1st Time Growing Hops in NJ - Tips?

So I'm growing Willamette for the 1st time, and hops for that matter, and wanted to get some feed back.

Temp: I live in Northern NJ and the weather is finally warming up 60's. Once it's consistently in the high 60's just breaking into the 70's Im going to plant. Thoughts?

Soil: I've heard miracle grow is a safe bet, just as long as its not the water retaining kind (i dont know what it's called)

Location: I live in north NJ and our summers arent incredibly hot but it does get very humid. How important is shade? I can only count on one hand where the temps have been higher than 95 last year so Im thinking of resting my pots in a place where it starts shading around 1-2PM.

Plant pot: The larger the better? I just plan on getting a reasonably large plant pot and drilling extra holes for water drainage. Trellis and all.

Fertilizer?: this is where Im a bit lost... I heard Super Bloom is good or anything organic for that matter but how often do i fertilize?

Watering: My take on this is to water the soil until soaked(?)and then not to water again until soil looks/feels a bit dry.

I just spent the weekend in New Providence and from everything I saw I'd say you could plant yesterday if not sooner.

If your yard is full of that red clay soil, dig it up, throw half away, and mix the other half with well-rotted horse poop 50/50. Screw store-bought soil, it's too expensive and frankly you can do better making your own.

Plant in full sun, the fuller the better. You (and I) are way too far north to have to worry about over-heated plants.

Plant pots? Why not plant in the ground? I've never seen potted hops produce as well as grounded ones.

My LHBS once planted Cascade in two half barrels, and neither did very well the first year. The second year, however, the plants in one barrel went nuts, grew like something out of a sci-fi flick and produced abundantly. The other barrel had nothing but spindly plants that produced zilch.

At the end of the season the LHBS moved to another building, and that's when we confirmed that the plants that had done well had grown through the bottom of their barrel half, while the other barrel half was still intact.

I use a drip system with 1 gph emitters for each crown. I run it for an hour every three days, or three days from the last good rain, early in the season, then add an hour of drip time once the weather gets hot...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

I just spent the weekend in New Providence and from everything I saw I'd say you could plant yesterday if not sooner.

If your yard is full of that red clay soil, dig it up, throw half away, and mix the other half with well-rotted horse poop 50/50. Screw store-bought soil, it's too expensive and frankly you can do better making your own.

Plant in full sun, the fuller the better. You (and I) are way too far north to have to worry about over-heated plants.

Plant pots? Why not plant in the ground? I've never seen potted hops produce as well as grounded ones.

My LHBS once planted Cascade in two half barrels, and neither did very well the first year. The second year, however, the plants in one barrel went nuts, grew like something out of a sci-fi flick and produced abundantly. The other barrel had nothing but spindly plants that produced zilch.

At the end of the season the LHBS moved to another building, and that's when we confirmed that the plants that had done well had grown through the bottom of their barrel half, while the other barrel half was still intact.

I use a drip system with 1 gph emitters for each crown. I run it for an hour every three days, or three days from the last good rain, early in the season, then add an hour of drip time once the weather gets hot...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

thanks for your input. i unfortunately dont have room in my garden so ill have to use a pot. hhmm maybe i can i use some of the dirt from my garden and mix it in with manure ? any tips for potters?

BrewToHeugh said:

[...]any tips for potters?

Click to expand...

"Bigger is better"

Pretty much everything else is the same as in the ground, other than you might need to water more often with pots. You can make up your own soil mix or not, up to you...

Cheers!

Picked up two of these over the weekend to plant some over flow rhizome clippings from my third year cascade. The sides of the pots are a lot straighter then they are in the pic.

day_trippr said:

"Bigger is better"

Pretty much everything else is the same as in the ground, other than you might need to water more often with pots. You can make up your own soil mix or not, up to you...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

ive seen videos and read posts where people used a pot and then the vines grew through the pot and into the ground which made them flower like grow like crazy. How does this happen? I was thinking of maybe cutting a hole in the bottom of the pot and working that small part of my yard. Would that work? Drainage issues?
thanks again

Soil tilth in potted plants is vastly different from those grown in-ground. You don't want to use a lot of compact peat moss, nor do you want to use compact and smelly fecal composts or manures, which can turn into a soup like consistency when watered in a container. Among other negatives in a container environment, this also hinders drainage.

Organic fertilizers deliver very erratic and unreliable results in container plants since micro-organism populations vary widely in container culture. Controlled doses of inorganic fertilizers work best for potted plants because the nutrients are immediately available for plant uptake & the results of your applications are much easier to quantify... especially in such a restricted environment with little to no tilth.

For potting mix:

*5 parts partially composted pine bark fines
*1 part sphagnum peat moss or earthworm castings
*1-2 parts perlite
*dolomitic garden lime (2/3-3/4 cup per 12 gallons of final soil)
*control release fertilizer (Osmocote 12-4-8 or any w/a similar ratio)
*a weakly, weekly supply of micro-nutrients added when watering at 1/8 the recommended dose or about 3/4-1 tsp. per gallon of water for most liquid inorganic fertilizers (Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro 9-3-6)

The mixture should be well-draining when moistened, i.e. not form a compact ball when you squeeze it in your palm. Over the years, you'll need to add more pine bark and perlite since the mix begins to erode and become more compact.

BrewToHeugh said:

ive seen videos and read posts where people used a pot and then the vines grew through the pot and into the ground which made them flower like grow like crazy. How does this happen? I was thinking of maybe cutting a hole in the bottom of the pot and working that small part of my yard. Would that work? Drainage issues?
thanks again

Click to expand...

It happens because a wooden barrel half sitting on bare earth, filled with soil and watered regularly will rot out fairly quickly. Cutting a hole in the bottom just accelerates the process And, wrt drainage issues, having the hole would actually be better than not...

Cheers!

I use the orange Home Depot buckets with holes drilled through the bottom, for mine in Northern NJ. So far I've successfully grown Nugget, Cascade, and Centennial from rhizomes in buckets. For soil I use regular gardening potting soil. I've also tried to grow Mt. Hood and Goldings without much success in NJ.