My homegrown hops

[Witchfinder General]

Hi I've just added three pics of my fuggles hop plant from last summer. This was the second year after I planted a root in the garden. I got a good crop the first year too.

[mctoon]

Awesome, you lucky git, it -2C here tonight, i cant even grow my chillis never mind a lovely hop plant like that

[Witchfinder General]

I grew a bumper crop of Chillis too! My brother grows then at his flat in Germany and he told me how easy they were to grow so I grew some in a greenhouse. Eaten most of them now but still some in the freezer.

[WishboneBrewery]

Looks lovely, Chillies are good too I used to have a house full of them.... Dry them and grind them and make your Dark Chilli Chocolate

[andybiochem]

Wow! Fantastic plant! Do they smell strong on the bine, or do they need drying first to get that pungency?

[Witchfinder General]

That's funny you should mention that. They only start to smell on the vine when they start going brown. But when they are in the airing cupboard next to the hot water tank they smell flippin' lovely. The plant started shooting a bit later this year probably due to the cold weather we had, but it's coming along fine now. It was about a month late shooting. End of March whereas first year it was end of Feb. Do you like the backlit picture?

[Hogarth]

Great photos, Witchfinder. How long did it take you to pick the hops?

[Witchfinder General]

Well I chop the vine down first then just pick away at a small section at a time. Probably about an hour. Then I put them in a large tray (the sort that a baker uses for transporting bread) then they go into the cupboard where the hot water tank is and they stay there for about seven days to completely dry out. I give them a shuffle every couple of days then they go into a bag and sealed.

[bosium]

Beautiful. Quite a few pics from essex brewers / growers here, guess the hops must love the climate around these parts?

Last weekend Johnnybeer gave me a small Saaz plant (which I stupidly separated into two smaller plants, kicking myself now) and I have a couple of others on their way soon (Cascade and Fuggles). I think I've left it a bit late for this season but hopefully I'll still get some good growth.

Now If I can just track down a Hallertau plant...