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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
