WissahickonBrew
Well-Known Member
My Centennial vine is about 8', Perle and Nugget are 5' and 6' respectively. I am worried my 16' trellis is not going to be tall enough. Any thoughts on this?
mrbowenz said:I grew some with good success ;EKG, Chinook, and Fuggles, checking the soil pH is the key, don't over water them and plenty of sunlight with some general wide band fetilizer worked well here just to your north, here are some shots from this past summer and fall harvest:
So I lowered my lines today and, sure enough, I did have some cones ready for an early harvest. Only 1oz wet of Centennial, but they were definitely ready to pick. A bunch of cones weren't ready yet on the same plant (or my Cascade and Perle plants) plus there were still a lot of new burrs forming.
Hope to have a big harvest in another month or two!
How do you know for sure they are ready to pick? How will you store them? freeze?
I'm in the Lancaster area and third year Cascades look ready to pick as well, which seems a little early but they feel ready and also turning brown. I'm guessing the heat last week didn't really help that situation.
I rely mainly on the squeeze test (squeeze between thumb and finger and the hop cone should bounce right back to shape... if it stays compressed, they aren't ready yet). They should also feel papery and sort of make a crinkling sounds when you rub them. Lastly, the ones I picked were starting to turn brown at the ends of each leaf in the cone.
I will vacuum seal and freeze this first little batch. Since it will only be about 0.2-0.25 oz when they are dry, there isn't much I can do with them by themselves!
How do you vacuum seal for freezing?
I use an old school Foodsaver vacuum sealer that my mom bought when I was a kid. I never remember her using it and on a whim asked her if she still had it last summer. Sure enough, she did and it works great for sealing up the homegrown hops!
I looked them up, NOT CHEAP! I guess for now we will zip lock them and squeeze the air out. They will be tossed into a boil in a few weeks anyway!
I got mine off of eBay with a ton of bags and 3 rolls that you can use to make any size bag you want for 35 bucks! Just keep an eye out and one should pop up eventually.
Long story. I was growing hops in large planters on my balcony in Richmond, VA, before moving to Philly two years ago. Cut down the hops, brought them with us, even though we wouldn't have an outdoor area, because we were planning on joining a community garden and building a pergola to grow them on. We never did, so the pots just stayed in the apartment for a year and a half and never did anything. Tossed them into the front yard this spring (we're not really allowed to do anything in the front yard, but the first floor tenants/landlord/whoever let it get so overgrown that I figured no one would care that someone dumped some dirt in the yard. The landlord actually tilled over the whole yard (its only like a 6x6 patch) and did a little bit of landscaping earlier this summer (mid-june). Just last week I noticed that there are hops growing up the fence. They look like they're the nuggets. Pretty small growth, but what do you expect after all they'd been through? I'm moving out of the state at the end of the month, and will probably never come back, so I won't know what happens with them, but their will probably be some nuggets up for grabs on 32nd north of spring garden in a couple of years, if anyone wants to brave it.
There are also hops growing on a fence in front of a vacant lot in the Rittenhouse square area that I would assume are up for grabs.
Thought I would give this thread a bump.
I am just looking to start in the central PA (Dauphin county) area. And needing any and all advice possible!
Pictures of how to grow, trellises, etc would be awesome to see!
Places you recommend to buy and what varieties to buy would also be greatly recommended.
Thanks everyone!
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