My Zeus has one bine 8' and it looks like 20 hops. Wow, whats that dry 3g?
Hallur. 2nd year is all over.
Liberty is in direct sun, bushy and low 5'.
Centennial 1st year direct sun, 2 bines about 2'

on a side peppers look great.

Cascades are doing really well, about 10' tall, bushy and lots of baby hop cones.
Mt Hood about as tall no cones yet.
Centennial and fuggle about 4'.
Northern Brewer won't get going, just a l'il lump o' hop-bine.

I wish there was some sort of hop sampler to smell and taste to get an idea of which ones a person likes the most.

Yeah, I really just said that.

Of the two cascade rhizomes I planted only one produced any bines (about 4 bines came up) The two strongest bines are only about 18 inches - just starting climbing the vine last week Although they are first year I am pretty disappointed with what seems to be a dud rhizome.

Is it possible to transplant the rhizomes for next season? I found a much better place in my yard to plant them where they would get sun almost all day long. I am afraid about moving them though - I don't want to kill the little buggers!

Is it too late to plant? I'm in San Diego...

I want to be in San Diego..minus the taxes and housing prices.

Me too!

My 3rd year Cascades have decided they like it here. I have them grow up a 6 ft fence then another 6 ft to the shed at an angle and they have grown another 2-3 ft. Lots of cones and lots of long laterals. Some of them are 3 ft. Does anyone know if I need to support the laterals or just let them flop around?

"on a side peppers look great."

What kinda peppers; chili's?

I have 18 up of 25, 1 Mt Hood is 6 times bigger than the others, most have only come up 6". The 1 MH found the rope on it's own and is cruising. Wondering if it will make the ridge line at 17'.

My Tetts are about 5 ft. I moved them and they really love it. I dug up a patch about 1.5 feet around and moved 3 of them to direct all day south exposure and ran string up my pole barn for them to climb.

I also put in 198 hot banana pepper (wax) plants and 22 Habenero plants for my hot sauce. Last time I put in 155 hot banana and I got 146 pounds total but I was looking for deep red peppers so they had to stay on a longer amount of time. If you picked them all yellow I think you could increase the yield substantially.

CLB

I have second year Cascades and Nuggets growing up a hand built ladder trellis that only stands at about 8 feet (limitations for my yard). The cascades were spilling over the top a couple of weeks ago so I retrained them onto the trellis and would assume they are at around 12 feet now. The nuggets are just starting to spill over, so I am going to let them grow down a bit and retrain them.

My second year Sterlings on the other hand never did anything last year (not even a sprout), but just before I dug it up to plant a new one this year it sprouted and is at about 2-3 feet now.

Henry, yellow and red bells, giant marconis, ancho, other sweet peppers. Thats about all that will grow here after may. My hops will get beat down by the heat.

My son weed whacked 4 of 5 bines on one of my Mt Hood plants.

I didn't plant until early May. My Mt. Hood is going crazy, like 10 bines and the longest about 24 inches two cascades about 10 inches, only one bine on each so far. My fuggle is only around 6 inches on the longest of about 6 bines. The Mt Hood and Fuggle were both jumbos from Freshops, the cascades were regulars.

second year Cascades growing steady. about 12-15 feet. Lot's of sprouts forming.

Cascades about 6', no cones yet, Nuggets around 5', no cones yet, Goldings about 15" (they were neglected for a few years, kinda stunted)

Weeds took over. Maybe next year....

5 of the 6 have reached the top (~12'). Wish I could have another 5'. My Cascades are a little weak on the second string.

The Nugget reached the top a couple of weeks ago. It must have known because it has sent out a dozen side shoots that are all about 2' long long. How does it know that?

My Cascade from Jason F. is about 7 ft. tall. The Centennials and Magnums are about 3 feet tall. This weekend I have to extend the growing path for the Cascade. I'll try to post a pic or two when I do it.

Growing like montsters!
I love it

My Cascades have laterals at least 3 ft long. Since there is a narrow (maybe 2ft at best ) path to walk by them it really feels like they are grabbing you. In fact they do since the laterals are"furry" like the main bines.

Have one cascade at the top of the trellis and it has some flowers budding. The other cascade is about half way up with a couple flowers and the EKG is still about 1 ft tall.

