First Grow, 20 Miles North of Portland, OR

[Greenbudobeer]

Hey there, my name's Kevin and I live in the small town of Scappoose, Oregon. I'm 20 years old, but I will be 21 this April :rockin: . I've been saving up to start buying the equipment needed to start brewing beer this summer. I had never thought of growing hops for my brew until I found myself walking around my local nursery looking for a blueberry plant I could bonsai, that's when I stumbled across a hops plant. So I bought it and got the gears turning in my head.

It wasn't until I got online and actually started doing some research I became really excited about growing hops and the thought of growing a plant that will flavor and finish the beer I hope to brew. Though I'm not very pleased with the start I bought at my nursery(no specified name) I did order some rhiozomes from a hops farm 40 miles away, hoping that they would be a little more adapted to the climate. I bought a Cascade, Mount Hood, Nugget, and Centennial.:fro:

So I started prepping the area I have to let these guys grow. I think they will do well here, south faced, where they should get Sun from 8-10am to sundown. My only real restriction soil, which used to be a logging road in the 50s. So I have 4in of top soil, 5-8in of gravel and concrete, and under that is probably some of the hardest packed clay around. I know its a tough plant, but I feel like planting it straight in the ground would be plant abuse and it would struggle to grow.

So a couple days ago I decided I needed to kick it into high gear and get to work I was to finish all the work before my pre ordered Rhiozomes arrived. So far I've dug a 20x5 hole, well more like a ditch, the sides slant down to 3 1/2 feet deep in the middle. Kinda made me wish I had a buddy with a small excavator, because it's a lot material to move with a shovel and wheel barrow.
So I have my ditch just about finished up and ready to fill in with better soil.

The trellis is going to be right around 12' high and 21' long, I think they should have plenty of room to grow happily. I know its probably not as tall as they will want, but height can be added in later years.

So that's what I have coming along, now for the question I have!

I've put a lot of time and energy digging on that hole, so obviously I want to put the right soil in it, I was thinking a topsoil, all my compost, horse manure, and and a little sand. What do you guys think? If my math is close I should be looking at about at 6-8 cubic yards.

How do you guys pick of the cones that are done when they are upwards of 12-14´? Do you just rip the hole plant down when most of the are ready to pick?

Sorry if it's a bit long, just trying to give you guys an idea of what I got going on! I hope to make my form last for season with lots of picture! So I'm starting from the beginning, I call these picture, Roughing It In.

 

[Greenbudobeer]

I didn't see the picture I uploaded in my first post so I'll try again, I hope there isn't a delay and I post them twice.

 

[HoppyDaze]

I didn't see the picture I uploaded in my first post so I'll try again, I hope there isn't a delay and I post them twice.

That's probably too many varieties for one trellis. I would only do one variety. Two max but leave a nice gap between the two.

 

[Greenbudobeer]

Do you say that just for the fact that they will most likely become intertwined with one another? I'm very excited about the fact I will have the variety of bittering and aroma hops grow, but I guess if I can't tell the difference between the two it won't do much good.

So I have me poles set in with concrete, I'm going to run my eye bolts today and start hanging twine. The bottom clay section of my trench has been pick axed and and given a healthy dose of horse manure and compost, hopefully in years to come it might loosen it up a bit.

So much work left to do. I'm going to stick with the 4 varieties do now and see what happens, the worst thing that will happen is that the become one juice mass of plant and I have to give a couple to my buddies.

 

[Diaperload]

I doubt you'll get a good harvest your first year (I didn't). If you need a place to dry them out come harvest time your welcome to use our club dryer and vacuum sealer. We meet on Sundays. Dry them on a Sunday and package them up the next Sunday.

Our club is in SW Portland. Come harvest time we usually dry and package a decent amount. You'd be surprised at how many people offer free hops cause they are just growing wild around here. Sometimes they are mystery hops and sometimes they know what variety they are.

