Hop Growing 2009

[Jymbo]

Thats non too shabby jymbo, i might change my plan and harvest what i have tomorrow night (showers on saturday).
Were they first year plants and if so cuttings or rhizhome.

It was a Fuggles rhizome which I got from aplus and planted around the end of March this year. The mathon golding rhizome that I bought was also doing very well until the main bine withered just around the point were it entered the ground. I think it must have been attacked by a bird or a cat cause it was planted about a yard from the Fuggles and the Fuggles was fine.

[Chiltern Brewer]

To pick up on a few points...

Soil prepartion is key with hops. They are hungry plants - just think how much growth they produce each year - and once they are established they have roots like a small tree as I discovered when I tried to move one! If you get some hops in the first year you've done well, next year they should be even better if you feed/manure them. I now expose an area of soil (2-3 feet wide) around the base of my bines so that I can do this.

Drying is crucial - not too hot or fast - especially true for the aroma varieties. So I wouldn't use an oven.

I think I can produce hops at least as good if not better (I pick the best off the bines by hand) as commercially produced ones, cost isn't the issue.

[grumpysod]

My own plants (2 first gold) were cuttings and they are only now finding there feet 3 years down the line, i might be tempted to purchase some rhizhomes for next year.

del, I planted one of last year's cuttings in a 50l trug in the greenhouse and it's produced the most hops of all my 5 plants. I don't have any space for it outside so you're welcome to the rhizomes from it.
Every time i fed the tomatoes i also fed the hops and it took over the greenhouse, I had no room for me peppers

[delboy]

My own plants (2 first gold) were cuttings and they are only now finding there feet 3 years down the line, i might be tempted to purchase some rhizhomes for next year.

del, I planted one of last year's cuttings in a 50l trug in the greenhouse and it's produced the most hops of all my 5 plants. I don't have any space for it outside so you're welcome to the rhizomes from it.
Every time i fed the tomatoes i also fed the hops and it took over the greenhouse, I had no room for me peppers

Thats good going GS, obviously you've got green fingers, what kind of hops are they?

[grumpysod]

They're First gold as well. I must take a photo as the cones are bleedin massive

I have had a wee bit of luck when it comes to propagating cuttings, but i always do what i was told - keep cuttings out of direct sunlight and have plenty of patience, they'll root when they're ready and not before. Let the roots get to a couple of inches before planting them and use a paper pot that the roots can grow through as it makes it easier to see when they need potting on.

[delboy]

They're First gold as well. I must take a photo as the cones are bleedin massive

I have had a wee bit of luck when it comes to propagating cuttings, but i always do what i was told - keep cuttings out of direct sunlight and have plenty of patience, they'll root when they're ready and not before. Let the roots get to a couple of inches before planting them and use a paper pot that the roots can grow through as it makes it easier to see when they need potting on.

Do you think it was the green house treatment that brought them on or the frequent feeding (stupid question i suppose, probably both). My own hops are on the small side the biggest ones are probably only about an inch. I'd be interested to know how big they can get (i presumed first gold poduced small hops, maybe not).

Think im going to postpone the harvest until tuesday at least because barring the showers on saturday the weather looks quite good on the beeb 5 day forecast.

[onelegout]

I just harvested some wild hops - they're not in very good condition and are very small, but half the hops in the hedgerow were shrivelled, brown, and pretty much done for the year!

Do you *need* to let them dry? and for how long? Will just leaving them on a tray, and moving them about every now and again for a few days be enough to dry them out?

Cheers in advance for the advice!
H

[alabaster cheeks]

i have two hop plants in pots question is should i plant them now or wait till march
cheers

[oblivious]

i have two hop plants in pots question is should i plant them now or wait till march
cheers

I would be inclined to let them build up food reserved go dormant and plant in November

[alabaster cheeks]

thanks for that should feeding be reduced also now

[Subsonic]

I had a chat with my farmer this week. Fullers are asking the farm down the road to plant more Fuggles. The Fuggles Farmer (his mate) in turn asked me to pick his hops (Monday) that the machine cannot harvest as he wanted some of my beer in return. Well it chucked it down and I couldn't, but I will pass on some Fuggles beer and pick next year. The brown colour isn't bad. We are just used to green hops, years ago they were smoked and sulphured and made bl@@dy good IPA. I dried all of mine in different ways but none using heat other than the sun (polytunnel) or low heat (garage) and they all went brown. All were very dry and green when harvested and SPOT on, (I live on a farm and know when to pick stuff plus I had 75 year old Wilf advising me). My 'picking / drying' was an experiment and I found the brown colour change made no difference to the resin and perfume. BUT ask Mysterio as I sent him a sample for an independent view. I am sooo tempted to use the old oast house in my garden but I will never get enough hops to use that. I was after an 'original' IPA and although I didn't use coal or sulphur I think my hops were not far off. Of course the proof is in the drinking, I have 88 litres and so far it smells divine. Next year I may kiln them and sulphur just for an 'original IPA'. Subsonic

[MartialAnt]

My dried hop weights are as follows

Bramling X 125g
Fuggle 55g
Northdown 102g
WGV 217g.

The Fuggle was crap as i had nowhere to send it so no light got to the covered bines.
Heres hoiping for a better crop next year.

[Chiltern Brewer]

I had a chat with my farmer this week. Fullers are asking the farm down the road to plant more Fuggles. The Fuggles Farmer (his mate) in turn asked me to pick his hops (Monday) that the machine cannot harvest as he wanted some of my beer in return. Well it chucked it down and I couldn't, but I will pass on some Fuggles beer and pick next year. The brown colour isn't bad. We are just used to green hops, years ago they were smoked and sulphured and made bl@@dy good IPA. I dried all of mine in different ways but none using heat other than the sun (polytunnel) or low heat (garage) and they all went brown. All were very dry and green when harvested and SPOT on, (I live on a farm and know when to pick stuff plus I had 75 year old Wilf advising me). My 'picking / drying' was an experiment and I found the brown colour change made no difference to the resin and perfume. BUT ask Mysterio as I sent him a sample for an independent view. I am sooo tempted to use the old oast house in my garden but I will never get enough hops to use that. I was after an 'original' IPA and although I didn't use coal or sulphur I think my hops were not far off. Of course the proof is in the drinking, I have 88 litres and so far it smells divine. Next year I may kiln them and sulphur just for an 'original IPA'. Subsonic

I struggled with drying for a long time... trust me, there is nothing more disheartening than raising plants for a year, spending hours picking hops cones by hand and then having them go off before you can use them.

You may be alright if the cones are really dry. I'd avoid drying them in direct sunlight though as hops are photosensitive. The old oast house sounds ideal if it is dry, dark and you get a through draught of air. Obviously you are not going to pick enough to warrant lighting the kiln fire but air drying on frames suspended above the old drying floor would be perfect. I have come across a small scale producer in the US that uses fibreglass screens for drying their hops (pages 30-31). I think you may want to think about this for next year because it looks like you will be able to pick as much you want provided you supply the odd bottle or three of beer to the farmer!

[Subsonic]

Cheers for that, I think maybe the light affects the colour so next year I am going to try drying in the dark and see if that makes a difference. Subsonic

[edit1now]

We picked ours yesterday. Wet weight 898g Hallertauer (a bit disappointing but I think they're being crowded out by the ivy on next-door's garage roof) and 6.1g (!) of Saaz but they were only planted this spring. Nothing off the Fuggles that I've seen, though they were very late starting - the bare-root plants took ages to come up at all.