Hey Cody, I'm not far from you, in McKinney. Do you have your plants in full sun? How often do you water, and how much? I'll probably start some bines next year.

well its safe to say most of us has cascades first year and only 2ft (didn't plant until mid april) but water every day and buried some fish remains in close proximity. so, soon......

My cascades are booming this year. Up and over the top at 10' and wrapping along the wires...looking good. Especially compared to last year....must have been the snow in June last year that slowed them down!

My first year nuggets and cascades are off to a slow start about 1' each. My nugget has 3 bines and I think one was gnawed on by some animal. It seems to be recovering but does anyone think I should cut it so more of the growing goes into the healthier 2?

I wouldn't cut anything the first year. The whole goal the first year is to get as much energy to the plant as possible. And that means as many leaves as possible.

IME, when a tip gets blown off/eaten off, it takes about 2 weeks for 2 shoots to come out of the next leaf node down.

I have heard that before I just wasn't sure if the slightly damaged bine would hinder any new growth. I'll take your advice on it. I have trimed the bottom leaves already because they were touching the ground and I heard that the lower leaves could leave a plant vulnerable to disease. is that right or should I stop that too?

If I were you, I would remove leaves actually touching the ground, but nothing else. I usually don't do that until they are at least 4' tall.

I think the primary reason for removing the lower leaves is to help air circulation, but in the first year you usually don;t have a whole lot of bines or vigorous growth so air circulation isn;t a big deal.

thanks a lot I'm probably just getting to impatiant, but I do hope I get some hops this year. I'm just gonna keep watering them and hope for the best.

Centennial: about 15' with 4 bines and cones just barely starting.
Hallertauer: about 12' with 3 bines.
Cascade 1: about 7' with 7 bines.
Cascade 2: about 4' with 2 bines. (The main bine got its head knocked off in a storm, so it's playing catch up...)
Zeus: Planted Late and it just broke the surface...
Magnum: still nothing BB, you may have to send me another one next year....


Peppers: I put in 4 Poblano, 8 Anaheim and 4 Thai. All looking good. Poblano's have flowers already. Not bad for Ohio...

I can't believe that one isn't growing. It had a green sprout on it. All of the other cuttings I took from that plant are doing great.

Jason, you're not supposed to soak it in RoundUp before you plant it.

That one really has me scratching my head. I left the sprout above ground when I planted it and it survived for a few days then shriveled up.... Maybe I just have some bad soil in that area???

Maybe it just loved Texas too much.

cascade - 3rd year: going gangbusters up a telephone pole with an explosion of laterals that not unlike like a fourth of july display
cascade - 1st year divisions: 8', 4', 6', 6', 4', 2', 2'
mount hoods (2): very vigorous up to 8' & now training lateral across the garage, looks to be a good year

i also now have several neighbors who grow them for screening but don't brew, so i trade them a homebrew sampler for their cones at the end of the season.

i heart urban farming.

"Maybe it just loved Texas too much."

If thats the case, send some this way next year if you get a chance. I'm close to giving up, but will try one more time next year.

Kelly - no, they do not have full sone all day, only about 6 hours worth, then they are shaded by the house during the hottest part of the day. I water the back yard (where they are) every other day for 2 minutes per station. Somehow I managed to plan each one about a foot from a misting head, work very well! I also use a seaweed based pesticide to keep the bugs off.

This is the second year for my mount hood hops and they going great. They're about 12' to 14'feet already and I already have about 30 cones forming. So, it should be a good year for my mount hood.

On the other hand, my first year centennial and cascades are way behind. The centennial plant is just under a foot, so not much happening there. It looks OK, but I'm concerned it will not survive. The cascades are a little over a foot and have started winding their way up the trellis.

What does everyone do for fertilizer?

So far I have used homemade compost and Humus (composted manure). And sometimes I shake on these slow release OsmoCote granules that are for vegetables.

chicken manure late winter - fish emulsion in spring - and my urine all summer long.

i believe this also mentally prepares them for the scary but inevitable metamorphosis inside the kettle from the young and awkward hop cones you watched growing up on the bine into selfless champions of complex and beautiful beers- which i then like to drink and discharge onto hop bines. it's the cycle of life, and it's beautiful.

are you surprised at my tears sir? strong men also cry... strong men also cry.

