Posted: 12/30/2012 2:52:38 PM EDT
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Ok hive, a friend and I want to grow some hops this summer. We have land, sunlight and soil.
School me on what to do where to start etc. We haven't decided where to plant yet but we can do full sunlight or near the tree line to give it East sunlight. Climate is Northern MN, so shorter growing season, chillier springs etc, though this winter seems to be pretty mild. Sooo, show us your setup, link some resources, and lets talk Hops! |
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If you are talking personal use hops for home brewing... http://www.growinghopsyourself.com/growing-hops/growing-hops-beer-hops/
If you are talking a larger scale hops operation... http://www.gorstvalleyhops.com/ Hops will do fine in Northern MN (I am growing hops in Bloomington MN) a bit south of where you are. Hops will grow up to the 55th lattitude. Hope this helps. |
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They are pretty easy to grow. Rhizomes are available in late winter/early spring.
To plant, you basically dig a hole, place the rhizome, and fill with potting soil. I had decent growth the first year, then slightly better the next. Then the third year it exploded. The bines grown fairly fast during the summer. Then die off at the end of September. I usually harvest the last week of August. I missed my harvest this year, as my grandfather passed away and I never got around to picking. |
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If you are talking personal use hops for home brewing... http://www.growinghopsyourself.com/growing-hops/growing-hops-beer-hops/ If you are talking a larger scale hops operation... http://www.gorstvalleyhops.com/ Hops will do fine in Northern MN (I am growing hops in Bloomington MN) a bit south of where you are. Hops will grow up to the 55th lattitude. Hope this helps. we figured home use and sell off any to people interested at the farmers market etc. Will they all grow equally well here, or are there some to stay away from? |
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First post in the homebrew sections, didn't even know there was one!
Anyway, here they grow like weeds. The hops at my place were split from my parents house, which was split from my uncles house, which was split from my grandpas house, which was split from a ma-n-pa store 45 minutes south of me. The original plant my hops came from has to be 30+ years old. The first time you split a plant you might not get any hops on the new vine, but every year after that production will increase. I've had vines that have reached over 30 feet if it's a good growing season. They don't require any work at all until you harvest. Sometimes you may get some insects (not sure what they are, I'm not a gardener) that will eat the leafs mostly but also the hops. If you are comfortable spraying pesticides on hops you are going to brew with then go for it, I avoid it and buy lady bugs, they seem to devour the other insects. Be sure you harvest before the wet season starts, otherwise your hops will lose a lot of the lupulin (yellow pollen looking stuff in the hops that is why you use hops in beer) and run the risk of getting kind of mildewy. Depending on how much you brew and how many vines you grow you should have plenty of hops. 2 ounces of home grown hops takes up a lot more space then the vacuum sealed bags you get at your local brew supply shop. Be sure you dry them sufficiently if you are planning on keeping them long term in the freezer. After you harvest cut the vines down to the ground. Next Spring you should get multiple vines sprouting out of the ground. You should either split the vines or pull the weakest ones out, you don't want the vines crowding each other and fighting for nutrients. |
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Ok, well now that the long winter is over, its time to put some rhizomes in the ground. It kinda sucks to get them in so late, but better late than never.
So I have 2 rhizomes a freshly tilled patch of ground and a 30' telephone pole. What the hell do I do now?? Figure we need to start digging and drop the pole 6' down, with a crossbar on the top, Then run both plants up either side of the pole. its set up to expand another pole if we want in a few years, but we would need to find one. Who has sunk a pole? We don't want to cement it. How much do you need to water new plants? Everything I read just says not to over water, without saying what that is. Soaker hose for a few hours? Stand with the hose for a few minutes a few times a day? We don't want to screw this up anymore than the winter already has. Ill add pics when I'm off the farm. Can't really upload here |
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I just planted mine this year. Four plants each of four varieties: Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Sterling.
So far we have some growth on all but the Chinook and the first Cascade is starting on the vine. Here's how I have mine set up. When the picture was taken, I was out of rope, so only half the plants are tied off. No pictures of the growth. 
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Well, we got everything up. We were gunna do that pole, but then the ladies stuck their nose into things. 
