Hop plants/rhizomes - growing report

[Benfleet Brewery]

This is my first year growing hops. I bought two rhizomes, one a US Cascade and a fuggles. Both plants started off really well and continued doing great until about three weeks ago when all the leaves started to go brown, wither and die just as the buds were starting to form. Now even those buds are starting to wither and haven’t grown at all. I haven’t changed anything. They are in large pots and watered regularly just as the surface of the soil starts to dry. Any idea what may have gone wrong?

 

[terrym]

I am not really sure what the problem is but irrespective of how much water you have been giving them I would keep them really really well watered, especially since they are in pots. Up until mine wilted on a hot day at the end of June I too thought I was giving them plenty of water , but clearly I wasn't, and now the pots get a good drenching sometimes twice a day especially in hot weather. And min eare only dwarf variety.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Ah, ok. It may be too little water then. I’ve put some bedding plants in the pot too just for decoration and they are doing fine. Perhaps the hops just need more.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I may have found the cause. Looks like there’s a bad infestation of some kind of tiny mites. They are all over it and tiny webs. A google seems to suggest red spider or white mites. Unfortunately google also seems to state they are really hard to control or get rid of once you’ve got them!

 

[JohnB]

I'm really sorry I only just saw this thread and could have warned you from the start: having grown hops in the past and been moderately successful - apart from mildew which stopped me after about 4 years (I was growing them in an urban garden). Hops have a huge, really fine, root system; they need to be planted out in the garden in deep rich soil. Growing against a wall is a recipe for disaster because of exactly what you have found - spider-mites. This is usually because of hot dry conditions. If you have another go, get them into some deep soil, loads of FYM (cow sh 1 t) and grow them against a wire trellis - you can do horizontal hops, they don't have to be vertical, but you will be tying them up every day and you should only grow 4 and at the most 6 of the strongest bines and take two or three off in each direction, keep them under control, because they will happily grow to 20 feet in length, so you need a 40 foot fence. Hops need loads of water and they need air around them - another reason against growing them near a wall. I should also warn, hops are subject to quite a few natural erm ... afflictions, wilt, powdery mildew, downy mildew, etc. and once that happens it can devastate an entire area and ruin commercial crops over several square miles. Having plenty of air around your growing bines will help to reduce a lot of the problems and good rich soil will get 'em growing like a foot a day and will also help to produce healthy plants. If you can, double-dig a square about 3 feet by 3 feet, two feet deep and in the bottom dig in a load of well rotted manure - FYM, then fill the soil back in and plant the hop. Once you have a hop established it will grow year on year and give a lovely crop of cones each year. I know of one bine (Fuggles) which grows wild in a hedgerow and each year I get a few good hands-full. Good luck for next year. J.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I'm really sorry I only just saw this thread and could have warned you from the start: having grown hops in the past and been moderately successful - apart from mildew which stopped me after about 4 years (I was growing them in an urban garden). Hops have a huge, really fine, root system; they need to be planted out in the garden in deep rich soil. Growing against a wall is a recipe for disaster because of exactly what you have found - spider-mites. This is usually because of hot dry conditions. If you have another go, get them into some deep soil, loads of FYM (cow sh 1 t) and grow them against a wire trellis - you can do horizontal hops, they don't have to be vertical, but you will be tying them up every day and you should only grow 4 and at the most 6 of the strongest bines and take two or three off in each direction, keep them under control, because they will happily grow to 20 feet in length, so you need a 40 foot fence. Hops need loads of water and they need air around them - another reason against growing them near a wall. I should also warn, hops are subject to quite a few natural erm ... afflictions, wilt, powdery mildew, downy mildew, etc. and once that happens it can devastate an entire area and ruin commercial crops over several square miles. Having plenty of air around your growing bines will help to reduce a lot of the problems and good rich soil will get 'em growing like a foot a day and will also help to produce healthy plants. If you can, double-dig a square about 3 feet by 3 feet, two feet deep and in the bottom dig in a load of well rotted manure - FYM, then fill the soil back in and plant the hop. Once you have a hop established it will grow year on year and give a lovely crop of cones each year. I know of one bine (Fuggles) which grows wild in a hedgerow and each year I get a few good hands-full. Good luck for next year. J.

Thanks for this John. All noted. I’ll leave them where they are until late winter and then move them somewhere more suitable in the ground.

 

[Keith 66]

One of the reasons i joined this forum, obviously i like beer! But i like growing things too. Not far from where i live is an old smallholding that reputedly was once one of Henry the v111's hunting lodges. Ever since i was a kid there have been wild hops growing nearby, often overwhelmed by nettles & brambles & growing in what is literally a swamp for much of the year. Last november i traced a bine back to an old hop hill & dug up a couple of sections of root, these were planted in our garden in some good compost, we are on clay but there is a lot of brick debris from when our area was a brickfield. In april a few tentative shoots poked out, then they started to grow, we have a new driveway with a long trellis on top of the fences so thought it worth a punt to see if they were any good.
By july they were growing at a furious rate & i was amazed to see lots of flowers, the cones started to form & in their first year we have a very good crop, I have no idea what variety they are but suspect they were a cultivated variety that has gone wild. The biggest cones are up to 35mm long with a pronounced gorgeous citrusy aroma. A friend who is an experienced brewer came round today & was staggered at the quantity,
Harvest time tomorrow. Must be beginers luck!

 

[terrym]

Harvest time tomorrow. Must be beginers luck!

