Anyone Else Growing Hops This Year?

[Otto Von Blotto]

This is what happens when you have a dog that has an obsession with plants. A fence around an existing fence to prevent access. At least it was easy to install. I probably won't even bother harvesting anything from it this year because she's damaged a number of bines and it flowered early for some reason so half of them are dead. The panels of the fence itself can easily be removed for access to top up soil or pick the flowers. 

 

[Shamus O'Sean]

42 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

it flowered early for some reason so half of them are dead

Maybe the plants went into some type of shock due to the canine attention and in response tried to flower early, but out of whack with normal growth pattern and so the flowers died off.  I had a similar reaction in a couple of mine last season when my watering regime was a bit lacking.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Nah most of them had flowered before she wrecked them. They did reach the top of the trellis pretty quickly though. 

[Shamus O'Sean]

1 hour ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Nah most of them had flowered before she wrecked them. They did reach the top of the trellis pretty quickly though. 

Yeah, I sometime wonder if they get stunted or something if they are meant to get say 20' tall, but we have a trellis that only gets to 10'.  If they think that they cannot get any higher, they start to set flowers.  But, from a timing sense, they actually have a few more growing weeks for more height.  If they took those weeks to get more height and then set flowers, I wonder if the flowers would do better then.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I'm thinking next year I'll just plant the bloody things later in the spring, at least then they won't be flowering in November. 

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

My POR also had about 8 or 9 flowers on it from the first growth for whatever reason. Never got bigger than a 10c piece. Throwing out the laterals now which started a couple of weeks ago but did notice this morning that a lot of the new growth burnt a little from the 46 heat yesterday. Hopefully it can overcome that.

[Shamus O'Sean]

22 hours ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

My POR also had about 8 or 9 flowers on it from the first growth for whatever reason. Never got bigger than a 10c piece. Throwing out the laterals now which started a couple of weeks ago but did notice this morning that a lot of the new growth burnt a little from the 46 heat yesterday. Hopefully it can overcome that.

Try to keep the water up to them in the heat.  They like the heat and sun, but also need a good drink too.

[Maurice79]

Having another good year here with an insane amount of burrs and few cones now forming. Chinook in the first pic starting to take off and a few Victoria and Cascade cones maturing.

[Pickles Jones]

How tall are these plants. Looks like they are high. Are they on a trellis or similar.

They look nice and healthy.

[Maurice79]

6 minutes ago, Pickles Jones said:

How tall are these plants. Looks like they are high. Are they on a trellis or similar.

They look nice and healthy.

Between 2.5-3.0 meters high.

Trellis is two T sections at each end with two rows of marine grade wire anchored to the ground via concrete blocks.

[Red devil 44]

I have just cleared a large area in my back yard which is currently bare, looking to grow some hops.

Just have a few questions for the hop growers,

How much room do I need ?

Where do I purchase them from, do Bunnings sell hops ?

What sort of watering schedule would I require ?

What soil works best ?

Cheers Guys 

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

9 hours ago, Red devil 44 said:

I have just cleared a large area in my back yard which is currently bare, looking to grow some hops.

Just have a few questions for the hop growers,

How much room do I need ?

Where do I purchase them from, do Bunnings sell hops ?

What sort of watering schedule would I require ?

What soil works best ?

Cheers Guys 

You dont need much ground really but you do need something to grow them on. 

I would never ever plant them direct in the ground uncontained. I grew mine in a pot last year and it destroyed the half wine barrel in only 1 year. I use a raised garden bed setup now. Sunk about 8 inches into the dirt. The roots can go under but hopefully wont come back up. 

I have mine in half potting mix half garden soil. I water a deeply every few days in summer. Only once every couple weeks in winter when they are all died off. 

I grow mine along a fence rather than straight up on a trellis which works better.

[The Captain!!]

Plus one to above. 
like Greeny says a good deep watering every few days. They love water. 

Id probably add some manure and blood and bone as a fertiliser each year. 

[Malter White]

1 hour ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

I would never ever plant them direct in the ground uncontained. I grew mine in a pot last year and it destroyed the half wine barrel in only 1 year. I use a raised garden bed setup now. Sunk about 8 inches into the dirt. The roots can go under but hopefully wont come back up. 

I grow mine along a fence rather than straight up on a trellis which works better.

Hi Greeny.
For the uninitiated (me), can you explain this please? How did hops destroy the wine barrel?

[Malter White]

That's a very beautiful flower @Maurice79
Well done.

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

29 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

Hi Greeny.
For the uninitiated (me), can you explain this please? How did hops destroy the wine barrel?

The rhizome (root)  basically went from a 6 or 7 inch piece of wood to a mass of roots like a 14 inch tyre size in the barrel in 8 months. It left the wine barrel and went into the dirt below the wine barrel in search of more water. Destroyed the bottom of it. The root in the ground was 10 cent size round which i cut off. I then repotted in the raised garden bed. 

The plants are ravenous. You want them contained in something solid in my opinion.