So we have a 15' frame over the bed, plenty of space for the 2 plants. Digging the holes the ground was very black, and very moist, we tilled the ground out so where we planted was fairly dry, but we didn't have to go down too far. I'm worried a bit about them rotting, and excited that they won't need to grow far to bit water and nutrients. One of the shoots on the rhizome was already 5" so its out of the ground. Anyone who has info on watering it would be appreciated. With the ground fairly saturated, and the clay like nature of the soil we don't want to over water. |
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How long will the plants get the first year? We were thinking we would have to accomodate up to 20', but your setup is much shorter.. No idea, I'm sure the answer to that varies wildly. Commercial growers go to 18'. I have seen people grow them on the side of their house up to maybe 30'. Of course those aren't first year plants. A lot of home growers go with 12', mine works out to 13'. I got a 16' 4x4 and sunk it 3' into the ground (with Quikcrete). |
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I just planted mine this year. Four plants each of four varieties: Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Sterling. So far we have some growth on all but the Chinook and the first Cascade is starting on the vine. Here's how I have mine set up. When the picture was taken, I was out of rope, so only half the plants are tied off. No pictures of the growth. https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/921223_10102887714309295_41054663_o.jpg Not sure if this will be an issue or not, but you might have to worry about cross pollenization. You might end up with a CasCenSter or something weird like that. I would imagine you'd have a decent yield after the second or third year. |
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I just planted mine this year. Four plants each of four varieties: Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Sterling. So far we have some growth on all but the Chinook and the first Cascade is starting on the vine. Here's how I have mine set up. When the picture was taken, I was out of rope, so only half the plants are tied off. No pictures of the growth. https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/921223_10102887714309295_41054663_o.jpg Not sure if this will be an issue or not, but you might have to worry about cross pollenization. You might end up with a CasCenSter or something weird like that. I would imagine you'd have a decent yield after the second or third year. That should not be a problem if they are all female plants,I think I been drinking so thats just a guess. My 3rd year Cascades are about 8 feet right now. |
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I just planted mine this year. Four plants each of four varieties: Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Sterling. So far we have some growth on all but the Chinook and the first Cascade is starting on the vine. Here's how I have mine set up. When the picture was taken, I was out of rope, so only half the plants are tied off. No pictures of the growth. https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/921223_10102887714309295_41054663_o.jpg Not sure if this will be an issue or not, but you might have to worry about cross pollenization. You might end up with a CasCenSter or something weird like that. I would imagine you'd have a decent yield after the second or third year. That should not be a problem if they are all female plants,I think I been drinking so thats just a guess. My 3rd year Cascades are about 8 feet right now. I believe rhizomes sold commercially are all female. |
This year's my first time growing, and it's going pretty well so far. I've trimmed all but the longest bines, and trained them around the string yesterday. The goal is to have them eventually cover the 20' tall stump of a dead oak tree, so the string is really just to give them a start until they get on the tree.
But down here in Texas, I'm going to have to water every day once summer really gets started. |
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I just planted mine this year. Four plants each of four varieties: Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Sterling. So far we have some growth on all but the Chinook and the first Cascade is starting on the vine. Here's how I have mine set up. When the picture was taken, I was out of rope, so only half the plants are tied off. No pictures of the growth. https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/921223_10102887714309295_41054663_o.jpg Not sure if this will be an issue or not, but you might have to worry about cross pollenization. You might end up with a CasCenSter or something weird like that. I would imagine you'd have a decent yield after the second or third year. That should not be a problem if they are all female plants,I think I been drinking so thats just a guess. My 3rd year Cascades are about 8 feet right now. I believe rhizomes sold commercially are all female. Ok, I wasn't sure if hops were A sexual or if they were like hollies with a male and female. My neighbor and I have some crazy shit going on in our gardens right now with cross polenization. |
| I planted cascade, columbus and centennial a few weeks ago. The cascade and centennial are both about 1.5 ft tall now and are starting to take off since it's finanlly warming up. Columbus never came up. Not sure if the rhizome was damaged in shipping or what. I've heard the plants will develop the root system year 1, and produce little to no hops. Good luck! |
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Well crap. My Cascade vine got broken somehow and it died. Cenntential is still doing well though. Anyone have a few rhisomes or started plants they could send me? My Chinook never came up so I found a few places with rhizomes still in stock and replaced it with Nugget. freshops.com hops.goodsie.com ebrew.com These all had some stock as of a week ago, haven't checked again since. |
Planted two plants of cascades in late April, i now have 7 vines growing 2 are over 10feet high others are about 3 to 4 feet. Think i need to cut off the smaller ones this year and leave it at 3 or 4 vines. I swear they grow 3 to 6 inches over night. Been spraying 7 garden dust on them to keep off the bugs.
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Well we had a frost 3 days ago, just before I could get out to harvest. Killed one plant and lost all the hops. The larger plant wasnt looming good, but I picked it all off anyway.
Not too shabby for the first year and only one plant. Too bad I couldn't get to them sooner. They smell great, but the color is a little disconcerting. |