What's the root system like on these hops? I'm guessing you can't plant them in a big planter pot with special soil/compost?

Papa..i guess thats an contributor to your golden colored beers?

Note to self: Do not exchange hops with Dirty Papa.

anotherdrummer, the rhizomes get to be the size of basketballs or bigger. You can grow them in a planter, but they won't do exceptionally well in one.

I've found that you can get by the first year in a planter but after that, put them in the ground.

Note to self, ship DP's hops to BB.... he'll never know since I used no pictures to say this....

if you have recently wondered aloud (yes a posting on TB counts) why your bines are still under 2ft this late in the season you had better run outside and drop your trousers, because anyone who doesn't urinate on their garden is a pansy and a half-ass horticulturist. look it up.

hey BB, how do hops grow in slimy valley? i live in portland, oregon but one of these days i'll move back to ventura and i have access to some land in camarillo where i can set up a garden, but haven't had much luck finding any info. also, are there any good HB stores in that area?

Note to self: Make beer with DP's hops and send it all to j.

Dirty Papa, BB is in Texas... I'm in the area you talk of.... Do I know you? Are you the guy that kicked my arse in high school, sorry about your car...NOT! lol

Tell me of the property in Camarillo, is it in the heights?

The best LHBS in the area is 20 min south on the 101 down in Woodland Hills. Home of the Maltose Falcons.

Let me know when your coming down, we'll brew a batch....

aka j is the BB i meant...

i was a white surfer kid who went to hueneme high school, so pretty much spent my adolescence getting the crap beat out of me by mexican gangs. although, if you surf and ever found yourself in a proper rumble at hueneme beach then we may have met after all.

the camarillo property is the better part of an acre, south facing on the hillside above las posas rd. it has well drained sandy loam soil, and currently has a generous garden. very productive. how do hops do down there?

i may be down to visit family in a couple months, and depending on how long i stay i may take you up on that offer.

any LHBS up north? like ventura?

All 1st year

cascade: 16' and putting out all sorts of little buds. more bines than i could keep trimmed back.
centennial 12-16' again little buds only two bines
Glacier: sickly! 6'and no signs of buddage
Horizon: 10' two bines and just starting on laterals.

75% for 1st years...I'll take it!

North of Las Posas.... I know the area well. I ran my bike and stuff in those hills, grew up in those hills too.

Support my wennie... surfed out there a lot. I stopped going to hueneme casue of the fights. I couldn't figure out why one surfer didn't let another on the beach.... Oil Piers used to have that problem too.

Up in Ventura is/was Mr Suds. A party store that you could get your brew supplies from. Was for sale a year back. Anyhow my mentor said it was mostly old supplies and extract centric.

Anyhow the offer is up, brew here, or I'll bring a keg to Camarillo and sit in the sand hill. The whole hill is sandy.

My brother is trying to get me to buy a new board. Neither of us have surfed for nearly 25 years... I'll hurt after just floating for an hour....

in a nut shell, there were more people than waves. and we were kids. sorry.

now i only surf when i go home and it f-ing hurts. i feel your pain.

Give me heads up and we'll have a homebrew.

My second year Willamette has 4 binds to about 15 feet. That is as high as i can go. Should I cut off the tips to get some sideshoots?

FB, don't mess with it just let it flop.

OK, so my 2nd year Mount Hood rhizome has gone wild and I have what appears to be fully grown hops. I've actually picked a dozen from the bines already and they're dryng right now. I must have at least 50 more flowering or partially grown hops on the bines. Is this normal for mid June in NJ? If so, I'm going to have a bumper crop this year.

Unlike previous posters, I refuse to urinate on my hops. However, the birds seem to like to dump on them quite a bit. What's up with that?

Took a look at them this morning and found some aphids on the fresh new leaves. So this will be my third time spraying.
I've noticed that the leaves that have been sprayed, the aphids don't move back onto and that is okay with me.

Just curious. I'm a first year hops grower. I planted four varieties and three are doing phenomenally well! (In my inexperienced opinion)

cascade:19' and probably 100-120 blossoms/cones

centennial: 18' and probably 80 blossoms/cones (But they're HUGE)

Horizon: 15' and just putting out blooms

Glacier: 8' and nothing bloomwise

Is this normal for first year and it looks like my yield will be better than expected. Or will I lose 90% to water and end up with a couple of ounces of hops?

