Overwinter Protection for Nugget Hops

Overwinter Magnum Hop Plants

In cold climates it is important to overwinter hop plants / protect them from sub-zero temperatures.  Hops do fairly well on their own but can be killed off if the ground is unprotected and hard freezes the ground.  Snow will insulate the ground but occasionally the snow will be blown clear or animals may dig the snow away from the underground hop crowns (started as hop rhizomes).

Protect Cascade Hop Crowns

No sense taking any chances of losing your hop plants to the weather.  All it takes is a layer of mulch – I used 6 inches of leaves and grass I bagged while mowing.  This also helps in the Minnesota climate to keep the ground cold enough in the spring to prevent hop sprouts from sprouting too soon and then freeze.  Generally they will send up new shoots if the first hop shoots freeze and die off but why waste the root stock energy.

When sub-freezing temperatures have past in the spring, You just clear the mulch and and the hop crown will send up shoots as the ground warms.

Unless you want the hops to spread in all directions, you will want to trim the hop rhizomes by digging down and cutting the lateral running rhizomes and pull them up.  You can plant these in other areas if you wish or give or sell them to friends and fellow hop growers and homebrewers.  I will be cutting the rhizomes about a one foot radius from the center of the crown (two foot diameter to contain the hop plants).  They are self propagating and will travel in all directions from the crown.

One problem with not containing the spread of hops is they will soon mix with other nearby varieties and can be hard to distinguish variety and/or you will have 2 or more variety of hop bines growing together and makes harvesting and separating the different varieties of hop cones difficult if not impossible.  My varieties are 5 to 6 feet apart so with a little effort, I can keep them separate.  You need to know which hops are which for accurate beer and ale recipes.  You especially do not want to mix bittering hops with aroma hops.

That’s it, just a layer of mulch – leaves, grass, hay, straw or compost to protect the hop crowns and the organic material will also leach into the ground as an organic fertilizer.  Next years hop yield will be even better!

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Hops Have Reached the Top

Cascade Hops in July

Hops - Humulus Lupulus – in July (7/20/2009) status report.  It has been a couple of weeks since my last growing hops post.  All three hop plants have topped their ropes.  The Magnum hops finally made it to the top – about 15 feet tall.  The Cascade hops and Nugget hop bines have reached the top of their hop trellis rigging twice and I have looped them around hose hangers and pulled back slack to give them more vertical space for the hop vines to grow.

I have decided to let them top out and and leave it at that because the looped portion of the hops bines do not seem to be putting out lateral shoots (for hop flowers / hop cones) like the un-looped portion of the hop bines are.  They still may produce side shoots, but that is one thing learned from this hop experiment so far.  Next year I am leaning towards a spiral approach, the point being giving them as much vertical growth possible with a limited vertical space (Although many folks grow them even shorter).  I am trying to maximize hop cone production with limited vertical resources (without freaking out my neighbors with hop skyscraper towers).

Who knows, I may come up with a commercial approach to maximized hops production that will be financially and labor-wise feasible.  Presently I am simply looking to maximize hops production for myself and other homebrewers.  To grow hops, I have held true to keeping it organic.  They seem to be growing very nicely for first year hops started from hop rhizomes only 3 months ago.

The Magnum hops plant is currently 15 feet tall.  The structure of this hop bine is smaller leaves, more compact – but denser foliage.  The Cascade hops bine is at about 23 feet tall with the topped out bine now making it’s way back toward the ground.  The Nugget hops bine is about 21 – 22 feet tall (with the length of the looped bine on the hose hanger – see previous posts).  The Cascade hops lateral shoots are impressive at 3 to 4 feet in length.  A couple of the side shoots have wrapped around the the lowering rope and are now spirally up that rope!  The Nugget hop bines are starting to send out some impressive lateral hop shoots as well.  Just hoping these lateral hops shoots will fill in with lots of hop cones.  Time will tell.

Nugget Hops Thrive

Magnum Hops Have Peaked

The hops I am growing will be used for a relaxing hop tea, combined with other calming and relaxing herbs like chamomile, lavender, kava kava and others to make sleep aids and de-stress formulas.  And of course the main function of the hops will be for making awesome beers and ales.  Of the beer hops, I have 2 bittering hops (Nugget and Magnum) and the Cascade hops are for aroma hops in the beer/ale making process.

