Cascade Rhizome Update

Just a quick update on the cascade rhizome survival. When I cut it from the crown the beginning of the month, I was very interested to see how it would do no longer attached to the main plant for sustenance. As you can see from the pictures, it has done very well and looks as though it will fulfill its purpose, to replace the cascade plant I lost last year due to storms.

When measured this past weekend, there were approximately 10 shoots showing, with one of them about 3 feet tall! Now the decision is whether or not to separate the rhizome into a few different rhizomes before planting in the hop garden. If all goes well, I'll have to make that decision this coming weekend and get this thing planted.

Next on the to-do list, is to build a new hop trellis to support the expanded garden, and provide more room for the hops to grow vertically.

Rhizome Experiments - Successes & Failures

Spring is here, well it's trying anyway! Here in Oklahoma, we had days with highs in the 70s and low 80s, and a few days later it was snowing! This past weekend provided mild temperatures in the 50s with sunshine, perfect weather for spending time in the yard.

I decided to spend time pulling weeds from the hop garden and checking for rhizomes I tried to create. Admittedly, I had both success and failure but know how to make more rhizomes for next year. First, let's cover the success!

I was able to successfully create rhizomes in 2 ways:

1. During the growing season, take a bine that is growing above ground and bury a portion of it, leaving the tip above ground and allowing it to continue growing.

2. At the end of the season, leave a small amount of the lower bine attached to the crown and cover it with dirt. The buried bine needs to be healthy and approximately the same diameter as a dime at a minimum.

If you are planning on trying to create rhizomes during the growing season, it is best to get a start early in the season. The pictures below are of 2 rhizomes I created from my Goldings plant. The picture on the left is a bine that I buried early in the season, and was one I had growing up my main trellis. The picture on the right, is a bine I let grow to about 2 feet later in the growing season and buried it. I suspect they are both going to produce plants, but the diameter of the rhizome planted earlier in the season is about twice as large, and as you can see already has a more established root structure.

As for the failures....

I had several plants that I left lower bines attached and covered. In most instances, the bines I covered were small in diameter and they just did not produce any rhizomes. I also tried just taking cut bines and burying them in a trench. This did not produce any rhizomes either. I may try this trench method again this next year with larger diameter bines to see if it makes a difference.

Cascade Rhizome!!!

Well, I couldn't stand not knowing what that growth was from. I was hoping it was due to my attempt to create some rhizomes to replace the cascade I lost due to storms last year, and to start new plants. If it survives.....

Using a small stick, I gently started digging away at the hop mound. I couldn't remember exactly how I had left the crown on this and didn't want to damage any of the plant. After about five minutes of labor, here is what I found:

This plant at the end of last season had one main bine with several offshoots as you can see. The main bine heading down into the ground is right at the center of the picture, so everything you see is the resulting rhizome!

So I trimmed the rhizome right at ground level and carefully replaced all the dirt mound on top of the remaining plant. The trimmed rhizome was then taken inside for a few more pictures and a replanting in a hanging basket for some pampering. Here's hoping it survives and I can plant it out in the garden at the end of March!

Here are a few more pictures of the rhizome:

2009 - Hops Coming Back!!!

I was up late last night working and caught the most recent episode of Basic Brewing Radio talking about top cropping yeast from a carboy. During the outro, James indicated that hops were starting to poke out of the ground in Arkansas, and since I live only a few hours away, I wondered about my hops. So I went out today and checked, and one of my cascade mounds is showing signs of life already!


This is one of the plants that I left some of the bottom bines attached to the crown, wrapped them in a coil and covered with dirt. This weekend I'll probably unearth the top of the mound and see where the growth is coming from. If it is from the coiled bines, I'll probably trim the 'rhizome' and transplant to replace the cascade plant I lost last year.

Hop Garden - End of Season

After the last harvest, I left the plants to soak up as much sun as possible. Here in Oklahoma, the nights have started getting down to the low 50s so I decided it was time to trim back the plants and get ready for winter. I decided to experiment a bit to see if I could propagate some rhizomes for planting/exchange next spring. I decided to try 2 things, leave some bines connected to the crown and bury them, and trim some completely from the plant and bury them in a trench. I was told the latter wouldn't work, but hey it was worth a shot.

To start, I stripped all of the plants of foliage from the top, leaving the lower bines connected to the crown. The picture on the left is one of the centennial plants stripped. For the bines left connected to the crown, I created a coil around the main stem coming out of the ground (right). That coil was then covered with fresh dirt (lower left). I'm hoping that this will allow these bines to continue to be supported by the crown, but start to grow some rootlets.