Just wondering what to expect.

Jim sounds good.

My Zeus hops are Huge but only got 20-40 cones

Jim W,

That sounds pretty good for a 1st year crop and yes you will lose 80-90% weight by drying

JW-
All sounds good with Mother Nature(except the Glacier)
Your lower AA's will crop up first, hence they are harvested earlier in the season(Aug). Then followed by the higher AA's(Sept).
I'm not surprised that the Cascades are booming. Very versatile hop. Your Glacier will come around, especially next year!
Great on your Centennials.

<Note: don't go by my dates of harvest. I reside around 47*N 120* 30' W.>

I've got bines reaching 8' but not even a hint of any cones forming.

Got 2 cascades that that are ~12 feet. They have flowers and cones. The side arms sprout a cone at the end. I thought the side arms had more than one grow on it that just one. Am I wrong?

My side arms have 2-6 cones coming out of every leaf node

you suck...maybe mine will sprout some more.

If you saw mine, you'd be real happy. Cody are your hops getting full sunlight dawn to dusk?

No. They are between my house and my neighbors so I would say they only get ~6 hours of direct light then my roof blocks it, which is good now I think since its pushing 100* every day. One has passed the roof line so the top ~foot pretty much get full light.

Maybe it's soil or the ph, but I just don't seem to be having a lot of luck with these things.

I came home yesterday and my middle plant from the top to about 7 feet down was missing its leaves. Two huge catepillars were munching their way down the vine. They didn't touch the forming cones, but the leave are totally gone. Little bastards paid. Found several smaller ones on the back sides of some other leaves and I sprayed those. Hope the plant puts energy into the cones and not into growing new leaves. It still has enough for photosynthesis, I think.

I have seen a hole in a leaf here or there, but nothing that bad. My Centennial leaves have turned yellow, except the veins, starting at the bottom. I have fertilized them a few times, but it doesn;t seem to change it. Anybody know what that is about. I figured Nitrogen deficiency, but fertilizing should have fixed that.

BB, are those first year hops?

If you're getting 8 ft out of a first year rhizome, that's a lot better than I did last year.

my first year cascade is at about 8' now, it grew about 2.5 feet in a week. no flowers yet but the nodes are growing pretty well

Just killed another one of those bastard caterpillars.

its not an army worm is it? them sum-biches will eat anything

They look like this:

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=75733

"BB, are those first year hops?"

Third year on some, but I did split the rhizomes and the new ones actually look better than the originals.

that is a gnarly lookin bastard! nothing like that i've seen in MN. if i see something like that i'd shoot it! sure ain't no army worm

You're such a dunce. That's just a F__king worm.

good thing the cold here keeps things like that out i'm sure steve would agree as well

BTW where's he been?? he bopped in briefly than disappeared

He's making hot sauce and I don't understand it. He could come in here and waste time, but no, he'd rather make money.

some people and their get rich quick schemes working is for the birds.

brewsci,

use nature's original nitrogen. it's free. you want your hops to grow big and strong, don't you? go ahead...no one's looking. that's right, pee on it. that's right, just like that. ahhhhhhh.....

at first you feel funny, maybe even a little ashamed. you look over your shoulder hoping no one catches you urinating in the corner of your yard. i mean, what would people think? or say? would they talk behind your back? you'll lie when your friends ask about your green thumb, you'll say you use the latest off-the-shelf granular products, or local chicken manure, or that you stream Vivaldi's Four-Seasons 24-hours a day through all-weather speakers set up in a perfectly engineered surround sound configuration to gain an edge through enhanced plant moood. and it will be hard to keep your secret, this much i know. but the weight of this shame is the great price people like you and i must pay for the ultimate prize...those big beautiful cones.

Mine broke ground 7 shoots ago (about 3 months ago) and are still just about 9 inches tall. SOAMFBWTFIUWT! (don't ask in a family based forum)


giving more fertilizer this weekend.... increaseing the water again.... grow I command thee to GROWWWWW!

My Mt. Hoods are pretty big & bushy, but instead of running along the split rail fence like I've tried to train them, they have chosen to turn on themselves and become dense bushes. No cones yet - hopefully soon.