 

[HoppyDaze]

Do you say that just for the fact that they will most likely become intertwined with one another? I'm very excited about the fact I will have the variety of bittering and aroma hops grow, but I guess if I can't tell the difference between the two it won't do much good.

So I have me poles set in with concrete, I'm going to run my eye bolts today and start hanging twine. The bottom clay section of my trench has been pick axed and and given a healthy dose of horse manure and compost, hopefully in years to come it might loosen it up a bit.

So much work left to do. I'm going to stick with the 4 varieties do now and see what happens, the worst thing that will happen is that the become one juice mass of plant and I have to give a couple to my buddies.

The will FOR SURE become intertwined both on the trellis and in the ground. You'll have shoots coming up and no idea which crown they came from since the shoots can travel 10 feet and sometimes further before they surface. Sure seems like a lot of work to have a bunch of unknown hops.

 

[Greenbudobeer]

Hey hey, been really busy and haven't gotten a chance to get online! I ended up getting more hops plants and build box's for them to grow in, I finished my garden and they are all out of the ground already and just starting to get some leaves on them. I've also started setting money aside to start buying equipment I will need to actually put some of these plants to use, if they produce at all.

Yeah I can see that it's going to be a big tangled up mess with time, but I think it will do for this year. Over the winter I work of an enlargement plan and give them a little more room.

Ok so now I have 2 cascades, 2 nuggets, 1 centennial, 1 magnum, 1 mt hood, 1 teamaker, 1 Chinook, and I really want to get a Willamette if I can find where to put it.

I'm really happy with how my boxes turned out, they are all made out of cedar and then stained with flaxseed oil(raw linseed oil). Took a week make, but they should last a long time. I would suggest making something like these if you need something mobile or renting a house.

 

[maussy]

I'm renting and am looking into building something similar.

 

[Greenbudobeer]

I would say go for it, though a nail or staple gun will be your best friend! Mine had just about 80 bits and pieces to make one. Today I got them all set in place, leveled out(well close enough for me), filled them up, and planted the cascade, Chinook, mt hood, and teamaker.

The only one not to have buds break the surface is the teamaker, so I removed the root to take a look while I was transplanting it. Had plenty of little tiny buds on it so I hop it will perk up a bit.

If you plant it upside down will it sense where the light is coming from and turn the buds to grow upward? Do you look at what direction the roots grow to find which way to plant when the buds don't show direction?

 

[Greenbudobeer]

Today I dug up my teamaker and swapped it out for a Willamette, just for the fact the Willamette had some tried and true good brewing qualities and the tea maker was more for ****s and giggles. Hmmm now where to put this guy.

Now after watching the buds break the surface and watching how far they move from a little root, I understand what you guys were saying about them being to close and to many varieties for one trellis. Though I'm not going to dig them up, I will have to change my set up next year.

 

[Greenbudobeer]

Hey, took some more picture of how the are doing, the first is where I ended setting everything up, 2 cascade in box, 3 Chinook, 4 mt hood, 5 Willamette.

 

[Greenbudobeer]

Next up are the nugget next to my garden, 2 cascade in garden, 3 nugget in garden, 4 centennial. The magnum just had a bud shoot up and the teamaker is still making a comeback.

 

[Greenbudobeer]

Hey you guys, long time no update. Everything is grow good, well besides me overfertilizing right before hot sunny days and burning the tips off the lower leaves. Bugs haven't been getting to them to bad, the Willamette seems to ward off all bug to the point they just fly on by and go to the nugget.

I've also bottled up my first batch of IPA and have a couple more weeks to wait instill I can drink it, 5 gallons of Portland hef is sitting in the secondary.

Pictures go, nugget, cascade, Chinook, mt hood, and Willamette

 

[Greenbudobeer]

Centennial, magnum, nugget, and cascade.
The next picture is a bug I saw on my cascade and the next is what a hops plant looks like if a bine gets topped.

 

[Rivenin]

looking good!