Hop Growing 2014

[andybiochem]

Here's my progress...


...Cascade on the far right not doing too good, was initially hampered by greenfly and slugs/snails.




...called in the infantry!

Also got another Cascade on the go, and a couple of wild hops.

[SiHoltye]

Ladybirds are awesome................full stop[WHITE SMILING FACE]

[simple one]

Seems to be alto more ladybird larvae and adults around this year. Haven't needed to spray once.

[simple one]

A lot

[StuAlban]

My second year First Gold 'hedgerow' hop is going well this year. It's taken over the rose growing on the wall behind it - much to SWMBO's annoyance!

[timothy]

Two plants on the left are Cascade. Plant on the far right is Saaz. Saaz has had a bit of a tough time this year. The far left Cascade is all from a 1-inch long rhizome cutting taken last fall. Quite a few side shoots on each Cascade. This is my first year taking care of these plants that I inherited from Seymour. Next year I hope to transplant to larger pots or the ground.

[SiHoltye]

Update.
All but one of my eight 2 year old from seed Chinook X have reached maturity.
Pleasing results with five females.



Bad news for the two males though as today was the day for them.


The eighth plant was very weak looking in comparison with to flowers or cones. That was binned.

I plan to guerrilla garden these five in the the dead of January in a local hedgerow.

[YeastWhisperer]

My second year First Gold 'hedgerow' hop is going well this year. It's taken over the rose growing on the wall behind it - much to SWMBO's annoyance!

I would love to get my hands on a few First Gold rhizomes.

[YeastWhisperer]

These photos were shot a few weeks ago.

Front to back: Wye Challenger, Spalt Select, Santiam, Horizon, Fuggle H, and Cascade





Front to back: Cascade, Fuggle H, Horizon, Santiam, Spalt Select, and Wye Challenger




Wye Challenger is a beast. My first-year Wye Challenger hills are now loaded with cones. They have also become sexually confused (hemaphroditic). My Cascade hills are are not nearly as cone dense, but they are doing well. My Fuggle H (a Fuggle selection), Horizon, Santiam, and Spalt Select Hills are performing as expected for first-year hills.

This close-up shot of one of my Challenger hills was shot last Wednesday evening. One can easily see smaller grape-like male flowers mixed with female cones.

[YeastWhisperer]

I shot the photos shown below this evening.

Wye Challenger













Cascade

[scuppeteer]

Blimey! They look just about ready to pick!

What's interesting is how the male flowers are not yet developed but the females are. This just doesn't happen here, even on the hemaphroditic ones I've seen. You've got a proper odd one there YW.

[kebabman]

Hi Yeastwhisperer
Could you give us some more info about your hop supports. I would be interested in knowing the height, what are the tubes made of, are they set in concrete and anything else that would be of use?
Many thanks

[YeastWhisperer]

The be completely honest, my simple hop supports were almost an afterthought. This hop yard is the third that I have planted since I took my first stab at growing hops in 1994. My first two hop yards were spring plantings of rhizomes. This hop yard was a fall planting of whole crowns and field-grade plants. The whole crowns were basically field-grade plants that had been through one growing season in a plant nursery. I believe that the field-grade plants are propagated using plant tissue.

I was not planning to string the bines this year because of my previous experience with growng hops from rhizomes led me to believe that it would be a waste of time. However, I decided to put in a make-do trellis system at the last minute just to get the bines off of the ground. The hop supports are easy to fabricate. The main support is a made from a 3 meter (actually 10') section of what we refer to as EMT (electric metal tube) conduit in the United States. EMT is a bendable metal conduit material. The tee at the top of the main support is made from PVC pipe and a PVC tee-fitting. The section of conduit rests on top of a 4' section of rebar (I believe that Brits call it rebar as well). The EMT tubing fits over top of the rebar. I drove the sections of rebar into the ground approximately 2' feet. I used a stainless steel hose clamp and a large washer to keep the EMT from sinking into the ground. The clamp is attached to the section of rebar at ground level, the washer rests on top of the clamp, and the section of EMT rests on top of the washer.

With that said, I understand that EMT is not used in the UK, which is good because it bends fairly easily. I have to straighten almost all of my vertical supports after a heavy storm. A better choice for the vertical supports is threaded galvanized pipe, which I may use next year if I do not install a post and wire trellis this fall. The beauty of using galvanized pipe is that a support can be made as tall as one wants to make it, and the tee at the top can be made from pipe as well. The downside to using pipe is that it is heavy, which will require driving a section of pipe into the ground for each support.

[YeastWhisperer]

Blimey! They look just about ready to pick!

What's interesting is how the male flowers are not yet developed but the females are. This just doesn't happen here, even on the hemaphroditic ones I've seen. You've got a proper odd one there YW.

All I can say is that Wye Challenger was a big surprise. It performed better than Cascade, and Cascade is a stupid proof hop here in the United States. As I mentioned in the other thread, I have not experienced much in the way of success with British cultivars. British hop cultivars want a longer peak photoperiod than my location provides. British cultivars also tend to do better in alkaline soil. My soil is acidic. My only guess as to why Wye Challenger does well in my location is due to the Zattler genetic contribution. Zattler is a German hop, and the hop growing areas in Germany have acidic soil.


CULTIVAR: Wye Challenger

PEDIGREE: German Zattler-OP x No. Brewer-downy mildew res. male (17/54/2) x (1/61/57)

PRIMARY SITE: USDA World Hop Cultivar Collection, OSU East Farm

ORIGIN: Cross made at Wye College, England, in 1961 (I am assuming that this hop cultivar was bred by Ray Neve)


If one looks at Northern Brewer's pedigree, one discovers that female hop was Canterbury Golding, which I understand is a Golding cultivar that was grown in Kent.

CULTIVAR: Northern Brewer

PEDIGREE: Canterbury Golding x OB21. OB21 - a seedling raised in 1934 by Prof. Salmon at Wye College came from a cross made the previous year between Brewer's Gold (19001) x American male OY1

I am curious to know more about the American male OY1 genetic contribution. I appears to have been a male hop from California. That genetic contribution may be the key to Wye Challenger's ability to grow well at my latitude. The major hop growing area in California was roughly at the same latitude as my property.

[kebabman]

@ Yeastwhisperer, many thanks for the info.
Come to think of it I have some galvanised pipe around somewhere, but not enough to improve my supports next year.
Cheers