May 29th the Magnum hops reached the top of their rope (15 feet tall). The cascade and Nugget hop bines reached the top of their ropes May 21st (13 feet tall). I predicted by June 1st this would happen and apparently nailed that guess.
This is the second year for these hops. The first year is fun to watch how fast the hop bines grow, but that’s nothing compared to the second year. The first year a lot of the hop plants energy goes into establishing the root stock also known as the crown. By the second year, the crown is established and the sprouts come up earlier than if you planted hop rhizomes.
My hop sprouts survived a few frosts where tomatoes would have surely died. Hops are hardy once established. I lost a Mt. Hood hop plant I had planted in a container this spring. We had some 50 mph winds and it snapped them right off – the rhizome apparently couldn’t handle it – no more hop shoots / sprouts replaced them. They probably would have survived if I had them trained on a rope. They were about a foot long and I had not yet decided where to trellis them.
Second year hops – hop sprout update. My last post was April 8, 2010 and I had uncovered my hop sprouts because they were pushing up from under the leaf mulch. I was waiting as long as I could because I am in zone 4 and frost free nights are over a month away. That night:
Hop Sprouts Survive Freezing
The bottom right hand corner of the above pic shows the outside temperature of 27.9 degrees fahrenheit, far enough below freezing to kill many plants. They survived, no problem! Hops are very hardy and established hop plants will survive. I have friends that have lost newly planted hop rhizomes to freezing so I was a bit concerned – not to worry. They went from albino buried hop sprouts to healthy hop bines. Here are my Magnum hop sprouts (now hop bines), about 10 inches tall April 17, 2010.
Magnum Hop Sprouts Survive Freezing Temps
Newly planted hop rhizome sprouts may be susceptible to freezing temps, not established second year hops. At this rate, I am going to have an awesome harvest. Barring a hard freeze, these hop bines will thrive! I love growing hops!
Here in Minnesota the general date for frost safe planting is May 15th. I kept my hop plants buried under leaves to try and keep the ground cold and the hop crowns dormant as long as possible. I checked on them today (April 8th) and the hop sprouts were pushing up the leaves so I had to un-bury them. Hopefully they won’t freeze (down to 32 degrees last night).
Cascade Sprouts
These are second year hops so I am expecting a much better yield than last year (about 3 pounds between the 3 hop plants – a good first year harvest). I guess we’ll see if they freeze or not. Even if they do, there will be new shoots to replace them. Second year hops with an established crown / root stock and stored energy from last year.
Early Sprouts
I am still contemplating a new hop trellis rigging. If nothing else, I will go with 2 ropes per plant instead of the one rope per hop hill used last year. That in itself should at least double my harvest. The established hop plants will have plenty of energy to support 6 bines per plant (3 per rope).
Magnum Hops
The sprouts look albino and growing sideways from being weighed down and have not been exposed to sunlight yet. I will also have to trim the rhizomes to keep the plants from spreading in all directions. I will cut a circle with a shovel about 8 inch radius from the center of the plant and pull out the hop rhizomes on the outside of the circle.
Before you can decide what variety of hops to plant, you need to know the characteristics of different varieties of hops. The variety you choose depends mainly on the styles of beers and ales you like to drink.
Two main characteristics of hop cones:
Bittering – measured in IBUs (International Bitterness Units – according to the IBU scale). The bittering attribute of hops is used to counteract the sweetness of the malt in the beer or ale. Alpha acids and beta acids of the hop contribute to the bittering effect.
Aroma – there is no scale to measure aroma, it is used to impart a pleasurable aroma or “nose” to beers and ales, also referred to as a finishing hop. Essential oils of the hop cone are the source of aroma.
There are other characteristics that hops contribute to brews:
Natural preservative
Flavoring – various attributes such as – spicy, piney, citrus, woody, floral…
Calming effect
All hops have both qualities of bitterness and aroma, it is the proportion of each that determines if it is called a bittering hop, an aroma hop or some hops are in the middle and considered both bittering and aroma hop. The main component of the hop cone is lupulin, a yellow powdery component of the female hop cone. It contains the resins of the hop cone.
Here is a comprehensive list of the varieties of hops
So depending upon the beer styles you like to drink and or brew, determines which hop varieties to grow (assuming they will grow in your climate and soil). The above list provides the name of the hop, country of origin and alpha acid percentage (bitterness). There are many hop description pages out there, this one is the most comprehensive list of hop varieties I have found. You will only be able to buy a few varieties of hop rhizomes depending upon your country and some on this list are proprietary (not commercially available).
Beers and Ales – the difference between beers and ales is the type of yeast used and temperature of the wort (mash/sugars) during the fermentation process.
This post would go on forever if I listed every beer style and hops used so I won’t attempt that. Checkout the above referenced link to get your hop rhizome list together (you can sometimes find hop plants for sale). Depending upon where you live, you may be able to plant right now (ground is still frozen here in Minnesota) but warmer regions can plant now.
One more resource I stumbled across http://www.hopunion.com/hopunion-variety-databook.pdf
One of my most popular posts will list a variety of online sources to:
A hop garden is mesmerizing to watch grow. Each day there is new growth and never a boring watch. You will find yourself checking them every day, it is that addicting. Although these hops bines have topped out their trellises, they are now spreading lateral shoots out from the hop bines and growing wider. I call these guys the 3 amigos – Nugget, Magnum and Cascade.
These hop plants are also starting to flower. It starts with the hop burrs or florets. The burrs or florets are comprised of spiny looking styles. This is when the female hop flowers are receptive to hops pollen. As the hop flower matures the styles will fall off.
Hop Flowers Forming from Burrs / Florets
The flowers fill in with petals and lupulin glands becoming hop cones. They look like green pine cones. Some hops are round and some hop cones are long depending on the hop variety. Hop Cones are the harvest we are after (unless grown for shade / cover). You can expect from 1/2 to 2 pounds of dried hops per plant (after a couple of years). First year hops expend a lot of energy on establishing the crown or root system.
As you can see here, hops like to go high. The Magnum hop bine is 15 feet tall. The cascade and Nugget bines are over 20 feet tall. You can’t see it in the above photo but there are hop bines looped around hose hangers (an experiment in bine height with limited vertical real estate – see some other posts on this blog and you will see it).
Start planning your hop garden now for next year. Select a site, work the soil – dig at least a foot down and 2 feet in diameter. Amend the soil with compost and other organic material – grass, leaves… make sure it is mostly soil and organic material is well mixed with the soil. Figure how you will rig the hop bines (to a pole, a deck, up the side of a building… you have til next spring to actually worry about it). Start reading up on growing hops and you will be well on your way to a successful hop garden.
