Growing Hops - worth it?

[conorm]

I like growing things. I like brewing beer. So I'm thinking of growing some hop plants.

The plan would be to plant roots now in tubs and train up the side of my timber clad shipping container. I've 6m length, 2.5m vertical and another 2.5m across the roof. Good sun, East South East facing, so in the shade in evening but has sun all day. A few Qs...

1. How many plants should I aim for?
2. Would I simply fix twine up the boards and across the roof (assume spaced out 50mm or so from the boards)
3. How much yield should I expect per plant? Thinking centennial, fuggles, bramling cross, cascade, chinook etc.

 

[conorm]

So I've ordered five hop plants. Bramling Cross, Chinook, Cascade, Cashmere and Fuggles. Let's see how it goes.

 

[MashBag]

5 will cover that. But they take a season to get established.

Is there an obvious problem with 5 different varieties?

They may cross pollinate... But more importantly they will tangle and you will never be sure what you are using? 5 of the same, dual purpose (say cascade) might be better?

 

[MrRook]

5 will cover that. But they take a season to get established.

Is there an obvious problem with 5 different varieties?

They may cross pollinate... But more importantly they will tangle and you will never be sure what you are using? 5 of the same, dual purpose (say cascade) might be better?

If he's getting rhizomes they'll all be female so cross pollination won't be an issue.

 

[conorm]

All female rhizomes, and I wouldn't be harvesting seeds anyway. Not that adventurous. Yet.

Harvesting is a problem way down the line. They have different ripening times, come appearance etc... I'll figure it out.

 

[Sandimas]

They'll grow much better in the ground, I gave a plant to mate and he put it in a tub, has never had any hops off it.

Could do with being much higher too as they grow upwards, can you attach a frame to the back of the container? I basicallys found the longest bits of wood from B&Q that would fit in the car and built a frame to dangle cords off for the hops to grow up, about 12ft tall I guess - works a treat.

Do it right and you may get a few hops in your first year, by years 2/3 you'll be getting loads. Well rewarding, I'm now self-sufficient with hops and only have 3 plants.

 

[Sandimas]

Great thread on hop growing here that has been running for a few years, you can see what others have done https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/hop-plants-rhizomes-growing-report.69518/

 

[aolcot]

@conorm I have 4 plants, 2 in in couple of old whiskey barrels, and 2 in the ground. Unsurprisingly, even though the barrels are big, the two in the ground out perform the two in the barrels. Some tips i've picked up from the 3 years i've had them

• If you are going to keep them in tubs, make sure the tubs are as big as you can go.
• Think about irrigation especially for tubs.. hops are thirsty and stressed hops don't do well at all. I have an auto-water thingy for my two barrels to make sure it doesn't dry out when I'm away for a few days
• Think about drying the hops. Invariably all the hops will all be ready to harvest usually early-mid september (depending on weather / variety). if you have a good harvest, you'll need to plan when to pick them and dry them. Hops will peak on the bine so you can't leave them too long before harvesting, but if you are backed up with drying other hops it becomes a tricky logistical challenge lol. I have a dehydrator which helps to get through the hops quickly.
• I started using a nitrogen based fertiliser last year, once a month, and defo the cones/quantity was better than in previous years.

As someone mentioned above - a long running thread on growing hops and showing our spoils at the end of the summer is worth following

 

[Jolly Brewer]

@conorm I have 4 plants, 2 in in couple of old whiskey barrels, and 2 in the ground. Unsurprisingly, even though the barrels are big, the two in the ground out perform the two in the barrels. Some tips i've picked up from the 3 years i've had them

• If you are going to keep them in tubs, make sure the tubs are as big as you can go.
• Think about irrigation especially for tubs.. hops are thirsty and stressed hops don't do well at all. I have an auto-water thingy for my two barrels to make sure it doesn't dry out when I'm away for a few days
• Think about drying the hops. Invariably all the hops will all be ready to harvest usually early-mid september (depending on weather / variety). if you have a good harvest, you'll need to plan when to pick them and dry them. Hops will peak on the bine so you can't leave them too long before harvesting, but if you are backed up with drying other hops it becomes a tricky logistical challenge lol. I have a dehydrator which helps to get through the hops quickly.
• I started using a nitrogen based fertiliser last year, once a month, and defo the cones/quantity was better than in previous years.

As someone mentioned above - a long running thread on growing hops and showing our spoils at the end of the summer is worth following

Do they like standing water ? Our garden sodden wet when rains heavy.

