lot of cones while the smallest plants barely got to the top of my trellis and have no cones at all. People say not to expect hops the first year but I may have gotten lucky or the number of plants could be making up for it.


• Hops cones started developing at the top of my tallest plants and seemed to make their way down the plant. I think one of the first flowers may be visible in the 7/16 image and there are still flower buds developing nearly a month later. I am not sure if this is typical or because the plants are immature but it seems unlikely that all of the cones will be ready at the same time.


• i was concerned about the location of the hops being partial sun, but they appear to be doing fine. Perhaps Fuggle are more tolerant of partial sun or they may have grown better in a full sun location.

Does anyone here have experience growing hops?

I have a small (150 bines) yard in Pa. I use plastic baler twine to hang them. Works great and cheaper than the coir rope with the W clips and installing tool.
Chinook do the best in our climate and Cascade. I will be doing another 100 bines in Comet.
IM me with any questions you have

I would love your input but I probably have too many questions! I think the most important would be related to the leaf coloration I will show in the next update and what to do with the plants post harvest.

Plants on August 11th:


Some discoloration of the lower leaves I observed on August 18th. Not sure what would be causing this.


On August 29th I noticed that one bine on one plant looked like it was dead (not pictured) and there was more widespread discoloration of leaves.


By the 29th the cones appeared to be getting papery and I was preparing for harvest. On August 30th I was surprised to see that some of the cones were turning brown and decided it was time:


I was concerned that I would have issues getting the bines off the guy wire. Turns out I was right. Next year I will have to have a much more robust system.


I didn't expect to get many hops so I was happy to dry the ones that I was able to get.





Questions/comments:

• Since the hops were at the top of the plants I left the first 9ft or so. What is the proper thing to do with these? My impression is that they would be cut off at the ground on a hop farm but as a hobby grower is there any benefit for me to leave them and continue to develop roots?


• I will have to look into the leaf discoloration and see if I need to fortify the soil next year.


• I was hoping to be able to untwist the bines from the guy wire but obviously that wasn't very successful. Looking back it may have been better to clip the shoots and limit their growth above the trellis. Next year I will have to use a much more robust system and try to keep the bines off the guy wire. Long term it would probably be best to get an entirely different location for better sun and a purpose built trellis.


• Overall it was an easy and fun project. Rhizomes were cheap and I mostly used material I had around the house. I spent a few hours planting them and putting up the trellis but that was about it. After that I just went out and watched them grow. I dont know if I will do anything with the hops this year - probably not enough to really help anyone. However, in the next year or so I plan to get back into brewing and the hops will be ready for me then.

I took another kick at the cat and and was able to get more of the hops down with some rope and a weight to throw it over the guy wire.



I don't know how long these really need to dry but they are starting to get crunchy. I will update with dry weight of my first harvest.

Final update: 0.8 oz of dry hops vacuum bagged in the freezer... I may try to brew an extract batch since I don't have a whole grain setup yet.

It is a little bit hard to see but I am trying a different trellis setup this year. I wanted to make it taller but avoid the hops growing up the guy wire so we will see how it goes. I am a bit concerned the strings will sag but otherwise optimistic.

Pretty cool, OP! Nice haul.

@rcrtr

Interesting. I have 4 bines growing of a variety known as Seldom Seen. No hops yet after 2 years. Hoping 3rd year is a charm.

AIRBORNE!!!!!

Keep it up!!! I'm sure you'll have more success this year


I am a little late on reporting but the first shoots started to emerge a week ago (4/25)