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The Nugget bine and Cascade hops bines have reached the top of the ropes.  The Cascade hops plant overtook the Nugget and is now the bine height leader by a foot over the Nugget hops.  The Magnum bines are still only 8 or 9 feet tall.  I lowered the Cascade and Nugget bines 6 feet to allow the hop bines to continue to climb.

Cascade Hop Bines Take the Lead

I mounted hose racks to the side of my garage to allow looping the hop bines off the ground and allow more vertical growth (see pictures).  One thing I learned with this setup is the bines blow off of the hose racks in the wind we have had the last 2 days so I had to secure the rope to the hose hangers ( I used tie wraps/ zip ties – Next to duct tape, zip ties are best invention ever in my opinion.

I chose Cascade hops, Nugget hops and Magnum hops because they are disease resistant, high yielding and grow well in my climate (zone 4).  Apparently the Magnum do not fair as well, they are behind the Nugget and Cascade hop plants by 6 – 7 feet (I still love them though).  The season is not over, anything could happen yet.  My experiment on how to grow hops with a pulley system seems to be working well so far.

The bines are sending out side shoots for hops and I can hardly wait.  Because they are first year hops, I am not expecting much of a hop harvest this year, although they are exceeding my expectations from everything I have read on the subject and from my hop growing friends.  I can’t wait till next year to see what they will do.

Nugget Hop Bines Give up the Lead

The soil innoculant I used “Alive Soil Activator” revived all of my wifes flowers (can’t be hurting my hops either).  Like all flowers, they look great when you buy them but after a month or so the flowering fades.  I used this unconventionally and just threw a couple of spoonfuls in a watering container, watered the plants and they all look 200% better!  Even revived a plant I thought was dead – it is flowering like crazy now!

Anyway, there is my status report on how to grow hops (my version).  There is a lot of good information on growing hops out there – find it, read it, absorb it and grow hops like crazy.

One of my Favorite Beers / Ales

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Hop bines – Humulus Lupulus (not hop vines) are taking off now.  Growing at a rate of 3 to 6 inches a day.  7 days ago the Nugget hops were 7 feet tall – the Magnum hops were 5 feet tall and the Cascade hops were 6 feet tall.

Cascade Hop Bines Gaining Ground

1 week later Nugget hop bines are just over 10 feet, Magnum hop bines are 7 feet tall and the Cascade hop bines are 9 foot 6 inches.  In 7 days the Nugget hops grew 3 feet (5 inches a day), Magnum hops grew 2 feet (over 3 inches a day) and the Cascade hops grew 3 foot six inches (6 inches a day)!  This is the fun part of growing hops!

The vertical growth should continue at this pace or better and the bines should soon fill in with side shoots and hop cones!  The hop flowers or hop cones are the end product we are after.  Watching the hops bines grow is the fun part.  I have not had to lower the bines yet (soon) as they reach the top of the rope/pulley of the hop rigging.  I still need to get some hose hangers or similar contraption to loop the bines on to allow more vertical space for the hop bines to grow.

Magnum Hops are Slower to Start

I mentioned on an ealier post that I spotted a posting on an interesting concept, a upward spiral.  I don’t know if the bines would need to be constantly trained or if they would follow the spiral.  I imagine there is a magic number of the angle of the rope where the bines would wrap around the rope without daily training.  Too slow of a rise and the bine would attempt to grow straight up.  I will experiment with this concept next year.

This years pulley rigged ropes with a slight angle is doing great.  No sense in messing with perfection.  The Nugget bines are within 2 feet of reaching the top so I better start shopping for

hose racks.

Nugget Hop Bines in First Place

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First year hops update.  It has been 2 months since I planted the hop rhizomes.  I figured it is time for an update (and a reason to visit the hop growing blog).  When they were first growing, the Nugget and Magnum hops were significantly ahead of the Cascade hops (by about 50% in height).  At the 2 month marker, the Nugget hops are 7 feet tall, the Magnum hops are 5 feet tall and the cascade hops passed the Magnum and is at 6 feet tall.