 

[conorm]

Thanks everybody. I've been reading through that post but might take a while to get through all 1k+ of them!

I think I may have underestimated the amount of space I need. I read 1m per plant but I've since read 0.5m per bine...

We have, (un)fortunately a large, mostly south facing garden. So I'll find room. We've not properly landscaped the site yet, so everything will be going in to pots.

I think I'll try three plants in large tubs up against the container, just to see how it goes. There is membrane under the timber cladding so all the runoff from the roof will drip directly into the containers below. So watering won't be an issue. Especially here in NI.

I can stick the other two in pots at the bottom of the garden and they can do what they want along the fence and I'll just aim to keep them alive for the year until I've a permeant location for next year.

 

[aolcot]

Do they like standing water ? Our garden sodden wet when rains heavy.

I read they don't like their roots to be water logged for long periods as it increases the risk of rot, but I don't have exactly great soil. Mine is somewhat heavy/clay'ish and they do ok in that. As long as it can dry out in between downpours, I suspect they'll be ok

 

[Sandimas]

Heavy clay and gets very water-logged here too, hops seem to thrive in it. Only problem I've ever had was an early dry-spell and the leaves curled up, crop was poor that year, so keep them watered in the summer.

Good point about the time processing hops. They all come at once and there can be a lot of them, I dry mine on frames and sheets inside the garage, excess light will spoil them.

 

[bitter]

There's a couple of Chinese boys down the way in my estate and they've a great setup for the hops growing. They've converted the entire house to growing the hops under grow lights and hydroponics. Top job!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Is there an obvious problem with 5 different varieties?

They may cross pollinate...

No they won't. Hop plants are somewhat unusual in having separate male and female plants, and only the females produce the cones used in brewing. So any named variety for brewing will be female.

Do they like standing water ? Our garden sodden wet when rains heavy.

Hops are thirsty plants - a mature plant can get through 60+ litres a week at the height of summer - and they love deep clay. East Kent has 20' or more of clay which is perfect for their deep tap roots.

But as has been mentioned, they don't like their feet to be in standing water, so traditionally they were planted in "hills" to lift the base of the stem above the water table. Another problem is a damp atmosphere which also promotes fungal diseases, which is why commercial growing is confined to Kent - one of the driest counties in the UK - and the Vale of Evesham, in the rain shadow of the Welsh hills. So if you're near the Irish Sea then you probably want varieties with some decent disease resistance built in - which means not the traditional varieties and in particular not Fuggles.

 

[Jolly Brewer]

No they won't. Hop plants are somewhat unusual in having separate male and female plants, and only the females produce the cones used in brewing. So any named variety for brewing will be female.

Hops are thirsty plants - a mature plant can get through 60+ litres a week at the height of summer - and they love deep clay. East Kent has 20' or more of clay which is perfect for their deep tap roots.

But as has been mentioned, they don't like their feet to be in standing water, so traditionally they were planted in "hills" to lift the base of the stem above the water table. Another problem is a damp atmosphere which also promotes fungal diseases, which is why commercial growing is confined to Kent - one of the driest counties in the UK - and the Vale of Evesham, in the rain shadow of the Welsh hills. So if you're near the Irish Sea then you probably want varieties with some decent disease resistance built in - which means not the traditional varieties and in particular

 

[Jolly Brewer]

Irish sea 15 minute walk away.Garden flat and no run off as surrounded by 5 gardens.
Will search for disease resistsnt varieties

 

[bitter]

Irish sea 15 minute walk away.Garden flat and no run off as surrounded by 5 gardens.
Will search for disease resistsnt varieties

did your electric go down there over the weekend? Mine was off for 3 days

 

[Jolly Brewer]

No they won't. Hop plants are somewhat unusual in having separate male and female plants, and only the females produce the cones used in brewing. So any named variety for brewing will be female.

Hops are thirsty plants - a mature plant can get through 60+ litres a week at the height of summer - and they love deep clay. East Kent has 20' or more of clay which is perfect for their deep tap roots.

But as has been mentioned, they don't like their feet to be in standing water, so traditionally they were planted in "hills" to lift the base of the stem above the water table. Another problem is a damp atmosphere which also promotes fungal diseases, which is why commercial growing is confined to Kent - one of the driest counties in the UK - and the Vale of Evesham, in the rain shadow of the Welsh hills. So if you're near the Irish Sea then you probably want varieties with some decent disease resistance built in - which means not the traditional varieties and in particular not Fuggles.

Centennial , phoenix , keyworths , midseason and canadian red vine all disease resistant .