Dirty Papa,

I can only make so much of nature's nitrogen. Not enough for all the garden.

Went to the local nursery and they said it is typical iron deficiency. Put some ironite on them an we will see.

first year nuggets and cascades are at about 2 1/2'...meh. In NJ we have had rain at least once a day for the past 2 1/2 weeks and not a lot of sun. It's getting sunnier though. It would probably be better if it were sunny more often and I regulated the water, but what can you do?

Just sprayed again for the third time. This will probably be my last time using Malathion for one of my plants(Chinook) is already starting to flower(way ahead of the others).

My Chinook went crazy huge, started getting tons of cones and then they started yellowing between the leaf veins and getting brown spots on the leaf-has anyone ever had this? I'm not holding out much hope but I REALLY don't want to tear it out. I looked on the Freshhops web site and it looked to be a virus of some sort but was kind of vague.

paulb-
were your cones already ripe(starting to open and getting lighter in color)?
I don't know your geograhic location, but it might be going through it's normal cycle.

Second year Mt. Hood's are going crazy. To the eve's of the second story a month ago or so and now have wrapped around. Had to put up another trllis net to support more vertical growth. Grow baby grow!

WApilot,no they're still at the fuzzy-burr stage,no real cones yet.I'm in Portland OR.Would the leaves dying off be normal? Thanks for the input.

That shouldn't be too normal. Are all of them going yellow? On my plants, I might have 15 leaves that are starting to turn yellow per plant over 15ft tall. If most of them are turning, try giving them some food

I have some yellow, holey leaves too. Bugs, heat, over or under watering, under or over fertilizing, who the hell knows. My second year cascade has about 10 cones that look a week away from picking and maybe 50 other flowers that are or about ready to start forming cones.

My dog just dug my pathetic little chinook sprout out of the ground

I didn't even bother posting on this thread until now because my first year attempt failed so miserably. Planted two cascades which none came up. One of the two willemete came up but died(i think the description "grows well in all climates" doesn't pertain to hell AKA tucson, az). one out of two chinook came up and looked nice and hearty but was growing slow as hell

any recommendations from people familiar with growing hops in this kind of heat and latitude?

I replaced what was going to be my trellis for the year one hops this weekend.... I was about to cement in the new poles when I decided last minute to remove 1.5 ft of the vertical, when I heard a crack.... my 2x4 snapped in half.... SOAB!!!!!


Back to Home Depot tomorow

WApilot-Yeah, I fed them some fish emulsion(slightly dilluted) with some superthrive -micro nutrients. I would'nt be worried but for the brown spots. This beauty has more flowers than I can count! Oh well, wait and see.

Mine are massive....looks on track to at least equal the 27 lb. I picked last year.

Denny-
How goes the battle with your Nugget?

It's still there, weakly limping along. If I'd remembered it was there earlier ion the year, I might have given it some TLC to see what happened. Oh well, no big loss AFAIAC. I haven't used half the Cascades I got last year, and this year looks like it'll be just as big. The last thing I needed was another hop plant monster to harvest!

Is that 27 lbs wet or dry Denny?

27 lb. wet. About 5.5 dry.

Looks like it is about time to pick my hops. Anyone have a good technique for drying and storing them?

I use saw horses and old large window screens. I set them up on the saw horses in a downstairs bathroom. I run a fan in the bathroom to keep air moving across them. I think the main idea is to get bugs away from them and make sure you get them dry before you freeze/bag them.

Since this is a hop thread, I may as well chime in. Hops on the Oregon coast are slowly coming along. No flowers yet, and only one of my 5 varieties have many side shoots coming off it so far. I usually harvest in early September. My question regarding hop gardening is if anybody has had luck planting/transplanting in fall. Fall/winter is a good time on the coast here to do bareroot things, I wonder if I can do hops in fall as well. We get maybe, MAYBE three freezes a year, lasting a day each. If i get the rhizome in the ground and mulched well with straw and spent grain, I'm thinking it should be fine. Anybody with experience?

PS I use a food dehydrator to dry mine.

Isn't it too early for a hop harvest?
I really don't know how to tell if they are ready! But I noticed on my centennials that I'm starting to get some browning on the tips of the cones. Are they ready? They spring back when squeezed and don't give off a really strong hop aroma so I was thinking no but the browning tips have me worried.

