does anyone know if peet bog or good old swamp soil would be a good base for growing hops? reason being is i'm gonna start a couple plants at some land i have that is mostly comprised of sand (remnants of an ancient glacial lake ) and was thinking of blending in some of afore mentioned soil since its mostly decomposing matter anyway don't really think it would hurt. gonna start a cascade and a columbus come spring. thoughts?

Where are you getting the Columbus rhizome?

don't have the answer but I know the most fertile soil in America if not the world is the California central valley which was a swamp/bog that was drained for farming... yes BB this is true...

from midwest supplies. whenever they come in, i pre ordered the other day. they are damn close to me, 25 min.

WOW I always thought that was a proprietary hop.

IMO Hops are pretty hardy. I think the sand will provide enough drainage and the decomposing matter should provide nutrients if you layer with the other soil you have. I have a couple of plants going on their 3rd year and I've had a couple die in the first year. I just dug a small hole about 2 feet down and layered compost, a little wood ash, and dirt a few times. Made a small mound and planted the rhizomes about 2 inches down. The ones that died I did not dig down nearly enough so I think that is key.

You want good drainage, but also they need a lot of nutrients for the roots to reach down to get good growth in that first year. Once mine made it through the first month they grew like crazy ever since. I live in MN, near Minneapolis. If you have sand you may have to water a lot depending where you live. I ended up watering mine a lot in the first year! I continue to add compost throughout the year and a big heap at the beginning of each season.

I don't think you want a lot of un-decomposed organic matter on the pile because as they continue to decompose they release nitrogen and for some reason (going from memory of something I read so...) that is undesirable at that point. So if you can let your decomposing matter "decompose" a bit more before you use it, I think that would be better.

I've learned almost all the info I need to grow and harvest my own hops from a great yahoo group called grow-hops. Similar situations have been gone over in more detail there than I can get in to from memory.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grow-Hops/

Croixboy

croixboy where ya from? i'm in the north burbs sounds like your to me east towards the boarder

Good guess with the name. I grew up in Lakeland (near Afton) right by the St. Croix River so that is where the name comes from. Went to Stillwater HS. I've lived in Richfield for the last 5 years or so...

Croixboy96

sick of the free way work yet?

Hops truely are a desert weed. They can grow dang near anywhere but drainage is a big factor. I used peet moss once and won't go back to it. It didn't allow moisture to retain but if you mix it with other soil you shouldn't have any issues.

The only soil I'm aware of (in the U.S.) that won't grow hops is BB's backyard.

BB needs to really amend his red soil and give it a ton of food. Hopefully this will be the year his bines take off..... BB get your cane pole and go fishing.... get some horse shit, spent grain and the fish into that ground.... Lots of it. Miracle grow will help too....

I've used Miracle Grow. I think it will take more than a miracle to get hops to grow around here.

I think your going to have to take some drastic measures and force them ,BB

BB.......I would think that with all the BS floating around your place that you would have no problem finding fertilizer.

Maybe that's the problem... too much BS. He needs more cows on the ranch...

I've considered cattle, but I'd have a bunch of fence that would need to be fixed/built.