Almost ready to pick!

[johnnyboy1965]

I must admit when I first read this post Ive always thought "Golden Tassle" was a ornamental variety A quick Google search and opinions seem to differ. It will be extremely low in AA`s, but you could use it as a aroma hop. Ive no idea what it will smell like. All is not lost, at least you know that you can grow hop plants. If it was down to my opinion I would dig it up and replace with a named variety that is definatley suitable for brewing (challenger is my favourite dual purpose hop) or just cut it down,dry and use as a garland).
I used to grow hops on my allotment, but had to give it up. Ive kept 3 of 4 plants that I keep in post and take cuttings from them each year. I can get 20 cuttings from each plant with a 90% strike rate. I grow these on for a couple of years and then give them away to anyone who wants them. I also like to do a bit of urban gardening....this means if you come across a structure that would be suitable for growing a hop through, just plant one at the bottom and walk away. I could give you a guided tour of Solihull and point out my hop plants and tell you the variety.

 

[jceg316]

Hey Johnnyboy1965, I have 3 hop plants in my garden but it would be great to get more plants from them. When you take a cutting, do you split the rhizome or something?

 

[GlentoranMark]

Are they deep rooted? Could you grow them in pots? I grow chillies but I've no space. You could train these so they don't have to grow so high. I'd love to try a variety or 2 out my back.

Great thread BTW.

 

[Covrich]

They look great nice one and well done!!

 

[Tony1951]

Are they deep rooted? Could you grow them in pots? I grow chillies but I've no space. You could train these so they don't have to grow so high. I'd love to try a variety or 2 out my back.

Great thread BTW.

Never done it yet, but I think they can be trained along a fence and adapted to your space that way, rather than just growing fifteen feet straight up like a proper hop garden. There are also dwarf varieties that are a lot more manageable. There are some discussions about this on the forum if you search. There was talk about this about a month ago or so. I had bookmarked them, but I am not on the same computer now.

Best get a variety you really like the flavour of though I think. I'm thinking of EKG for the autumn when the rhyzomes are ready to ship.

EDIT:

They are pretty demanding from the soil, but some people reckon they grow in containers.

https://byo.com/bock/item/1872-growing-hops-in-containers

 

[GlentoranMark]

That's a great read. I've grown lots of things in containers, some more successful than others. I've only mild chillies this year but I'll have a go at this next year. While I've never used EKG, they seem the most versatile for the home brewer so I'll probably try that along with North Down (I'm basically North Down in Belfast here!) I know how to train plants so I'll train them along my back fence. It should give a bit of greenery :)

 

[TheRedDarren]

Are they deep rooted? Could you grow them in pots? I grow chillies but I've no space. You could train these so they don't have to grow so high. I'd love to try a variety or 2 out my back.

Great thread BTW.

Unfortunately they are deep rooted, I would not be confident a hop would grow from a container. But try it, you never know how these things turn out.
As Tony said, they are very demanding to soil so a container grown plant would need regular mulching and probably a liquid fertiliser too.

If you're going to try in container I'd make one from 3x2 treated and build as big as you can, then get quality top soil and lots of garden compost and go for a dwarf variety to get the best chance of success.

 

[TheRedDarren]

Well, first impressions are not good!
Unless you like the smell of over cooked brussel sprouts that is.
I made a hop tea, 8 cones in just enough water to cover them - quite a lot as they are wet hops - and it's pretty grim!
Anyhow, I will go ahead and harvest them and dry them out. We shall see if the dried flavour is any better!

 

[TheRedDarren]

Ok so I picked them, I left them on the bine a lot longer than expected because there was no flavour or aroma from them at all, but now there is a citrus/grassy type smell, quite gentle but it's definitely there. It reminds me of the smell from Sierra Nevada pale ale.
I'm trying to dry them out as we speak... All 420g of them!

 

[GHW]

Obviously I'm just going on how you've got the hops in a tub on the photo, and you may already be doing this, but the best way to dry hops is to spread them out on a suspended sheet somewhere warmish but more importantly dry and ventilated (kitchens are generally humid from cooking) so air can circulate. They are more likely to go mouldy sat in the tub.

 

[TheRedDarren]

Yea I've spread them out in the dining room, I'm not sure the technique would be approved by an expert, I'm also not sure I can use them, they may be an ornamental variety after all.
The citrus smell is fading and the Brussel sprout smell is increasing!


I wonder if that could be a new
Christmas beer... brussel sprout stout.

 

[Tony1951]

I'm going to buy a known variety from Willmington Nurseries when they come available in November.

Maybe someone who has bought and grown brewing hops can recommend where they got theirs.

 

[Leon103]

I may look to grow some too. If people can recommend where to buy from that would be great.

 

[ManseMasher]

I may look to grow some too. If people can recommend where to buy from that would be great.

Willingham Nurseries, or Aplus Hops. Both are very knowledgeable. SWMBO doesn't care how much paraphernalia I have in the garage, but when I broached the subject of a couple of bines in the garden she went purple! (Turns out some of her worst childhood holidays involved two weeks of hop picking in Kent).

 

[Leon103]

SWMBO warmed to the idea and even suggested where they can go.

 

[jceg316]

I grow my fuggles along a fence, my cascade along the side of my house and then along above my door, and my saaz up a tree and along the top of my garden shed.

Hops can be grown in pots it's just they won't grow to their full potential, and you may not get great yields from them. In which case those wanting to grow from pots the large the pot the better and maybe research which hop varieties have higher yields.

From my experience growing hops for the first year, sunlight and soil are very important. My saaz is shaded for most the day and I've got no flowers . My other 2 get plenty of sunlight and have done well. I've also weeded around them, added nitrogen fixers, and poured on worm juice from my wormery as well as add compost every so often.

Never done it yet, but I think they can be trained along a fence and adapted to your space that way, rather than just growing fifteen feet straight up like a proper hop garden. There are also dwarf varieties that are a lot more manageable. There are some discussions about this on the forum if you search. There was talk about this about a month ago or so. I had bookmarked them, but I am not on the same computer now.

Best get a variety you really like the flavour of though I think. I'm thinking of EKG for the autumn when the rhyzomes are ready to ship.

EDIT:

They are pretty demanding from the soil, but some people reckon they grow in containers.

https://byo.com/bock/item/1872-growing-hops-in-containers

 

[Tony1951]

I grow my fuggles along a fence, my cascade along the side of my house and then along above my door, and my saaz up a tree and along the top of my garden shed.

Hops can be grown in pots it's just they won't grow to their full potential, and you may not get great yields from them. In which case those wanting to grow from pots the large the pot the better and maybe research which hop varieties have higher yields.

From my experience growing hops for the first year, sunlight and soil are very important. My saaz is shaded for most the day and I've got no flowers . My other 2 get plenty of sunlight and have done well. I've also weeded around them, added nitrogen fixers, and poured on worm juice from my wormery as well as add compost every so often.

Thanks. I am definitely going to do this come the autumn.