And you are quite sure they are ready, given its a tad early?
Papery cones rather than damp, going from green to a light brown-green colour, lupinol going mustard yellow, and definitiely no garlic smell. If that's happenening they are ready. Get the harvest going, but consider leaving those that aren't ready until later, especially if you have a lot to process
However your problem will be knowing what the %AA is since the variety is unknown. So you might have some fun finding out if you intend to use them for bittering. I guessed my First Gold from last year and was very surprised to find I wasn't far out.

 

[Keith 66]

The cones are papery & as you describe, they are in a sheltered spot in full sun, Im going to start harvesting tomorrow but will leave the unripe ones for a few more days. Heres a photo,https://www.flickr.com/photos/13167918@N04/48644049833/in/dateposted-public/

 

[user 18729]

The cones are papery & as you describe, they are in a sheltered spot in full sun, Im going to start harvesting tomorrow but will leave the unripe ones for a few more days. Heres a photo,https://www.flickr.com/photos/13167918@N04/48644049833/in/dateposted-public/

Sounds good! My Goldings are pretty much ready but the cones on the challenger plant next to them are still soft. Might be time to pick them off next week we will see!

 

[dan125]

This video is useful to help decide when they ready :

 

[terrym]

This video is useful to help decide when they ready :

I seem to remember that was just about the best one I found on Youtube.

 

[Keith 66]

I looked at that video & found it most informative, on that i decided to wait until today & they were just right. In half an hour i had picked a sackful & they are now spread out on a drying rack. Picking them my hands were sticky with oil & they smell rather good. It hardly looks as if i have touched the bines there are so many.
Im in hospital end of week for an elbow op so will be vac packing & freezing most before i go in, brew will have to wait for a couple of weeks after i come out!

 

[terrym]

I looked at that video & found it most informative, on that i decided to wait until today & they were just right. In half an hour i had picked a sackful & they are now spread out on a drying rack. Picking them my hands were sticky with oil & they smell rather good. It hardly looks as if i have touched the bines there are so many.
Im in hospital end of week for an elbow op so will be vac packing & freezing most before i go in, brew will have to wait for a couple of weeks after i come out!

I've decided to start selectively harvesting my hops, starting tomorrow, since some appear ready. Last year I dried them out by placing them on trays in the oven on its lowest setting (about 30*C). By weighing each tray from time to time you know when they are dried out since the weight bottoms out.
Hope your op goes well

 

[Ed vK]

As a 1st year Cascade grower I’m avidly watching this thread. Picked a couple of cones this evening and they’re still at the grassy stage.
I’m in Bristol and they’re on a too windy westerly site, one nine growing up a string up a fence then up onto the southerly garage eaves. Will post more soon

 

[Keith 66]

Air dried for 3 days on a rack in the conservatory which has good airflow & they are still slightly sticky to handle, now vac packed, going to pick some more and vac pack fresh to see if there is much difference. Going to be fun experimenting.

 

[terrym]

I've just finished drying out and bagging up this years crop of Prima Donna (First Gold) Hops. They are now in my beer fridge cos there's no room in the freezer. It has taken me nearly all week to get to this stage, although I am pleased I picked them at just at the right time. From two hop plants in pots I picked 1230g wet hops, and that has yielded 265 g of dried cones. Last year was the first year and I got about 75gish so the yield is much better than I expected especially since I thought I had lost the plants due to them drying out in June. Anyway hopefully next year will be even better.
But this got me thinking about the time and effort and cash I have invested so far. The two rhizomes cost about £18 and what with para cord to string up the bines and materials to make some racks for drying (mesh screen and timber) plus other odds and ends I have spent about £35-40 and have a return on that of about £12 worth of hops. I dont mind too much about the money because I'll recoup the balance in years to come, and at its best its a bit of fun . However if I had gone out and bought a vacuum packer and a dehydrator or similar the shortfall would have been even greater.
It does takes a lot of time and effort, especially in my case watering twice daily as they are in pots and drying the hop cones has proved very lengthy this year since I only use the fan in the oven but no heat, although I made a drying box to use a fan as well. Even picking the cones took about four hours total because I wanted to leave the bines intact for the time being.
Another disadvantage is I have now got 265g of First Gold which I do like but I also like other hops too, and so I will be under some self imposed pressure to use mine instead. Plus the home grown FG are cones which are less convenient than pellets (which I can store in the freezer as they take up less space, and buy when I need them), plus mine are of unknown %AA, although I did guess the %AA last year and surprisingly wasn't too far out.
So the final message to those thinking about buying some rhizomes and having a go, it can be very time consuming, the cash return is poor especially if you buy lots of stuff to support growing drying and packaging , and you need to think about drying and long term storage, let alone whether you have the right growing conditions in your garden. And as some on here have reported you can have complete failure of your crop
If I had known this before I bought my rhizomes I probably woudn't have bothered, but now I have them I have to be committed.

 

[user 18729]

All harvested now. Got about 130g of Goldings last week, which after drying left 27g. Just picked 240g of challenger so should be about 50g dried if my maths is right. Enough for a brew in year 1 so very happy with that

 

[Sandimas]

Still watching mine (near Malvern), looking almost ready but not quite. Next week or so I guess, I've got Styrian Goldings and Cascade, 4th year of growing.

 

[the_quick]

Harvested some of mine, cascade (52g) and fuggle (27g). Fuggle wasn't as plentiful as cascade, still got some cones on plants, as smaller than other. This is first year and as said bit more to come hopefully in few days.
Not really money saving exercise but just for fun.
What do you do with plants after harvest? Cut it down ??