NoBull hops - nano hop yard in NC.

[lkj7295]

Figured I'd post some pictures of our first year, nano hop yard here in NC. Situated on cattle farm in NC, hence the name. We plan to grow, but starting with only 100 plants.

 

[GVH_Dan]

Good luck to you.

Stupid question but are all the plants on the right the same? I'm talking about the setup where you have two rows planted but the twine drops down from a single top wire in an upside down "V".

For that matter, what all do you have planted?

 

[lkj7295]

Yessir. the ones to the right are Magnum. The other two sections are Centennial and Cascade. We will obviously keep the varieties separate when we expand but first wanted to make sure its viable here.

 

[GVH_Dan]

We've been working with Echoview Farms down in NC. What I can tell you is to plant Downy Mildew resistant varieties because you will get it.

If you aren't growing organic, you'll want to investigate sprays to control outbreaks.

 

[lkj7295]

Wanted to send along an update. We had what seemed like 30 straight days of rain and a LOT of it in late June, early July. I was really concerned about the amount of rain on the young plants, but with a couple weeks of dry weather they are doing fairly decent I'd say for first year. I know first year yields are minimal, but next step is to decide on keeping them whole hops, compressing them into leaf 'plugs', or pellets.

I created a FB page so if your interested you can see progress at:
https://www.facebook.com/NobullHops

 

[GVH_Dan]

I know first year yields are minimal, but next step is to decide on keeping them whole hops, compressing them into leaf 'plugs', or pellets.

For your first year, just leave them whole hops or maybe compress some into plugs if that's what people ask for. Pellets takes very large equipment, so even if you contracted someone to pelletize for you, most of it would be lost charging the machine.

Actually, the first year you will probably destroy a good portion of your crop just learning how to determine moisture content.

In a few years if you do want to go with pellets, contact the people at Echoview Farms I previously mentioned. I believe they are setting up a pelletizing process.