I've got 2 cascades and a glacier growing right now. The sun finally came out after about a month of rain, and the cascades grew about 2 feet over the weekend. I do have a question for all you wisened hop growers out there: two of my bines outgrew my interim trellis and flopped over and kinked themselves. Any idea whether these two will continue to grow now that they have snapped off? As a side note, the trellis has been lengthened to about 16 feet, so they should have plenty of room now (hopefully).

Nevermind, I saw a response back in June about the same problem. I'm all set now.
Sorry about that.

Jim, when the hops are ready for harvest you should see big yellow lupuliln glands and they should feel kinda dry and papery to the touch.

This probably goes without saying, but keep your hop plants away from your roof. My binds started to grow up my roof but because it was so full I never notice. Yesterday I got an a ladder to check out the cones and noticed that the shoots up the shingles were singed and the cones were dying. Must get pretty hot with the shingles. I have since pulled my trellis away from the house.

Good point - Even in my cool climate (70's during the summer) I notice the ones that top out on the roof get pretty wilty during the days. I need to get back up there and drape them over themselves.

I sure like the way hop prices are going. How about you Denny?

Sure...cheaper is always better. But you should have heard Ralph Olsen at NHC to get an idea of where things are heading in the future.

I'm just happy to know that my friends on tastybrew.com will be more than happy to send me any abundance of hops that they can't use!

Thanks guys!

Oh, here we go again. I smell a hop conspiracy brewing.

No, that's your IPA..

You know AD, that's the name for my next IPA. DC Conspiracy IPA.

Of course I did! My new brew is ESP.IPA

my 1st yr cascades are at about 20ft, some nice long lat's at about 12ft, but have seen no flowers yet?? i planted it 4-22(i know, late) do i have a chance at any cones by fall?? i know most 1st yr's don't produce much that and i only have 1 bine.

2nd year cascade is at about 20 ft and 2nd year centennial is about 18. Flowers are all over the cascade and here and there on the centennial. Can't wait to harvest!!

My two Mt. Hoods are thick, lush bushes that decided to grow back on and around themselves rather than train horizontally (i tried for a while, and gave up) . . . no flowering just yet, but I have high hopes.

My hops are ok but the heat is putting a beating on them. But my peppers are looking and tasting great.

Once again...any leftovers, I'll be happy to give you my address....just because you're so generous.

Here is a link to my hops pictures as of today:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8551959@N04/sets/72157621446988251/show/with/3727285279/

Those look good jestyr. It looks like they get a lot of shade? Do you have any idea how many hours of sun they get each day?

They actually get a good amount of sun. From about 9am until about 5:30 pm (09:00 t0 17:30 for our non-USA friends) the sun is on them so they get at least 8 hours a day. The shade isn't complete, either.

My hops don't look near as good as yours and I think I get close to that amount of sun and it is intense right now. Maybe I have a soil problem.

How old are those hop plants?

2 and 3 years old. I use natural fertilizer, courtesy of my neighbor who has horses. The larger plants are growing in a raised bed. That gave them a bit of an earlier start this spring.

Good time to review this topic. Mine are not good. I just got a new house and wanted to plant hops. I bought three types. One of the bines was basically DOA. I should get a replacement next year. The other two I planted in pots because we were having some yard work done and I didn't want them to get killed in the process. I finally, last weekend, got them in the ground. They are each about 8" long and not doing great. I'm a little nervous the shock of transplanting may kill them again. I guess I'll just wait and see how it goes.

Oh, and I haven't had a chance to brew since moving. It's a little sad, actually.

I just harvested some of my hops today. Any good suggestions on drying them?

lay em out flat on a window screen

Do I need to have air moving through them?

It helps to have the air moving around, yeah. A food dehydrator works too

http://www.tastybrew.com/forum/thread/39661

Picked a handful today...its just too hot, most of the cones have shriveled up before they had a chance to grow.

I guess there will be no Fresh Hop co-op brew this year, huh Cody....

We might be able to squeeze a 2 gal mild out of 'em!

