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)!