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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Nugget Hop Bine

Nugget Hops Harvest

The Nugget hops were ready to harvest 15 days after the Cascade and Magnum hops.  A hop yield of 1.3 pounds.  Thirty percent more than the Magnum hop harvest, less than the 1.8 pounds of Cascade hops.  I harvested the Nugget hops September 10th, the other hops August 25th.

Not a bad harvest for first year hop plants.  Next year should yield significantly more hop cones as the hop rhizomes planted have become sizable crowns / root stocks from the photosynthesis and organic nutrients from this year.

An essential ingredient for beers and ales, these hop cones will make an excellent IPA (India Pale Ale).  Nugget hops are for bittering with a high IBU (International Bittering Unit) measurement.  I will use my Cascade hops for aroma to complete the IPA experience.

Nugget Hop Cone Lupulin

Shown here is the yellow lupulin of the Nugget hop cone – the active ingredient of the hop.  Although known for their bittering effect and not as an aroma hop, the Nugget hop aroma is exquisite.

If you are a homebrewer and live where you can grow hops (between 30th and 50 parallels), you have to do this.  Hops are an amazing fast growing plant and fun to watch grow.  Hops have been scarce in recent times so be self sufficient and grow your own hops!  Growing hops will complete the beer making experience and camaraderie of home brewing.

Technorati Tags: hops, nugget hop cones, nugget hops, nugget hops harvest

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Hop cones are forming from the hop burrs nicely.  It looks like it will be a staggered hop harvest which is ok by me.  The Cascade hops are the most mature and abundant followed by the Magnum and the Nugget hops are still burrs.

Nugget Hop Cone Burrs

From spiney hop burrs to hop cones, this is what it is all about.  These hops are loving the sunshine and thriving.  I can’t wait to see what they will do next year!

Baby Magnum Hop Cones

I am definately going to use a different hop trellis system next year.  The hop bines are not producing lateral shoots and cones where they are wrapped around the hose hangers.  It was worth a try but not producing any additional hops cones.

Baby Cascade Hop Cones

I will be doing more research this fall and winter for hop rigging / hop trellis ideas.  Trying to figure out an easy way to spiral the ropes and provide additional hops bine length for my limited vertical area I have along side of my garage.

Technorati Tags: cascade hop cones, hop, hop cones, hops, magnum hop cones, nugget hop burrs

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Hop Garden Starting to Flower

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.

Technorati Tags: Growing Hops, hop, hop bines, hop cones, hop flowers, hop garden, hops

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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.

Technorati Tags: Beer Hops, grow hops, Growing Hops, hop, hops

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Cascade Hop Plants

Nugget Hop Plants

Hop plants have hit the top of the ropes again – 12 feet, bines are looped 6 feet around hose hangers (Cascades and Nugget hop plants total 18 feet tall with the loop – Magnum bines are a little over 10 feet tall).  I went to drop the hop bines another 6 feet and loop them around the hose hangers I mounted last week – Murphy (Murpy’s law – anything that can go wrong, will) reared his ugly friggen head.   Turns out when I looped the ropes/bines, the non-dominant bine (trailing the dominant bine by 6 feet) did not make the loop.   This caused the shorter bine to rejoin the rope at the top of the hose rack, making it difficult to loop the ropes and bines without getting them tangled when the shorter bines rejoin the top rope during there climb.

Magnum Hop Plants

While the taller bine on each rope (I have 2 bines per rope) is topped out,  the shorter bine on the rope will not be joined with the rope at the top of the hose rack.  Something learned from this setup – issues with more than one bine per rope.  Not a show stopper but an inconvenience trying to accommodate both bines on each rope.  It will still function in that I will not need a ladder to lower the hop vines at harvest time.

The hops plants (at least the Cascade and Nugget hops) grew 5 feet in the last week.  The Magnum hops are a little over 10 feet tall at this point – grew about a foot or two.  The Magnum has more and denser vegetation than the other two.  It appears to be a tie again between the Cascade hops plant and the Nugget hop plant at 18 feet in length.

While all three hop plants are sending out lateral shoots, the Cascade side shoots are much longer – 18 inches to 2 feet in length.  Should start seeing hop cones soon.  Hopefully the bines will fill out much more than they are now.

I may have to modify the hop trellis next year to accommodate 1 bine per rope (mount more ropes) or come up with some new ideas.  Anyway I am happy with the first year hops growth.  Hoping for a decent harvest despite this being the first year.  Growing hops next year from established hop rhizomes / root stock should faster yet!

Lateral Hop Shoots

I finally stripped the bottom of the bines of leaves and side shoots (lateral shoots).  I did not strip the hop bines the recommended 4 feet from the ground.  I went around 2 feet (can’t tell me a damn thing – always been a bit of a rebel).  You can see this on the bottom of the Magnum hop bine picture.  The purpose of removing the lower foliage is to allow airflow to prevent mildew (especially powdery mildew) and possibly deter some pests that may come from the ground – we’ll see.

There’s this weeks status on the hops plants.  I am also running out of rope, maybe 5 feet left to lower the bines for a total length of 23 feet – nothing to complain about though, proud of these hop plants!

Technorati Tags: Growing Hops, hop plants, hops, hops plants

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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

Technorati Tags: cascade hops, grow hops, Growing Hops, hops, hops grow, how to grow hops, magnum hops, nugget hops

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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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Adjustable Hop Bine Rigging

Rigging Hop Bines for Unlimited Height

Rigging hops experiment for maximum growth with limited height.   Ok, here is my theory put to action.  As the hop bines reach the top of the rope, I let out some rope and loop the slack off the ground and the hop bines have more vertical space to grow.  I am thinking about using hose hangers mounted to the garage wall to loop the rope and bines with room for air circulation.

A hop trellis in my opinion is more for looks than functionality (traditional trellis definition of lattice wood structure – sometimes rope/twine structures are referred to as a trellis, a loose interpretation).  Harvesting hops from a trellis requires a ladder or cherry picker to reach the hop cones.  Rigging hops with rope allows you to lower the bines to the ground for picking the hop flowers.  If you use a pulley or similar rigging system, you don’t need to go to the top of a line/pole/trellis to harvest or drop the bines to the ground.  Don’t get me wrong, I love hops climbing a trellis or arbor or pergola.  Hops make a great shade cover, look great and aromatic to boot.

As you can see, my hop plants – humulus lupulus have to compete with my wife’s Peonies.  It won’t be long and the hops will be towering over their competition.  I would rather lose the flowers but that is not a battle worth waging, besides, the flowers were there first.

From left to right are: Nugget hops, Magnum hops and Cascade hops.  To give you a sense of proportion, the wooden stake is a foot out of the ground.  The hop bines are bout 2 feet tall and growing inches a day, about to take off!

Nugget Hop Bines Starting to Climb

Cascade Hops Growing Vertical

Magnum Hop Bines Racing to the Top of the Rope

The rigging for the hop plants consist of a stake with a hook, rope, a pulley and a tie down (flag pole cleat).  The pulley allows for lowering the rope for additional growth and makes harvesting easy – just lower the bines – no ladder needed once installed!  It is far safer to harvest on the ground than on a ladder.  Especially if you are celebrating the harvest with a few homebrews!  Another advantage is you can always lower the bines, harvest the ripe hop cones and raise them again if you have some hop flowers that are not ripe to pick yet.

I didn’t keep track of the cost of the hop rigging equipment (hooks,  rope, cleats and pulleys)  but I believe it was about $20.  I have close to $20 in hop rhizomes and shipping.  So for $40 and a little time planting hops, I have a great hobby for years to come, I can watch hops grow!  I plan on bartering hops for homebrews from my homebrewing friends (I may even break out my homebrewing equipment and brew a batch), trying some hop sprouts to eat and hop tea to drink and I may try a hop pillow too!

I have about 15 feet for vertical growth and if this works as planned, I could eventually grow 30 to 40 foot hop bines!  That’s the theory anyway.  I will keep you posted with pictures and stats.  This is a design in progress so I will adapt my configuration as I gain additional experience from this setup.  Keep checking back for progress reports and pictures!

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