Hop Growing 2014

[scuppeteer]

Am I too late to plan t some seeds for growth this year and hops the year after?

Gareth

You will probably still get away with it. I've got seedlings popping up that I only planted a couple of weeks ago. As for hops next year may be a little ambitious, growing from seed is a longer process so it may be 2 years before you have a suitable crop to brew with.

If you are successful in getting the seeds to germinate, report back once you have the second stage leaf growth, I can then advise how best to proceed.

Good luck.

[boingy]

Suggest growing hops from seed would make an excellent Brewniversity article. Several of you chaps sound to have had success with seed. Any volunteers?

[DC]

Hi Guys, Here are the new hop strings ive just set up last weekend ready for my 3 different hop plants, I still need to add a further hop string for the 3rd plant but the main 2 seem to be doing ok so far (and the Garden has been tidied since these pics were taken ) the hop plant on the left in the 1st picture is now halfway up the side of the kitchen window in little over 2 weeks

Hop Strings


Hop strings


Hop strings


Cheers DC

[DC]

Hi guys, checked on my hops last night after work and it looks like their settling into their new home and strings

Cascade


Challenger


Fuggles, still need to put my 3rd hop string but they seem to be doing well


Cheers DC

[boingy]

Excellent. I have two suggestions:

1. Redo that horizontal string to make it diagonal otherwise you'll be on a ladder every day trying to persuade an upward-growing hop that sideways is best.

2. If that is your boiler flue then redo that string to be at least a foot away from it. Hop leaves will cover it and, left to their own device, hop bines will grow into it.

[DC]

Hi Boingy, thanks for the advice on the horizontal string, what you have said makes complete sense now and I dont know why I didnt think of that initally I had the hops growing horizontal on my garden fence last year and your right I had to keep wrapping them around the string . I will either redo it diagonally or maybe put the string on the other side of the back door and run the string straight up the wall. As for the other one next to the boiler flue, the string to the right of the black flue in the picture is just the string coming back down and the hops shouldnt be growing up that one just the main string to the left of the black flue. if you meant the main string needs moving about a foot or so to the left then would i not interfere with my bathroom extractor fan in the picture ? Maybe I didnt plan these hop strings as well as I could have.

Cheers DC

[Hogarth]

Here are my front-garden Fuggles, doing nicely:



Over the course of a week I marked off each day's growth:



It averaged out at around 10cm per day. That's almost scary.

[Jambo]

Incredible! Mine are still just about 4 inches tall! Maybe Aberdeenshire isn't prime hop growing country afterall...

When is the best time to select the three best bines? And what does everyone feed them on? I have some generic tomato feed, miracle grow and some Potash of Ammonia stuff at my disposal... They've had a couple of tastes of the last one so far..

Cheers

[pantsmachine]

Firstly, how many years have your hops been in for? What variety/ies are you growing? The 3 plants i have growing(First Gold, Cascade & Northdown i think) like sites where they are protected from wind. My best plant is first gold a dwarf hop, i can see the change day to day in it. Its been in for 4 years now and i had a cracker of a crop off of it last year. I put compost on the top of them at the beginning of the year and water regularly, that's about it!

[Jambo]

Hi Pantsmachine - good to see someone growing them successfully up here! What kind of height are yours at now?

I went for a Wye Challenger, planted right at the end of February this year. Since my post on Monday I have noticed that a couple of the shoots seem to be dying off with shrivelled up leaves and dead growing tips, not looking good! The tallest one still seems good though, albeit only 4 in. tall.

The place I planted it in doesn't seem to have very deep soil - I may have to relocate it for next year...

It's warm and sunny today so hopefully it'll be doing some growing!!

Cheers.

[scuppeteer]

Some time ago (I don't know how long mind) hops were grown commercially as far North as you guys. If they are in a fairly sheltered area they should grow reasonably well, although certain varieties are a bit fickle.

I would be very interested to know if anyone in Scotland has a Bramling X. They are only just waking up all the way down here and it looks quite unpromising for a reasonable harvest this year. They love a cold winter and a good frost so if anyone fancies their chances please take a punt and grow a couple cos I reckon they will do quite well.

[pantsmachine]

Double answer here partly as i misnamed one of my hops. I am in Saudi at the moment so can't see from here.

The First gold dwarf hop had maybe 20 shoots, all at about 2 foot height when i left home on the 27th April. (four years in)(1 kilo wet hops last year)
The cascade was only a couple of inches out of the ground. (2 years in).The cascade is a skinny stemmed wee thing even when fully grown (was sent it from a very nice man in Ireland), a few dozen hop flowers only, ran to about 20 foot
The Bramling Cross (nice big leaves on that when mature) was about six inches out on a couple of shoots. (four years in), a few dozen hops flowers only. Ran to about 20 foot
Northdown RIP year 1
Prima Donna, RIP year 2 after doing pretty much nothing.

Jambo, slugs may have been at it, you really need to give them a good root bowl of compost and water them every day to begin with and protect them against slugs. Chop the top and bottom off of a soft drinks bottle and put it over the top of your hop, might even get some light greenhouse effect, you never know!

[jmc]

Hi Pantsmachine - good to see someone growing them successfully up here! What kind of height are yours at now?

I went for a Wye Challenger, planted right at the end of February this year. Since my post on Monday I have noticed that a couple of the shoots seem to be dying off with shrivelled up leaves and dead growing tips, not looking good! The tallest one still seems good though, albeit only 4 in. tall.

The place I planted it in doesn't seem to have very deep soil - I may have to relocate it for next year...

It's warm and sunny today so hopefully it'll be doing some growing!!

Cheers.

I start mine off under a plastic cloche made from 5L water bottle.
Worked well this year & last.

[SiHoltye]

Sussex based hop plants doing OK.

Established Challenger heading up a length of conduit.


? X Chinook trials




Unfortunately 2 months on, the five ? X Amarillo seeds I planted have amounted to this...


...and my Dabinett cider apple tree looks like it'll fruit, cool bananas

[boingy]

Just trimmed my Cascade back to 3 bines and installed the wire. The longest bine was about 5 foot but I damaged it when handling it so the longest surviving one is about 4 foot. The Prima Donna is about 2 foot. Once the weather warms up they put on a real spurt.