[Malter White]

3 minutes ago, Greeny1525229549 said:

The rhizome (root)  basically went from a 6 or 7 inch piece of wood to a mass of roots like a 14 inch tyre size in the barrel in 8 months. It left the wine barrel and went into the dirt below the wine barrel in search of more water. Destroyed the bottom of it. The root in the ground was 10 cent size round which i cut off. I then repotted in the raised garden bed. 

The plants are ravenous. You want them contained in something solid in my opinion.

Thanks. Sounds like some Weeping Figs (Ficus) I once had in a concrete pot. The roots went through the little drainage hole in the bottom of the pot and grew through my pavers underneath searching for water. Had to re-lay the pavers. I'll keep this in mind if I start growing hops.

 

[Red devil 44]

Thanks for the hop advice guys, all taken on board, will have more of a think about this.

Cheers RD

[Maurice79]

23 hours ago, Red devil 44 said:

I have just cleared a large area in my back yard which is currently bare, looking to grow some hops.

Just have a few questions for the hop growers,

How much room do I need ?

Where do I purchase them from, do Bunnings sell hops ?

What sort of watering schedule would I require ?

What soil works best ?

Cheers Guys 

The amount of room you need really depends on how many separate bines you want to grow. We have six in total with two each of three different varieties. Space between them should be around 2-2.5m although ours are a little closer. 

Generally you can purchase the rhizomes from some nurseries but mostly are from other growers. In SA there is a farm at Mylor that sells them and I will have some at the end of winter.

Hops require a fair amount of water to be happy and grow, especially when flowers form and then develop cones. I generally water every two days and if the temperature is greater than 35c, Ill water daily. If the soil is set up right and you have good mulch you can water less often. This will also depend on the type of soil and its moisture retention properties. I use cow shit and other organic matter on the mounds over winter then organic based nitrogen fertilizer from spring to December and organic potassium from Jan to March.

Hops will try to spread out and take over when planted directly into the soil. To avoid this you should dig them up every 2-3 years and split the rhizomes and cut back the crowns. At the end of winter this year I will be digging them all up to cut back and will have rhizomes available for free. 

Its taken at least two years to get good flavours from the hops we grow and now after 4 years, I'm really enjoying the beers brewed with our hops.

There is a good resource from the NSW department of primary industries regarding growing hops https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/712717/hops-guide-for-new-growers.pdf 

[Red devil 44]

19 minutes ago, Maurice79 said:

The amount of room you need really depends on how many separate bines you want to grow. We have six in total with two each of three different varieties. Space between them should be around 2-2.5m although ours are a little closer. 

Generally you can purchase the rhizomes from some nurseries but mostly are from other growers. In SA there is a farm at Mylor that sells them and I will have some at the end of winter.

Hops require a fair amount of water to be happy and grow, especially when flowers form and then develop cones. I generally water every two days and if the temperature is greater than 35c, Ill water daily. If the soil is set up right and you have good mulch you can water less often. This will also depend on the type of soil and its moisture retention properties. I use cow shit and other organic matter on the mounds over winter then organic based nitrogen fertilizer from spring to December and organic potassium from Jan to March.

Hops will try to spread out and take over when planted directly into the soil. To avoid this you should dig them up every 2-3 years and split the rhizomes and cut back the crowns. At the end of winter this year I will be digging them all up to cut back and will have rhizomes available for free. 

Its taken at least two years to get good flavours from the hops we grow and now after 4 years, I'm really enjoying the beers brewed with our hops.

There is a good resource from the NSW department of primary industries regarding growing hops https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/712717/hops-guide-for-new-growers.pdf 

Cheers Maurice79

[Otto Von Blotto]

I've got mine in a planter box. It has actually recovered somewhat after having a few bines wrecked by the dog, and there are a number of burrs and cones on this new growth. Still undecided as to whether there are enough to bother harvesting any, I may only get 10-20g once dried which isn't much really. 

[Red devil 44]

I’ve got plenty of offcuts of timber from building my pool cover/mini pergola, so I will make a largish planter box to grow hops in I think 

[Otto Von Blotto]

Since my Cascade has largely recovered and now forming numerous burrs on the new growth, I figured I'd pick what was already ready on it today. Ended up with 77g wet, which will get me about 20g once they're dried. The next harvest or two should get it up to 50g dried, so enough to use in a batch as late additions. During winter I'll dig up the crown, cut 2 or 3 rhizomes off it and refrigerate them until mid-late spring then replant them. During that time I'll also get rid of all the weeds in the planter and top up the soil so it's ready to go. 

[Olemate]

Otto, how do you judge when they are ready to pick? I have quite a large number of cones, particularly on the Tettnanger. We were at a micro brewery in Tassie last year, their hop harvest was under way and their flowers were very papery and almost see-thru. At least from what I've read, I would of thought that they were past their 'best by "date. Cheers

[Otto Von Blotto]

That dry, papery texture is usually how I decide they're ready. There were a few other cones on my plant that were soft and moist feeling, not ready yet. Probably another couple of weeks.