Trying to "Relax.....have a homebrew", but as I try and watch my hops grow, I got a question. The rhizomes have been in the ground now for over a month. My EKG's started sprouting within 2 weeks, my cascades finally broke ground about 3 weeks, but my Centennial and Fuggles have yet to show themselves. I've even did some delicate excavating to see if there are shoots coming up and without going too deep I haven't found any yet.

Is it common? Maybe some strains grow easier than others?

My fuggles grew the slowest last year. I just think they ride the short bus to the top.

I've got 6 varieites going and the Centennials have been the slowest to grow.

I need to relax myself...all my hops broke ground pretty quick in late March, grew about 18 inches then stopped. Anyone have a similar experience?

My Centennials where the second slowest after my sterling. But the sterling has less sun. One thing about my cents is that they are the only one of my rhizomes to have already thrown up more than one sprout. My zeus was very fast, only about a week in the ground and it showed itself.

I got a root cutting from a guy at work, wild hops of some kind, don't know the varietal. But, it has one shoot about 3 inches long when I put it in the ground. Within about a week it was up to almost 2 feet. I measured one day to the next and it had grown 5 inches in 24 hours. Now there are about 4 shoots coming up. crazy plants. I just wish i knew what kind it was.

A friend has seven or eight varieties and Centennial has been a bust for him (here in SW Wisconsin.) My Cascades are always aggressive, Mt. Hood has been a bust (aphids), and my Goldings didn't come back at all this year.

I put out new plantings of Liberty, Willamette, Fuggles, Chinook, and Nugget. Anybody more or less in my climate zone have experience with these?

There are walking/biking trails up in Golden CO near the Coors brewery that are covered with wild hops. Thinking I might snatch a few and see how they grow. Any CO folks know about them and their history?

Update, my Fuggles have 2 sprouts coming up. No sign on the Centennials but it sounds like that's a slower one anyway. Excersize in patience I guess. Next year will be the critical one but hoping to get some like WApilot had on his first year.

My 2nd year Cascadees are doing well. The Centennials are much slower. They seem to be more fragile too, much more likely to break off a tip. New Sterling still not up after 2 weeks.

I bought six varieties of rhizomes from freshops, one of which was a "jumbo" rhizome. Ironically, it's the only one that hasn't broken ground yet. A little concerned about it because I kept them in the fridge for a week before planting and when I took them out, that one had mold on it. The others are doing good though, especially the Nugget plant.

IPAnimal-
It's a waiting game this time of the year. The air might be warm but the ground is not up to temp yet....that is the biggest contributing factor.
They'll come up.
Ever thought about sprinkeling Viagra dust on the soil around the hill?

Here in Ellensburg, the ground stays cool a little longer. So I usually try to build up a soil retainter wall(build up a rock ring or 5in cedar boards), this gets more surface area for the sun to warm up the soil and rhizomes.
It has made a HUGE difference compaired to those I just stuck in the soil at ground level.
They'll spring up

My two second-year Mt. Hoods are coming up nicely - at least 8-10 bines each, and they are approx. 2 1/2 feet tall. David, if you've got any advice on how to avoid aphids, I'd love to hear it - these are the only hops I'm growing. This year, anyway.

Regarding the mention of 'wild' hops by Mark S. and Robert Jackson, before I'd plant one of those rhizomes, I'd brew a batch or two with the hops; either pick some hops from the plant on the trail (Robert), or get some hops from 'the guy at work' (MarK). The reasons are twofold:

First, and most importantly, since you don't know what kind of hops they are, you don't know if you'll like them in your beer and you don't want to find out after wasting a year and the money and trouble it took to grow it, not to mention the difficulty in getting rid of it if you don't like it.

Second, hops are difficult to accurately identify from the cones and leaves; there have been many posts asking about that in the past. Without being able to identify your hops, that becomes a problem if you decide to share your recipe or enter a beer in a competition.

