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Anyone Else Growing Hops This Year?


PhilboBaggins

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Thanks Otto. I will be looking for some Galaxy rhizomes this winter(in a few months here). Pellets are really hard to find and have to order them out of the UK thats why I would like to plant my own. I have 6 cascade plants but only 4 really produce. The other 2 don't get enough sun. I have a nice spot in front of the garden for the galaxy' date=' full sun and far enough from my cascade.[/quote']Galaxy can't be had, at least not yet anyway. So unfortunately unless you come to Australia and sneak in to a hop field and steal a rhizome, there is no way for the general public to get them.

 

What other hops do you like brewing with? Perhaps you might be able to get one of those varieties instead.

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I am still doing kits and have used cascade, fuggles and hallertauer hersbruck. Fuggles really didn't work dry hopping like everyone says. As far as rhizome's I have a large selection of German an UK hops but was really looking for the passion fruit influence. I guess I will have to wait.

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Otto Von Blotto:

Galaxy can't be had, at least not yet anyway. So unfortunately unless you come to Australia and sneak in to a hop field and steal a rhizome, there is no way for the general public to get them. /quote]

 

 

 

I was thinking about it but I am sure I would never make it off the islandbandit

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The last couple of seasons my Perle has been off to a strong start, then slowed right down and in the end never flowering. After talking with a hop grower at a plant fair, I knew it was probably due to not enough sun.

 

So a few weekends ago I cleared the sunniest garden bed of its herb wilderness, mixed some cow manure into the soil, hung a trellis on the back of the carport, transplanted my Perle, mulched and added a shrubbler to the irrigation system for it. Hopefully it does better here!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Mine are all going nicely and the weather is beginning to warm up properly now too so hopefully that means some more growth occurring.

 

First year Cascade is slower than the others as expected, but is heading in the right direction.

14589757_10211149768208650_897621520315369082_o.jpg

 

Hallertau here has the one bine all the way to the top while the rest of it isn't doing much. The short bine to the left of it had its end chewed off by something recently and has just begun to re-shoot up from that point.

14542455_10211149765648586_5928403379208420280_o.jpg

 

And the Fuggle plant in the pot is going nuts as well. Rather a contrast to last season where it was nothing like this, being a first year then.

14567417_10211149763488532_928620403479821197_o.jpg

 

Hopefully get something decent off the Hallertau and Fuggle plants this year being second season plants, not expecting anything from the Cascade much, but at least it's in the ground and establishing itself for future years.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

 

 

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Another month on and not much has really changed in my hop garden. I chopped down the Hallertau bines as there are a million shoots coming up out of it and I have been advised by those who know more than I do that those first bines won't really produce much anyway, compared to the second lot of shoots.

 

Anyway, this is my whole hop garden. In the pot on the left behind the seat is my 2nd year Fuggle plant, in the middle (left silver box) is my 2nd year Hallertau, and in the right silver box is my first year Cascade. The Cascade and Fuggle have begun sprouting laterals although these are only a cm long at the moment.

 

14882295_10211478430545003_441716391833790032_o.jpg

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

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  • 4 weeks later...

My plants are going along nicely now. The Fuggle plant has a number of laterals growing on it and climbing the mesh as well, so it probably won't be too long before some burrs start to appear. I just left it to do whatever it wanted to in the pot again this year. Hopefully it produces more this year so I can use them in an English ale of some type.

1480293640_59_413.JPG

 

 

This Hallertau plant I had chopped off a couple of early shooters that were making their way quite quickly up the lines. Apparently these are known as bull shoots and don't really produce much. Around the same time these "second coming" shoots were beginning to surface, so I chopped the early ones off and allowed the plant to focus on these new ones, which are now starting to make their move quite quickly. Hopefully I'll get more flowers this year, due to the taller trellis and it being a second year plant, looking forward to brewing another lager with these home grown hops. biggrin

1480293846_21_319.JPG

 

 

Lastly, the first year Cascade. This one being a first year I just left it to do whatever. The first couple of shoots that climbed up got attacked by caterpillars and whatever, but they didn't die. There are a number of lateral shoots on these bines actually. Also, there are some brand new ones popping up out of the ground (second pic) and popping up quite fast too, so it looks as if it's establishing a nice root system for next season.

1480294121_83_90.JPG

1480294216_81_582.JPG

 

 

I'll probably order some more Maxibloom soon just to make sure I've got enough to last the full season. That stuff really increased the yield from my Hallertau plant last year, so I'm planning to use it on all three this year.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

 

 

 

 

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Another month on and not much has really changed in my hop garden. I chopped down the Hallertau bines as there are a million shoots coming up out of it and I have been advised by those who know more than I do that those first bines won't really produce much anyway' date=' compared to the second lot of shoots.

 

Anyway, this is my whole hop garden. In the pot on the left behind the seat is my 2nd year Fuggle plant, in the middle (left silver box) is my 2nd year Hallertau, and in the right silver box is my first year Cascade. The Cascade and Fuggle have begun sprouting laterals although these are only a cm long at the moment.

 

[img']https://scontent-syd2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/14882295_10211478430545003_441716391833790032_o.jpg[/img]

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

Loving the freshly mowed diagonal lawn pattern mate! Looks like it needs a bit of love but those mowing skills are top notch!

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Cheers mate! Yeah the soil here would make a good cricket pitch... bloody hard clay a lot of it lol. I've had the sprinkler on it a few times since that photo since any rain/storms that look as if they'll hit us end up fizzing out before they do, and it is looking a bit healthier now. Wouldn't mind some rain on the hops too though, because it does give them a bit of a kick along more than normal tap water does.