First Year Nugget Hops

The Nugget hops are the tallest hop bines at this point in time (2 months).  The Nugget bines do receive just a little bit more direct sunlight so I don’t consider this a fair race to the top.  I have 2 bines sharing this rope and they are perfectly spaced and growing as a double helix (as are the other 2 hop plants).

My neighbor says he thinks the hops are cool.  I was a bit worried about using the white rope as it sticks out like a sore thumb against my brown garage.  White was not my first choice in color, I was actually looking for green but white was all they had.  I did not have time to shop around so white it is.

The only fertilizer I have used is a little bone meal and blood meal.  I am staying organic all the way with these hops.  I will soon use some compost tea (as soon as my compost nears completion).

So far I have not had an issue with deer or rabbits eating my hops bines.  I believe a rabbit got one of my nugget bines but that was before I had selected the 2 best bines to grow and I clipped the rest of the hop shoots.  Since then the bines have been left alone.

I am looking at buying / using a soil inoculant as the soil on the side of my garage has been neglected forever.  My wife’s peonies, surrounded by rock mulch has not seen much organic matter.  I had to dig up rock and plastic to make holes for the hop plants.  Last fall I dug down a foot and 2 feet in diameter.  I mixed in grass, leaves and wood ashes to supplement the soil.  There wasn’t much black dirt or topsoil so I added some with the organic materials.  The hop bines seem to be doing ok for first year hops.  I am looking at some beneficial ground bacteria and mycelium (mushroom type fungus) which helps the roots – root stalk / crown absorb nutrients from the soil.

Magnum Hops First Year

First Year Cascade Hops

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Grow Hop Plants from Hop Rhizomes or Garden Center Hop Plants

Grow hops from hop plants!  I was shopping for some flowers for my mother (Mothers Day) and I stumbled across some Nugget hop plants (humulus lupulus) for sale!  These were 2 to 3 feet tall and doing better than the ones I planted from rhizomes almost a month ago.  This was in the parking lot of our local Cub Foods (Cub Foods parking lot greenhouse).  I have never seen hop plants for sale before at a garden center.

Hop rhizomes are getting hard to come by these days (out of season) so there is still the possibility to get some hop plants in the ground this year.  Nugget was the only variety this particular plant shop had available but it gives hope to finding other variety hop plants in the garden centers.  I thought I would pass this on for folks who still want to grow hops this year.

Technorati Tags: grow hops, hop plants, plant hops

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April 4, 2009 - WTF?

Planting Hops

Ok, I am from here and know better, but damn, we have had a couple of 60 degree days – 55 the previous day then this.  Generally the frost free time of year for here to plant your garden is May 15th.  Hop rhizomes are hardy but the new bines won’t be able to take a hard frost.

I have the soil prepared since last fall on the south side of my garage, it is protected and receives sunlight all day long.  It is the only garden space I have right now that isn’t frozen ground.  I was figuring on getting the rhizomes planted and mulch about 4 inches over them to maintain the cool soil temps and delay the shoots from breaking ground.  I get nervous about the hop rhizomes developing mold or fungus – and sometimes my refrigerator will freeze items in the back (where my family tends to push things they can’t or don’t want to eat).

Well, I am going to wait a bit, do a little more research and determine the best time to plant hops for my area.  I guess I will hit a hop growing forum or 2, double check with a couple of my Minnesota home brewing, hop growing friends and see if my theories hold out.  One friend of mine planted too early last year, the new bines froze and died and the rhizome was done – no other shoots from this hop rhizome.   Next post, when they are in the ground.

Technorati Tags: beer hop, grow hops, Growing Hops, homebrew, hop rhizomes, hops, hops in Minnesota, planting hops

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Hop Rhizomes Ready to Plant - Humulus Lupulus

Growing hops from hop rhizomes is easy and almost foolproof.  Hop plants (humulus lupulus) are a very hardy perennial and once established, will provide all the home brew hops you will need.  Hops are dioecious (male and female) only the females produce hop cones.  When you start with rhizones, they are female so you don’t have to worry about that.  You can expect a hop yield of half to two pounds of dried hop cones per plant.  If you are into home brewing, growing hops will save you a lot of money and put you in control of your supply and avoid the hop shortage.

Hops grow best vertically so plant where they will have room to grow – at least 16 feet.  Hops can grow from 25 to 40 feet in a single growing season!  The first year the crown is establishing itself so hop cone yield will be much less that following years.  Hops will need rope or twine for the bines (not vines) to climb.  Hop bines cling to the rope by wrapping clockwise (you train them) around the rope or twine and stiff “hairs” hold on to the rope.  It is best to rig the ropes so they can be lowered for harvesting the hop flowers (cones).

Hops rhizomes should be planted in well drained, fertile soil between 6.0 and 8.0 PH once the threat of frost has past.  Hops require plenty of water, sun and nutrients to sustain their high growth rate.  A good organic fortified soil with decent drainage and lots of sunlight will give the hop rhizomes the environment they need.  During the growing season fertilize with compost tea and other gentle organic fertilizers.

The hop plants should be spaced a minimum of 3 feet apart – 5 feet apart if different varieties.  Generally hops rhizomes are planted horizontally with the white buds facing up, about 1 inch deep one hop rhizome per mound.  A slight mounding of the soil helps with drainage and does not let the root stalk or crown of the plant drown in heavy rainfalls or waterings.

These are rhizomes, they do self propagate by sending out more underground shoots (rhizomes).  So if you do not want them taking over your hop garden, you will have to “limit” the root area by trimming the root stalk or crown.  You can take these cuttings and plant elsewhere or give to friends to grow there own hops or sell them.

I will be posting about this years batch of Nugget, Magnum and Cascade hops from rhizome to harvest so check back at least monthly.  Those are the actual rhizomes I will be planting in the picture above.  You will see the methods and rigging of the ropes I use – there are many ways to do this, I go for ease and efficiency.

There is still time to do this this season so get to it.  The more friends you get interested in growing hops and homebrewing, the more home brews you will have available to you.  Home brew beers and ales are meant to be shared and is a growing hobbie for many.  Join a local homebrewing group, join some forums, read some books on growing hops.  You can never know to much.  Hop onboard!

Technorati Tags: grow hops, Growing Hops, home brew, hop garden, hop rhizomes, hops, rhizomes

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Hop Rhizome It All Starts Here

It’s that time of year to get going on ordering rhizomes if you have not already.  I am in Minnesota so our soil is still frozen and will be for another month.  Hop rhizomes are hardy so they can be planted before most plants in Minnesota (once the soil thaws).  In Minnesota, May 15th’ ish is the generally the frost free date for most plants.  Hops can handle frost (rhizomes will be underground for a bit once planted and are more “northern climate” tolerant than most vegetables and other plants.

I will be chronologically documenting this years hop garden from rhizome to harvest (if any the first year).  They should be arriving soon and I will document the life cycle of this years planting.   This batch of beer hops will be Nugget, Magnum and Cascade hops.  Two high alpha (bittering) and one aromatic (cascade) – there is crossover with bittering and aroma with hops but they are generally under those classifications.

More to come soon!

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Hop Heaven

HOPSLAM Heaven!

Hopslam - My Favorite Ale!

It’s that time of year again and Bell’s Brewery nailed it again – HOPSLAM ale!  If you are a hop connoisseur or IPA fanatic, this is it.  A double IPA at 10% alcohol, it is not for the weak.  This once a year specialty is available only in January and February and sells out fast.  I honestly have to say it is my favorite ale of all time!  If you grow hops and/or homebrew, this is what you shoot for.

As us Scandinavians say, “it’s a bit spendy”.  At $16.99 a six pack, it better be good and it is!  I can justify it by breaking it down to less than $3.00 a bottle.  This stuff is so awesome it must be experienced.  A tip – pour a glass and just smell it for a couple minutes.  It has an incredible “nose” or bouquet to it, savor it.  Ok, time to dive in, savor the smooth but commanding hop bite.  This is as close to a flavor orgasm as you can get – ok, maybe it’s just me but, damn is it tasty!

If I could come close to duplicating this with my own hops, I would have reached the pinnacle of my hop growing / homebrewing craft.  More likely I will have to wait for January and February to accommodate my taste buds.  I will keep growing hops and dream of a homebrew that comes close to this.  Once achieved, I would have more friends than I could want.

Technorati Tags: grow hops, Growing Hops, homebrew, hop heaven, hops, hopslam

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