Other than satisfying some curiosity as to 'what that wild hops might taste/smell like', the only thing you gain from using that rhizome is that you might save yourself a couple of bucks if you can't locate a free rhizome of a known cultivar from another source and therefore need to buy one.

Just a few thoughts. Good luck, one way or the other.

Cheers.

Bill Velek -- http://home.alltel.net/billvelek/growhops.html

I see where Bill is coming from.
The big prob. is misidentifying the hop and possibly creating some stickiness if you were to enter comps. with that hop. On the other hand....

Any hops are absolutely great for making your landscaping a touch above your neighbors and not to mention, the thrill of using that one "unknown hop" in a beer and waiting for 2 months to see if it's a blast or a bust
And if the hop is a blast, well then my friend, you just entered a whole new appreciation of brewing your own beer.
If it's a bust, at least your hop canopy over your deck is an eye opener for friends/guests.

What it all boils down to, is just have fun with it

In an E-mail from my brother I got yesterday he wrote this,

''Your hops plant looks odd to me, having only seen these invasive wild types with lobed leaves up until now. I was pulling roots out again yesterday.. they are a pain in the bummmmm! and just won't DIE!! ; - )''

Can't imagine wanting hops to DIE!!

My GF does....especially those taking over the house and all of her flowers

Hops are green WAp and so am I

My 2nd yr Cascades have gone mad in the garden. I have runners shooting up new plants all over. I dug a few out and planted them in new locations in the garden so they can climb the twine. They are already about 4-5 ft long. My 2nd yr Willamettes are not shooting out runners but are just a touch behind the cascades at about 3-4 ft long. I am hoping to finally yield a decent harvest this year.

How long do they have to be before you start "training" them? I'm figuring a good 6-12 inches.

I've read about 12 inches. Thats when I was planning to start training mine.

I waited until they were 3ft long but that's because I don't live where I grow them.

You already started cutting a 2nd year plant? I thought you had to wait at least 3 years.

I don't know what I am doing. But the way this thing is growing I don't think I could take a weed whacker to the thing and kill it.

I have thought of growing hops and reading all the threads I've come across only makes me want to do it more. One thing I'm curious about, is how do you know what kind of AA% your getting and how much to use for what your recipe or your taste call for?

Lab tests to determine AA% are usually more than most homebrewers want to spend relative to the amount of hops they've grown -- I think it's been reported as something in the neighborhood of forty bucks U.S.

More popular options seem to be:
1.) Trial and error based on successive batches of beer and whether you like the results, and then adjust the hop schedule accordingly; this is probably not a good method if you are a competition brewer;
2.) A comparative taste test where you make an assessment of your hops' bitterness compared to the same hops of a know AA content, but the minor problem is that you then need to acquire at least one packet of the commerical hops;
3.) Using home-grown hops only for flavoring and aroma, and not worrying about AA% because it won't really matter; this requires that you purchase all of your bittering hops (this was the method I used last year and was very happy).

There was a thread on my grow-hops group by a chemist, IIRC, who had devised some sort of a rough titration test that could be done at home with some very basic equipment, but I don't think all of the issues were ever resolved and I'm not sure that the test actually works; for instance, I think one issue was that the test probably wouldn't be able to differentiate between alpha and beta acids, which would through the results off. I had hoped there would be further posts to describe how that might be done, because obviously it must be possible in a lab so perhaps it could also be done at home.

Hope that helps.

Bill Velek -- www.grow-hops.com with over 2,000 members

Boston, I wasn't knocking what you did, but rather trying to get more information on the procedure.

How did you cut them and are they growing as well as the main plant? Were these shoots quite a ways from the main plant?

If I'm using them for a full boil for a 5 batch, I tend to use a half oz. more, mine seem to be a bit weaker on the alpha's than commercial pellets & of course as we all try to do is use variety's we are familiar with which is a hard thing to do with the shortage.

JP