Hops Update - June 26 Growth (Cones!)

Hop Flavor was recently mentioned on Home Brewing Perspectives, a new brewing podcast hosted by Doug and Mike! Mike is also growing hops for the first time, and is tracking his efforts on his blog The Hop Cone Cometh. Mike was very generous in his comments of my hop yard, and I wish him the best of luck. If you haven't already taken the time to check these guys out, you are missing out on some good homebrewing information!

Hops are still looking good. Four of the six plants have reached or exceeded the 8 foot mark, some with multiple bines at that length! The two remaining cascades (left) are doing very well with burrs all over and some cones forming. The OK goldings (below left) is doing very well, no burrs yet but starting to get some lateral growth on the longest bine. The two centennials (below center and right) both have at least 4-6 climbing bines. One has 2 bines over the 8 foot mark and is showing burrs! The other got a slower start but is quickly making up for lost time.
On the right is a picture of one of the larger Cascade cones that has started to form! Still not close to harvest time, but it's good to see those coveted cones starting to grow! Looks like we should have enough cones to brew a harvest ale! Man, I've gotta learn how to use my camera, it took about 20 pictures and 2 cameras to get a clear closeup of that cone!

Hops Update - June 19 Growth

Quick update on the hops this week. I gave up on the small bine on the second chance cascade that wasn't growing and I buried it, so we'll see what happens. Everything else is growing strong, with the 2 remaining cascades (right) both flowering! The OK Goldings (lower left) and one of the Centennials now have bines at the 8 foot mark. The two Centennials are lower right.

Hops Update - June 12 Growth

Another week, another update on progress. Everything is still growing well, except for the second chance cascade. It's still alive, but doesn't seem to be growing. Oh well, 5 out of 6 plants are growing well so no complaints.

The 2 biggest cascade plants (below left) have reached the top of the 8 foot trellis and are still going. The tip of one of the bines in the biggest cascade broke off and that main is no longer growing. I did however wire tie the bine to the twine and it is going crazy with new lateral shoots going everywhere (below center). The second chance cascade (below left) is still alive, not much more news on it though.










The OK Goldings (below left) is now over 6 feet tall and still going. Centennial 1 (below center) is starting to catch up, with 3 climbing bines and it is now around 3 feet tall. The other (below right) centennial is now around 6 feet tall and is beginning more lateral growth.




The other exciting news is that on the 2 largest cascade plants, the bines are starting to flower, and although I don't know much about hops yet, I think this is the beginning signs of cones! The picture on the right is an up close of one of the cascade bines, with the prickly flowers.

Hops Update - June 5 Growth

Another progress update on the hops. The more prolific cascade plants are going crazy. One has a bine almost 8ft tall, and the other is close behind at 6ft. The second chance cascade is still alive but not showing much progress above ground. Hopefully it is building a good root structure for next year. Following are pictures of the Cascades. Left is the 2 big cascades, middle is the biggest cascade crown, and right is the second chance cascade:










The 'OK' goldings is still doing well, and the 2 centennial plants are beginning to grow fast. The goldings now has 3 bines climbing, one centennial with 2 climbing bines and one with 3. Below left is the goldings, middle and right are the 2 centennial plants:

Hops Update - May 29 Growth

Just a quick update on progress. Some growing fast, others slowly making progress, and the poor second chance cascade is still alive! The following 3 pics are of the cascades:


The next 3 are of the 2 Centennial (left) and one 'OK' Goldings (right). Lots of weeds, I know...but I've been busy!



Just for fun, I decided to do a measurement on the most prolific cascade plant. Using a sharpie, I marked the tip of the bine on the trellis twine, then measured a week later to see how much it had grown. As you can see from the pic on the right, over 2 feet of growth in one week! I hope the rest of the plants start catching up so I have at least some hops to harvest the end of the summer.

Hops Update - May 19 Growth

The biggest cascade (left) is going strong and it now has 3 bines climbing the trellis chord. I'm amazed at how fast it is growing, inches per day! I've read that at the height of growth, they can grow over a foot a day. The 2 centennial plants are healthy, but are growing slower than the other plants. I am having good luck with my goldings plant (right), even though on message boards and several podcasts, it sounds like these don't grow as well in the Midwest. It has one climbing bine, and 2 others that will be long enough to train on the trellis soon. I also had a cascade (below) that got damaged in a recent storm, and the 2 bines that were about 10 inches long were broken off at ground level. These plants however are very resilient, and it has sprouted 2 new bines and looks like it will rebound. This week, I fertilized with Miracle Grow all purpose 15-30-15, mixing up a gallon, and dispensing that gallon across the 6 plants. More updates to come!

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.