Hops Update - June 23

A quick (and late) update with a few pictures. The plants are still growing strong and the cascades are putting on more cones. They have also started to send out horizontal shoots which I hope will fill up with even more cones! The goldings is looking strong for its second year and I hope that I will be able to get some cones from it this year. The centennials have started to put on cones as well, although they are several weeks behind the cascades.

Cascades (left), Cascade Cones (center), New Cascade (right):








Goldings (left) and Centennials (right):

Hops Update - June 19

This update is just a few pictures to keep visual track of changes. All of the hops are doing well and the second year cascades are really starting to put on a lot of cones!

Hops Update - June 12

Well, I'm finally catching up with posts for this year with this somewhat recent update on the hops progress. All the plants are doing very well, but at different stages due to variety and how aggressive I was when trimming early in the season. The picture to the right is of the entire hop garden, strung on the new hop trellis, and as of yet I haven't received any complaints from the neighbors!

The goldings plants I started new this year (left) are healthy, but as my first year golding last season, I don't expect to get any cones off of these plants this year. I plan on experimenting with trimming them, keeping a few to only 2 strong bines, and letting the others go with up to 6. Then next season, I can see if there is any noticeable difference in the strength and viability of the second year plants.

The early season growth for the 2 centennial plants was crazy, with each of the hop mounds looking like thick bushes. Each plant shot bines out everywhere which caused me to be more aggressive with trimming them back in April. Therefore, they (right) are a little behind the cascades but doing very well. With any luck, one of them will have bines topping the new trellis before my next post!

The cascades are rocking along. As you can see from the picture on the left, one of them has already expanded several bines along the top trellis string. Those bines are now over 15 ft in length! The other second year cascade is close behind and the new cascade while small, looks strong and should produce well next year. Oh, the 2 second year cascades are already putting on cones (right)!

Hops Update - May 30

Just a couple of pictures of the cascades just a few days after getting the new trellis completed....yeah, they are topping the NEW trellis!

New Hop Trellis

My first hop trellis was only about 7-8 feet tall, and by the end of last year's season, most of my first year plants had overgrown the trellis. So, I decided that the trellis needed to be taller and just hoped my neighbors wouldn't complain! So, what to do for the new trellis and keep from spending a lot of $$$?

I was able to get some 8ft lengths of 1 ¼ inch boiler steam pipe from my dad along with a length of pipe that fit just over the the outside of the 1 ¼ pipe. That allowed me to take two 8ft lengths of pipe and weld them together to total 16ft tall, using the over sized pipe to provide strength. The picture on the left, shows the section of one of the pipes after being welded together. Each of these pipes was sunk into the ground 2 ½ ft, making the new trellis 13 ½ ft tall. The picture on the right shows one of the new pipes next to the old trellis showing how much taller it is.

I made caps to go on top of each of the 4 pipes I used for the trellis. I cut short lengths of the over sized pipe, welded plate over the top of one end and then drilled and installed large eye hooks. The caps had 2 purposes, provide a place to string trellis line and to keep water out of the pipes. Needless to say, it was a bit unnerving stringing all of the lines. Since the caps were 13 ½ ft off the ground, I had to stand on the top rungs of an a frame ladder to barely reach.

My helpers chillin out on the roof of the shed!