Hop Growing

[Belter]

I just received an e-mail from Willingham Nurseries to say the Rhizomes will be ready soon. I was pretty excited about the prospect of growing my own Hops earlier in the spring with an idea that i'd have it all sorted in time if I put it on the backburner until now. The time has come to prepare and I have no idea how I'm going to support these things or plant them.

I need to plant them in well draining soil. I know for a fact that my soil is not well draining. Was curious if anyone had any experience with hops and whether I could dig a pit and fill it with sand down deep for drainage and therefore make a suitable habitat for my offspring.

Also I was planning on getting lengths of 20mm Conduit I use at work in 3M lengths and tying them together in a Teepee fashion at the top to grow them upwards on a string. Anyone have any better/easier ideas?

It also mentions they need to be sheltered from high winds. Cornwall is pretty windy. Does anyone have any success growing them in the open? My garden is pretty surrounded by a fence/trees and a house but it will get some pretty strong winds blowing at it.

Are there hop varieties that are easier to grow than others? I'd like to grow Saaz and an english hop. Something versatile. It's all going to be experimentation due to not knowing the alpha acids, so I don't want an 'out there' hop that will impact massively if I get it wrong.

I'm also aware that hops grow as weeds to therefore can't be 'that' hard, however...i've never seen a hop plant in the wild in Cornwall.

Cheers guys

Belter

 

[BigYin]

Best of luck - I'd say go for it, and learn from any mistakes :mrgreen:

Here's muddydisco's hop frame

There's the Hop Growing 2011 thread that might give you some hints..

And another one on suggestions of how to deal with Hop Rhizomes

Just don't forget to document your own work, and results :mrgreen:

 

[Belter]

Cheers for the info!

I like the idea of his box frame but at approx £10pm plus delivery that's about £80. I don't have that at the moment for experiments.

I may see if I can scrounge some steel locally as I really like the idea.

 

[Belter]

Just found a local supplier 7.5M for £36. That should be enough for matey aboves design.

I'm glad I found him as I can get another length for my brewery structure build. My old Man's a welder so that's that sorted!

Hope the neighbours don't mind my superstructure in full view of their garden.

 

[BigYin]

Sorted!! Looking forward to the build pics :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: