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.
Hop Sprouts – all 3 of my hop rhizomes have sprouted! Magnum was first followed by Nugget and finally the Cascade. The hop rhizomes were planted April 11, 2009. When growing hops, this is your first sign of progress – hop sprouts.
The Magnum sprouted April 21 (10 days), the Nugget sprouted April 24 and the Cascades finally broke ground April 26th, 2009. I had mulched heavily over all 3 mounds to keep the ground cold. I was attempting to delay sprouting until after the danger of frost. It appeared to work . Generally May 15th is the safe time to plant in Minnesota. I’ll have to keep an eye on the weather and cover the bines if it drops below freezing.
Magnum Hops Have Sprouted
Now I just have to worry about a possible frost, rabbits, deer and maybe squirrels will dig up the rhizomes – they dig up my garden. Of course I will also have to worry about insects, viruses and other hop diseases like powdery mildew, downy mildew, high winds and hail. Hail obliterated a friend of mine’s hops last year. They never recovered – whole hop season ruined!
I am still contemplating on how I am going to rig the ropes for the bines. I have the materials – rope, pulleys, hardware… I have a couple of ideas. Functionality and ease of lowering the hop bines without needing a ladder (once the pulleys are fastened high up on my garage).
Cascade Rhizome Produces Hop Sprouts
I am going to use a hybrid idea I have which is a combination of some other tricks I read about. The hop bines will be lowered when they get close to the top of the rope. I will loop the bines on a hook type apperatus, possibly a mountable half circle hose rack. When they near the top again, lower and loop the bines again.
This will effectively allow them to grow as long as possible and keep them off the ground. I will have to allow breathing room so the bines will not suffer from dampness and possible molds or mildew (powdery mildew, downy mildew…). I am sure I will need to make adjustments along the way. Wish me luck.
If anyone has ideas about how to do this or how they have done this, let me know. The whole idea here is to share ideas and especially what works.
The first major milestone has ocurred, all the hop rhizomes have sprouted! Magnum, Nugget and Cascade – bitter, bitter and aroma hops. I have to finalize my bine rigging ideas and implement them.
I am still investigating how I want to feed the hops, organic and naturally of course. Green sand, fish emulsions, compost tea and looking into mycelium products to permeate the soil bring nutrients to the rhizomes / root stock.
