Archive for magnum hops
Magnum Hops Recovering From Hop Disease?
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- Magnum Hop Disease Comeback?
Have my Magnum hops overcome their hops disease or whatever malady they are suffering from? All new growth – the laterals and new leaves are looking healthy. Hopefully the Magnum hop plant will survive and be 100% next year. All of the primary leaves on the hop bines have curled up and died (the dark, crumpled leaves in the picture). The tops of the bines are stunted at 10 feet and only new laterals (branches or side shoots) are climbing higher.
I still have not determined what the issue is or was. I am leaning towards a fungal disease similar to Peach Leaf Curl (thanks Mort) or a boron deficiency. I have ruled out an herbicide (from “herbicide drift” – carried by the wind) as this is the middle of 3 plants and the outside 2 are unaffected. I have not used any herbicides and neither has my neighbor.
The Hop bines seemed to recover after I sprayed them with Bonide Liquid Iron + micro-nutrients – containing: magnesium, boron, copper, iron, manganese, zinc which should cover a few different possible deficiencies. Copper can be an antifungal, but I don’t know if the amount of copper was sufficient to act as an anti-fungal in the 2 applications I sprayed the bines with. Whether it was a coincidence or not I don’t know for sure. The new growth has normal leaves.
Hops Topped Out May 29th
As the hop bines appear to be stunted and stuck at 10 feet tall due to whatever malady they experienced, I am not expecting as much of a harvest this year (3rd year should be more than second year hops). Who knows, maybe it will bush out and produce just as many or more. The Magnum is the most compact of my 3 remaining hops – Nugget, Magnum and Cascade. You can see from last year’s pictures (look in the category – Second Year Hops) that it didn’t have 4 foot laterals like the Cascade and Nugget did – maybe 12 to 18 inch laterals.
I just wanted to keep you updated on the possible recovery of the Magnum hops. I hope they have an immune system like humans and develop antibodies so they don’t get hit with this again. I will also amend the soil more with fish emulsion and/or kelp to provide all the nutrients they need. Top dress the soil with compost…
The Cascade and Nugget hops did top out by the end of May as I predicted. Even with the slow start due to the cold spring this year.
Award Winning Hops
Posted by: | Comments2011 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out 2nd Place US IPA!
Upper Mississippi Mash-Out Home Brew Competition
Award winning hops from the 2010 growing season! Ok, my friend Brad Nordine is the brew meister here that took 2nd place in the 10th annual Upper Mississippi Mash-Out (UMMO), category 14 – US IPA! The competition was this past weekend (January 28th and 29th, 2011). This competition is the 2nd largest in the nation! My Magnum hops were used for bittering and he used his Chinook hops for aroma (yes, they are also a bittering hop). See, you can make award winning beers and ales from homegrown hops! I had one of his award winning US IPAs and it was awesome!
Brad has been brewing for several years now and getting better and better each year. He has got quite a setup for his all grain beer and ale making. He has tackled many different styles successfully and is a true connoisseur. When he recommends something, I go buy it. I happily offer my services as a taste tester for any of his creations. If you are in the Minnesota twin cities area, you have seen him at beer events. He is the one that turned me onto Surly when they were an unknown upstart – now Surly Brewing has a hard time keeping up with demand – congrats on 5 years Omar, Todd and staff!
There is not much to write about this time of year (maybe I should be in Australia or New Zealand writing about hops?), so when Brad told me he took second place and my hops were involved, I figured I would put this together. Check out the Upper Mississippi Mash-Out website and consider attending (maybe even entering) next year. You can see Brad’s entry here:
2011 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out – Category 14 – US IPA
Brad deserves all the credit here but he doesn’t have a website or blog for me to plug. His wife Julie does some amazing custom glass work so checkout her site (Valentine’s day is around the corner). She also makes custom glass handled beer openers!
Julie Nordine – Credit River Art Glass – Tell her Tony sent you.
The moral of the story here is – you can make amazing beers and ales using homegrown hops. If you are not growing hops, why not? If you have the space and the climate – just do it.
Hop Burrs Hop Cones
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Hop Burrs Hop Cones
August 1st hops update. The Cascade hops are mostly hop cones with a lesser amount of hop burrs. The Magnum are smaller cones and more hop burrs than the Cascade right now. Hop harvest will be in about a month I think.
Last year the Cascade and Magnum hops were ready to harvest at the same time. At this point, the Magnum are trailing the Cascade. I would rather harvest them separately anyway – it’s a lot of work.
The Nugget hops are barely hop burrs at this point. They trailed the other hops by 2 weeks last year so no surprise there. I am anxious to see how much more my hop harvest will be this year. I am hoping for double last year’s.
Pictured below is my 1st year container Fuggle hops and my second year hops. Left to right they are Fuggle, Nugget, Magnum and Cascade. Maybe one more update before harvest if I have time. So far, so good!
Fuggle Bines
Hop Burrs Hop Cones
Hop Bine Update
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Magnum Hop Bines
Hop Bines May 1st
May 1st, just 2 weeks since the last post. The hop bines were 10 inches tall on April 17, now they are over 5 feet tall! I thought first year hops were fun to watch grow, this is insane! They grew over 4 feet in 2 weeks and this is not even planting time for my zone (zone 4A). Last year it was about June 7th before the hops reached this height (first year hops).
I was going to double the ropes per hop plant this year but had no time to do it. Oh well, they will be thick this year. I expect the laterals to go crazy and at least double the harvest of last year of 4.1lbs wet.
I have not fertilized or amended the soil at all this year. I must have done a good job when I prepped the soil the fall before I planted the hop rhizomes. The hop mounds were heavily mulched with grass and leaves over the winter and perhaps the decomposing grass and leaves were seeping a compost tea into the soil.
What the hell is going to happen when summer comes? At this rate, I may lose my garage to the hop bines. I expect the bines to reach the top of their ropes(15 feet) by June. I’ll keep you posted.
I also started 2 container hop plants this year – a Fuggle and a Mt. Hood. We’ll see how these do – only about 9 inches tall so far. I am more interested or concerned about how long I can keep them in the containers as hop crowns and roots grow massively. I also need to think about how to over-winter the containers as it can get to minus 30 during the winter here.
Expect future posts of massive bines!
Cascade Hops
Posted by: | CommentsThe 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