Going well for my first year hops. Cascade at 23 feet, Nugget at 21 feet, Magnum at 15 feet. They all just topped out their hop trellis rigging and are now sending out lateral shoots (side shoots). The Cascade is a monster with 3 to 4 foot laterals! You can see the pics at my hop blog (I am documenting from rhizome to harvest - I know first year yields are low). This is an experiment on maximizing hop cone production and learning a few things along the way.
http://www.growinghopsyourself.com

My hops are doing pretty well. Cascade is so tall I can;t measure. I'm guessing 20 ft, lots and lots of 4-6ft laterals, bunches of cones.

Around midJune the CAscade and Centennial (12ft) started getting yellow leaves from the bottom (yellow ecept green veins). Talked to the lady at our local nursery who also grows hops and she said they need iron real bad. REcommended Ironite. I got some put it on, watered real well and sure enough all the new leaves are a drak green instead of yellow-green. The Centennial has since started producing cones. I guess my soil is iron poor. Looks like the tomato plant might be doing the same thing.

EDIT:

These are both 3rd year plants. The Centennial did not produce even 1 cone in year 1 and 2. The Cascade produced a total of 0.25 ounce dried in years one and 2 combined. This year is at least 10X more maybe 50X on the Cascade.

My hops are 3-4 years are are great. Best looking since I put them in. Cool wet spring here in Central Jersey, but they were the first thing up in the garden. Tons of buds the size of my thumb. I have to send a sample to Fresh Hops because I forgot the type. I had 2 varieties but one died after the second season. This one is awesome. I would have to estimate 20ft high, but my poles are only 15-16ft, so they collect at the top in a huge bunch.

My 1st year cascade hop plant has finally hit about 7 feet and is now deciding it wants to grow very fast and start putting out laterals! I'm guessing this is a good sign for a 1st year plant my nugget is kinda stuck at about 5 1/2 feet and is not wanting to move much(It is slightly shaded though so I plan to move it at the end of the season). The rain has been constant and nasty here in New Jersey.

I noticed some brown hops on my Cascade last night. They seem to be starting one bine from about 6 ft and creeping upwards. These are the first cones that were put out. Is it just that they are past their prime? The other newer cones look great, 1.5-2 inches long.

My worry was that I might have spider mites, but I don't know what to look for.

Doesn't look like I'm gonna get anything off of my Hallertauer again this year, so I just ordered another 12oz from Freshhops...

Anybody have any luck with this variety...

Twice as many on the other side of the fence...

http://photobucket.com/dennyhops09

And thanks for making my day, Denny.

Seriously, nice hops. I'm very envious.

That's a single 9-10 year old plant. And it's why I laugh when I hear of people planting 10 plants!

What do you keep in the barn? Any livestock?

Nope....just storage. It's been sway backed like that since it was built in 1945, I'm told.

I've got an old farm house that I use like that. Not near in as good of shape as your barn. I just recently put some chicken wire over some of the broken out doors and windows to keep the buzzards out of there. Let me tell you, those are nasty animals. Where they sit, they $hit and it is an awful smell.

Maybe thats what's wrong with your beer, the buzzards are shitting in it...

Hops are all topped out and forming hop cones. I just posted some pics on my hop blog. You can take a look at:

http://www.growinghopsyourself.com/beer-hops/hop-cones/

I just came in from a busy day in the yard.... After watering the hops I was standing around admiring my spent grain usage and how it's keeping some weeds and grass back from the hop bines. I was looking at my cascade hop flowers and noticed the little flowers from center up are now starting to resemble hop cones. The Mt Hood still look like little spikey things but these will grow into the cones.

It's been a blast growing them and tending them this year. I'd recommend anyone not growing them this year shoulud at least run a bine next year in a pot or something. Nothing like the near-free hops you'll get.

If a buzzard ever comes near my beer, I'm sending it to you, J.

I've walked in to that farm house not knowing they were in there. When that bird is trying to get out the same entrance you just came into, you realize how big those damn things are. I once, scared one that flew right through a glass window. Never saw him again, so I guess he/she made it.

LMAO

Great looking plant, Denny.
If you get the chance, I'd like to see your Nugget plant

I'll try to see if I can find it among the weeds and blackberries!

Asking another man to see his nuggets. You west coast guys are really strange.

BB,

Notice WA said he wanted to see his Nugget Plant...

Not planting his Nuggets.....lol

I still worry....