 

The mower itself is a model 45 I picked up off eBay recently. I had an older one but it kept breaking down, the blades are shot, and parts can't be had anymore. 45s can still be repaired easily at least. happy

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I have a 45 too. Needs a bit of work though. A proper blade sharpen would be nice, but got quoted a ridiculous figure from the local mower shop. My lawn isn't quite flat enough yet to use it yet anyway, going for that bowling green look but finding it a bit harder to achieve than expected.

Sorry for the OT, should start a lawn thread lol.

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I have a 45 too. Needs a bit of work though. A proper blade sharpen would be nice' date=' but got quoted a ridiculous figure from the local mower shop. My lawn isn't quite flat enough yet to use it yet anyway, going for that bowling green look but finding it a bit harder to achieve than expected.

Sorry for the OT, should start a lawn thread lol.[/quote']I used to work on a golf course, and they taught me a little about mower maintenance. I do my blades myself, with a bit of lapping paste and a drill driver. The blades on mine look crappy but they cut well so I've held off on the backlapping for now.

 

You could try top dressing the lawn to level it out more. I was gonna do a full on renovation on mine during the spring but never got around to it. Last time I did one it came up really nice. No worries on the OT, nobody else seems to be growing hops this year so it's keeping it going at least! lol

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I have a 45 too. Needs a bit of work though. A proper blade sharpen would be nice' date=' but got quoted a ridiculous figure from the local mower shop. My lawn isn't quite flat enough yet to use it yet anyway, going for that bowling green look but finding it a bit harder to achieve than expected.

Sorry for the OT, should start a lawn thread lol.[/quote']I used to work on a golf course, and they taught me a little about mower maintenance. I do my blades myself, with a bit of lapping paste and a drill driver. The blades on mine look crappy but they cut well so I've held off on the backlapping for now.

 

You could try top dressing the lawn to level it out more. I was gonna do a full on renovation on mine during the spring but never got around to it. Last time I did one it came up really nice. No worries on the OT, nobody else seems to be growing hops this year so it's keeping it going at least! lol

 

If I had the land I certainly would. Considered trying to grow one over the fence like a passionfruit but not sure that would work. They like to go high rather than wide so I am told.

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IVe got my hops going!

 

Nugget has kicked on better this year its first year was slow now its growing quite well...

Mt hood is slow to get a moving its throwing lots of pissy skinny vines!

Cascade and kent goldings are going crazy vary healthy as they where last year as is the perle

 

Ohh yeh and Ive still got them in pots...but to honest some plants have seriously out grow there large pots already...should have put them in bath tubs

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Yes, they definitely prefer to go up. That's one of the reasons why I moved my Hallertau from its pot into one of those big garden beds with the higher trellis. I decided to put the first year Cascade in a bed so it didn't have to be moved between seasons, and the Fuggle stayed in its pot. I figured I'd use more of Hallertau and Cascade given my favoured beer styles to brew, so that was the other reason.

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well im on the hop growing band wagon as well with cascade going strong in the vegi patch about 6 feet tall and shooting laterals (pics too come),looking for inspiration on another 1 or 2 varieties to grow as i have plenty of room. i love my ales as in Australian/american pale golden ect and would like a hop to go in with the cascade but also love English ales and stout, help me out with suggestions and appropriate beer style guys, was thinking fuggles or similar and maybe Chinook? can we get hold of and grow Amarillo??

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Fuggles and Chinook rhizomes are easily obtainable, although probably too late for this year. Amarillo I'm not sure of but I haven't heard of anyone growing it at home. Goldings are another English variety that are available.

 

I doubt I'll get any more in the near future as space won't really allow it. I suppose I figure I've got one plant for each of the three styles I enjoy the most anyway biggrin

 

 

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Amarillo is a proprietary hop (patented) same as Galaxy, Simcoe, Citra and pretty much every other new hop on the market. Hop farmers that develop these breeds spend a lot of time and money getting them to production. 7 plus years reportedly. As you can imagine, they want a return on their investment. So they trade mark them for 20 plus years I'm lead to believe.

Victoria is an available hop that a lot of people like.

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Which is fair enough too. The ones most people grow at home have been around for years already, some of them not even specifically bred like Saaz or other noble hops that are likely centuries old.

 

I really enjoyed the flavour I got from my home grown Hallertau in a lager I used the flowers in earlier this year though, it was reminiscent of a Euro lager so I guess the different location of growing didn't affect it too much in terms of flavour and aroma characteristics. Will see what happens with this season's crop though. I didn't get enough flowers on the Fuggle plant last season to bother harvesting anything off it, so nothing was brewed with those. Hoping for better this season.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hop garden is looking better than it did last time I took a photo of the whole thing. Couldn't fit the Fuggle pot in this one so in this pic we have Hallertau on the left and Cascade on the right. The Hallerau has bines on all 6 lines, and the Cascade has them growing up 4 lines (bit hard to see with the trees in the background), plus one trying to grow up the frame... might move that to a line before it gets too far lol

 

1481857785_74_135.JPG

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

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Looks good mate.

 

When can we expect to see some flower photos?

 

I love a bit of time in the garden but I haven't got the room for hops (well not without having to take something else out).

 

I've had my first ever harvest of raspberries this year. very satisfying tending to these plants for ages and to have them finally flower and form fruit.

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