2016 Hop Growing Thread

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I have 1 Cascade and 3 Chinook. They are all first years.

Next year I am thinking of expanding, what are some good choices to expand to (different varieties) that compliment what I already have, and grow well in Central PA?
 
It's happened! I've got burrs! One of my CTZ's is starting to bud.
13516168_1131690806888184_2684799571544343904_n.jpg


One of my taller plants is only a couple feet from the roof now too.
 
Texconsinite said:
The bine you see behind the trellis is cascade. Which just gave me .5oz more dried cones yesterday!!!
View attachment 359664
New burrs keep popping up. Harvesting the parts on the trellis is kind of a PITA already, hopefully will get easier as more are along the line
View attachment 359665
Click to expand...

Are you sure they are ready? I've had hundreds (maybe a thousand) cones on my Cascade for weeks (maybe months) and loads of new flowers appearing every day, and they are not ready yet. I checked them today by pulling back some of the layers on a few of the biggest cones and am not seeing much if any of the yellow lupulin resin.

Did you dry the cones, or did they just seem dry when you picked them? Picking them yesterday and already knowing you have .5 ozs dried cones is pretty quick. I may be wrong, but I suspect you are thinking the cones are already dry when you pick them. You don't get dried cones straight off the bine, although they may seem papery, they still contain a lot of water. After picking the cones you then need to dry them out (unless using them immediately). Typically, the dry weight will be roughly 20% of the 'as-picked' weight. So if the picked weith is 0.5 ozs, the dry weight will be approx, 0.1 ozs.

It does depend on the plant and size of the cones, but there are approximately 210 cones in 1 dry ounce of hops. To get .5 ozs dry, you would need to have picked somewhere in the region of 80 to 140 fresh cones.

Generally, hops are not ready for picking until late August or September in most places.
 
Yes, pretty sure they are done. I wait until they make the cricket noise like paper when I squeeze them. I dry them in a food dehydrator at 95f for 7-10 hrs until they feel totally dry and have lost most of their weight.
I've been harvesting a few at a time as they ripen. Done 4 mini-harvests so far, yielding 1oz (dry) total. but judging by the number of burrs there will be many more to come.

I was worried about picking too early as well. This last batch I almost let a few go too long and whole petals were starting to turn brown. Usually I wait until they lighten up and get little bits of brown on the tips before harvesting
 
Since the main growing head died off of my hops due to a late season frost I have a TON of sidearm growth just going to town. It's going to be a mess to maintain this year but it's also the first year I'm using the new hop box design from the 2014 thread.

I also had one rhizome grow about 2" out of the ground and die. I thought the entire thing was dead but this weekend I look out there and see two more buds coming up in it's place so I'll let it grow a nice root system this year.

Year 3 should be fun.
 
Hop pic update. Pics from last week. Dog wanted to play with my Chinook :( so I only have 1 run right now.
Chinook, Columbia,Centennial and Cascade

Chinook Pic 625.jpg


Columbia Pic 625.jpg


Centennial Pic 625.jpg


Cascade pic 625.jpg
 
Calder said:
Are you sure they are ready? I've had hundreds (maybe a thousand) cones on my Cascade for weeks (maybe months) and loads of new flowers appearing every day, and they are not ready yet. I checked them today by pulling back some of the layers on a few of the biggest cones and am not seeing much if any of the yellow lupulin resin.

Did you dry the cones, or did they just seem dry when you picked them? Picking them yesterday and already knowing you have .5 ozs dried cones is pretty quick. I may be wrong, but I suspect you are thinking the cones are already dry when you pick them. You don't get dried cones straight off the bine, although they may seem papery, they still contain a lot of water. After picking the cones you then need to dry them out (unless using them immediately). Typically, the dry weight will be roughly 20% of the 'as-picked' weight. So if the picked weith is 0.5 ozs, the dry weight will be approx, 0.1 ozs.

It does depend on the plant and size of the cones, but there are approximately 210 cones in 1 dry ounce of hops. To get .5 ozs dry, you would need to have picked somewhere in the region of 80 to 140 fresh cones.

Generally, hops are not ready for picking until late August or September in most places.
Click to expand...

it all depends on the weather. Last year, my hops had shoots at the end of feb. due to strangely high temps. I harvested huge cones early june. I even got quite a bit on a second harvest in sept. because hey started growing new bines after harvest in june. Weather plays a huge part. And drying typically takes me 24 hours. I lay them out on boards in my 90* garage.