You silly children
I first typed "Nugget" alone, read it and then added "plant"....too funny

First year growing hops, and so far it has been a lot of fun. Two Cascades and a Glacier. Cascades have bines or varying height, up to 18 feet where my trellis stops, and both are producing cones. The glacier seems to want to grow out, not up, so I just left it atached to the fence it started out on, and is now starting to flower. My biggest challenge has been the damn Japanese Beetles, which seem to prefer the Glacier to the Cascade, but now that I have cones on the Cascade, are all over that now. Those little S*@ts are actually eating the cones themselves! Oh well, I'll still use them, it's the inside that counts anyway.

Had the Hop-acalypse this weekend. I strung up some twine from under the eaves of my house to train the bines up. Last year it worked great- when there was only one vine per line. This year, I allowed several vines up each line, and the old lines couldn't take the strain- they broke and a whole mess of bines came tumbling down. I had to climb back up and re-attach a new line to the eaves. It wasn't that heavy- only about 20lb or so- but the old lines combined with a little wind and extra weight couldn't take the strain. Hopefully they aren't too badly damaged and will still produce some cones.

I 've got some cones turning brown on me so I am thinking I will harvest some cones this weekend. Cascade looks like it will need 3 or 4 harvest since the are of varying degrees of maturity

I'm harvesting when they feel 'papery' to me . . . should I be waiting until they start to turn a bit brown? I've gotten about 4 oz. (dried) from my two 3rd-year Mt. Hood 'bushes', and they're not showing any signs of slowing down . . . yeehaw!

I'm also looking forward to using some green hops for flavor and aroma additions soon . . . but for storage, I'm drying them out on the dehydrator . . .

jmo,

most of my hops look great, but not yet papery. Just a handful are brown and only on the outside.

For drying with a dehydrator, how long does it take. I got an old dehydrator, but haven;t used it for drying hops yet

Mine are taking anywhere from 12 to 18 hours, on the 'coolest' temp setting. It's pretty damn old, too - 'American Harvest' is the brand. Kinda cool to be 'putting up' ounce bags already . . .

I could also be jumping the gun on picking them . . . but they seem to be fully pungent and mature . . . and full of that lovely yellow dust!

Mine doesn't even have a temp setting. It is just plugged in or not plugged in. All my hops are Cascades, plus a few Centennials. The Cascade just keeps putting out more and more burrs. Seems like I will be harvesting until frost.

I just picked about a pound of wet hops from my Cascade plant. It looks like I'll be able to get another pound from it by the time I finish picking.


Thank you Jason F. !!!!! for the bine and thank you Matthew for the hop growing book!1!!!!

Parma, is this from the crown Jason split up earlier in the year?

Maybe? He sent me the bine in April of this year.

That was it.... my email bounced 4 times... Tis OK my cascade made it and is doing well....

I'm pretty excited about brewing with them now. I'm thinking about an all Cascade Parma Pale Ale!

Looking at your acronym CPPA I get the folowing:
CPPA Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement (Oasis)
CPPA Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996
CPPA Canadian Pulp & Paper Association
CPPA Corrugated Polyethylene Pipe Association
CPPA Center for Public Policy Analysis
CPPA Connecticut Professional Photographers’ Association
CPPA Conference for Progressive Political Action
CPPA Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association (Cleveland, OH)
CPPA Christian Paintball Players Association
CPPA Companhia Pernas Pro Ar
CPPA California Public Parking Association
CPPA Certified Professional Property Administrator
CPPA Canadian Personal Property Appraiser
CPPA Christian Pool Players Association
CPPA California Pork Producers Association
CPPA California Police Pistol Association
CPPA Central Parts Procurement Agency
CPPA Constitution Party of Pennsylvania (Butler, PA)
CPPA Circularly Polarized Patch Antenna
CPPA Coarse Pseudo-Pin Assignment
CPPA Central PA Podiatry Associates, PC (Altoona, PA)
CPPA Civilian Performance & Promotion Appraisal
CPPA Canadian Pacific Pioneers Association (Canadian Pacific Railway retired employees)
CPPA Career Planning and Placement Association
CPPA Canadian Pitch and Putt Association
CPPA Committee for Progressive Political Action

I submitted Cascade Parma Pale Ale.... if accepted it will be added to the list...

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/CPPA

Some of those are pretty damn funny!