The picture lower right is of the centennial bines I buried in a trench at the back of my hop garden. I just took some long bine sections from the lower part of the plant, dug a trench a few inches deep and then placed the bines in there. In the spring, I'll dig up the trench and see if the bines are still alive or whether they have died. Either way, I will not have lost anything!

Within the next few weeks, I'll be covering the entire hop garden in a blanket of leaves raked from the yard. These will help to provide a blanket over the winter and will be easy to remove in the spring. After harvesting rhizomes in the spring, I will put down a more permanent mulch.

Hops Update - July 17 Growth

A much delayed update for this week, but I'm finally getting it posted. All of the hops are doing well, producing cones and shooting lateral bines everywhere. The picture to the left is of the entire hop yard, all 5 plants. All 5 are well beyond the top of the trellis (8 feet) and running along the horizontal lines. Some of the bines are over 15 feet long! Right, are the 2 cascades, the bines are not growing much in length anymore, but are producing laterals and cones like crazy!

Left is a picture of the one goldings I planted. As of now, it is still not showing any signs of burrs or cones, but the plant itself is very healthy and is shooting out lateral bines everywhere. Hopefully I'll see signs of cone growth soon! Even with the vertical growth of the goldings, it was still creating strong lateral bines at ground level. I let these bines grow to approximately 2 feet in length, trimmed all the leaves off and then buried them in the ground to attempt to create rhizomes for transplanting next year. The picture on the right shows the 2 bines from the main stem being rerouted into the ground.

In the course of watering the plants, the mounds I started with have eroded somewhat, and in certain instances I can see the root growth off the rhizome. The picture on the left is one of the centennial mounds, and if you look closely, you can see the pale yellow/green roots. I'm planning on adding a shovel of dirt to the top of each mound to get all of the roots back below the surface. The last picture (right) is between the 2 cascade plants, looking up from ground level.

The Hop Garden

OK, so I purchased rhizomes and got them started in pots (see previous posts). The next step was to find a place to plant them and prepare the area. I decided on an area in the northwest corner of my back yard, up against my shed and the neighboring privacy fence. This area gets a lot of midday and early afternoon sun, but does provide a little shade for the late afternoon which can be very hot in Oklahoma. As the hops grow up the trellis, they will get more and more of the afternoon sun. Of course, I don't have a tiller, so I had to prepare the bed with hand and shovel, lots of fun! I prepared the bed in an L shape up against the fence and shed, the picture on the right is half way through the process, ugh!

So, once I got the full bed prepared, I spaced out the hops per recommendation by Freshops, 3 feet between same variety, 5 feet between different varieties. See the plan of the bed (left) for plant placement, and to see where the trellis lines were placed. For each plant, I dug a hole about 1.5 feet deep, and a foot in diameter. I put a few handfuls of dried spent grains at the bottom of the hole. The dirt dug out of the hole was mixed with an equal amount of sandy loam, and a small amount of ash. The hole was then filled back in with this mixture, and then the rhizome planted about an inch from the surface, and then a small mound of dirt on top. Below are some pictures of the finished bed. Before I put up the 'trellis'.








For the trellis, I took advantage of the privacy fence. I nailed up slats on 2 of the existing posts, and I sunk one post on the other side of the bed by the shed. I then strung twine between the 3 'posts'. I got some 2x2x8 treated posts, and used 2 of them for center support for the twine. For each plant I cut 2 lengths of twine, long enough to wrap over the top of the guy lines and come back to the ground. These were staked at the bottom of each hop plant, forming a twine T pee. This design is only 8 feet tall, so depending on first year growth, I may have some really bushy plants. Next year I plan to modify the trellis, so that it is around 14 feet tall.

Growing Hops

Well, I decided to take on a new challenge this year, and that was to grow my own hops! I ordered my rhizomes from www.freshops.com and about 10 days later, received the package in the mail.










Above on the left is an East Kent Golding rhizome and on the right is Cascade. Soon after receiving the rhizomes, I planted each in a separate temporary pot (because I hadn't yet figured out where I would put them!) In total, I planted 1 EKG, 2 Centennial and 3 Cascade into pots. By mid April, all of the plants were showing bines!




Above left, the EKG. Above right one of the Cascades. Below, all 6 hop plants starting strong.



Next post, I'll line out the plant bed I put together and the VERY simple trellis structure. Here's 'hoping' all goes well and all 6 plants last the Oklahoma summer!