WP_20150805_07_50_37_Pro.jpg


WP_20150805_12_03_41_Pro.jpg


WP_20150805_12_49_25_Pro.jpg
 
the last pic was half of the harvest. I had just as much the next day when i finished. I can take only so many hours of cleaning in one day, lol
 
Hi - I have second year Cascades that are appearing yellow and some of the leaves have what appears to be a disease. The first year this plant didn't produce but it's currently at 12 feet and still growing, albeit it a bit slower. Is this underwatering, overwatering, lack of nutrients in the soil, something to not worry about, etc? Here are a few pics:

img_2133.jpg

img_2134.jpg

img_2136.jpg

img_2137.jpg
 
I'm not a professional by any means but it looks like it's happening to your tomato plant too and to me it looks like a mineral deficiency. Possibly Iron, Magnesium, potassium or calcium. Best bet is to get a soil sample stat and get it under control ASAP so you can get the most out of your plants this growing season.
Also you NEED a bigger pot for your hops.
 
lnyswonger said:
Hi - I have second year Cascades that are appearing yellow and some of the leaves have what appears to be a disease. The first year this plant didn't produce but it's currently at 12 feet and still growing, albeit it a bit slower. Is this underwatering, overwatering, lack of nutrients in the soil, something to not worry about, etc? Here are a few pics:

img_2133.jpg

img_2134.jpg

img_2136.jpg

img_2137.jpg
Click to expand...

looks like spider mites to me. I can even see a small web strand in one pic. i had this problem last year. Look at the back of the leaves and see if you can see small white dots, or small spider webs. if so, Spray some soapy water, or neem oil on them.
 
Rypcord said:
I have 1 Cascade and 3 Chinook. They are all first years.

Next year I am thinking of expanding, what are some good choices to expand to (different varieties) that compliment what I already have, and grow well in Central PA?
Click to expand...

Centennial would be good, and compliment your current hops. I'm just below you in MD.
 
Rypcord said:
I have 1 Cascade and 3 Chinook. They are all first years.

Next year I am thinking of expanding, what are some good choices to expand to (different varieties) that compliment what I already have, and grow well in Central PA?
Click to expand...

I think the best option would be to get some dual purpose hops that you like. This way they can be used for more than 1 thing.
 
Losefreeze don't feel bad. I had that happen and now all I can grow are side shoots. They'll last and it will be fun managing 15 side shoots that all want to be 20'
 
Note to self - Wear long sleeve shirt when picking hops.

Picked my first hops of the year yesterday from second year plants.

- 14 ozs of Cascade (wet weight)
- 8 ozs Chinook (wet weight)

I was surprised they were ready this early, so I picked several and cut them open, and all had lots of lupulin in the base of the cones. Have them on screens in the garage right now. Plan to use them in a brew tomorrow.

Hope to get a second crop off each. Both have a ton of flowers.

My Willamette and Centennial only have the flowers so far and have not developed any cones.
 
DurtyChemist said:
Losefreeze don't feel bad. I had that happen and now all I can grow are side shoots. They'll last and it will be fun managing 15 side shoots that all want to be 20'
Click to expand...

Thanks Durty. My only concern is that they weren't really taking off before hand but I didn't get them in the ground till beginning of June so I may have stunted their growth I'm that regard. But CO did have a super late summer so we were dealing with cold Temps most way through May.
 
Hi all, I have 6' long sidearms on my teamaker hops but no burrs forming. Is this normal? Some of my sidearms even have 1-2' long sidearms growing from them - but no burrs.

I've been feeding a balanced 10-10-10 + calcium/mag/silica and started supplementing additional phosphorous 2 weeks ago. For my feed I started with 0.7 EC solution and have worked up to 1.5EC (no signs of nutrient burn so I assume it's OK. I also add bacterial starter and molasses to the water. Early on I sprayed the leaves with Kelp+Fulvic acid pretty often but have stopped in the last month or so. It's a hydoponic grow - not sure if that changes anything.

I'm in Boston, MA and planted in late april (plants didn't start growing until may).

y no burrs?

ZcrZI1w.jpg

Growing tip of the longest bine - the long sidearms are closer to the base of the plant (2' up from the base) and get progressively shorter from there.
 
Robx said:
Hi all, I have 6' long sidearms on my teamaker hops but no burrs forming. Is this normal? Some of my sidearms even have 1-2' long sidearms growing from them - but no burrs.

I've been feeding a balanced 10-10-10 + calcium/mag/silica and started supplementing additional phosphorous 2 weeks ago. For my feed I started with 0.7 EC solution and have worked up to 1.5EC (no signs of nutrient burn so I assume it's OK. I also add bacterial starter and molasses to the water. Early on I sprayed the leaves with Kelp+Fulvic acid pretty often but have stopped in the last month or so. It's a hydoponic grow - not sure if that changes anything.

I'm in Boston, MA and planted in late april (plants didn't start growing until may).

y no burrs?

ZcrZI1w.jpg

Growing tip of the longest bine - the long sidearms are closer to the base of the plant (2' up from the base) and get progressively shorter from there.
Click to expand...

Soon, Kemosabe. Soon.
 
Hey guys I'm new to growing hops. I've got two chinook a cascade and a centennial all first year in pots. I'm also below latitude 35 in SC. The plants seemed to do pretty well early probably due to the heat but lately they haven't been doing a whole lot. So I've always heard to wait till August or Sept to harvest hops. I was looking at some of my crop yesterday and saw that they are looking like some of them are ready to harvest. Getting some browning and I did pick 2 just to test by squeezing and seeing how they fall apart and check the lupulin glands and all. I got this one that had a good bit of brown on it. It still smelled really good they aren't as big as a lot of people's I've seen but then again maybe it's just because they are first year? Idk, but should I wait till the suggested august or Sept or do you just pick whenever it seems ripe to you? There's a pic of the two I checked out. They seemed good to me.

View attachment 1467799696286.jpg

View attachment 1467800205190.jpg
 
SHAIV said:
Hey guys I'm new to growing hops. I've got two chinook a cascade and a centennial all first year in pots. I'm also below latitude 35 in SC. The plants seemed to do pretty well early probably due to the heat but lately they haven't been doing a whole lot. So I've always heard to wait till August or Sept to harvest hops. I was looking at some of my crop yesterday and saw that they are looking like some of them are ready to harvest. Getting some browning and I did pick 2 just to test by squeezing and seeing how they fall apart and check the lupulin glands and all. I got this one that had a good bit of brown on it. It still smelled really good they aren't as big as a lot of people's I've seen but then again maybe it's just because they are first year? Idk, but should I wait till the suggested august or Sept or do you just pick whenever it seems ripe to you? There's a pic of the two I checked out. They seemed good to me.
Click to expand...
Those are definitely ready, they don't need to be brown, they just need to feel papery and dry. The cones will get bigger with age(maybe) but size doesn't matter. Don't use a calendar, pick them when they are ready. And if you don't get much, or if they aren't really flavorful don't panic, they'll be much better next year
 
lzrdkng14 said:
Had to unwind this centennial from my gutter. Bines are getting thick
View attachment 361228

And here is the cascade
View attachment 361229

Jap beetles are beginning to become an issue. How often do you guys spray and is it safe to spray the burrs?
Click to expand...


I just sprayed my plants this evening with Fertilome Triple Action and they are all covered in burrs and cones so I'll let you know if they all die and stop developing. [emoji33] I have something going on with my Centennial plant that I'm not 100% sure what it is and I found 5 japs munching on the leaves today too so......
 
BaylessBrewer said:
I just sprayed my plants this evening with Fertilome Triple Action and they are all covered in burrs and cones so I'll let you know if they all die and stop developing. [emoji33] I have something going on with my Centennial plant that I'm not 100% sure what it is and I found 5 japs munching on the leaves today too so......
Click to expand...


Do you use the one you connect to the hose? Or do you just spray it directly?

I've been using the systemic
 
I found one the other day, but not on my hops. We got one of those dynatrap xl bug catchers and it has caught alot of moths and those brown beetles that come out at night. I haven't checked the trap for a few days, the hops yesterday am looked ok yet, hole here or there, not like my cucumbers plants did at one point...
 
I was looking at my hope and saw dozens of these little spiders. Are they spider mites or just regular spiders?

image.jpg
 

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