• HopGrowing

Grow Your Own Hops

There isn't much info here, since I don't know much about it apart from planting my own Hallertau rhizome in August 2004. Also, I am the antithesis of a "green thumb", my family call me Dr Death when it comes to growing plants.

I am almost totally flying by the seat of my pants.

You might also be interested in reference info on hops.

Purdue Uni, Field Crops Manual

2005

This time I decided to let them grow a little higher.

This is early Oct 2005, they only sprouted a few weeks ago and they are nearly level with the pergola. This time I am sticking to 3 bines, the rest are getting the chop.

November 1 2005. Update, by mid November there are some fairly mature flowers up on the crown, they are a bit too far away for photos but they are about the same size as in the January photo from last season's crop.

I risked life and limb to climb a ladder and take these shots. These flowers are around 6 metres from the ground. I designed my hop support to hinge in the middle so harvesting won't require a cherry picker.

2004

First season.

Early September, planted mid August, location Melbourne. I also planted a Willamette rhizome at the same time but it didn't even shoot - all I can assume is that the rhizome was just not viable.

Nov 2004. It has been in the ground about 3 months now and the first bine has reached the pergola however growth has pretty much been stalled for 3 or 4 weeks.

I was training two other bines up strings but their growth has slowed right down. About a week ago I applied some Seasol spray on the leaves and added some concentrated soluble plant nutrient to the soil. I also added some vermicast (worm crap) from my compost heap.

It may be coincidence but two new bines have sprung up and already overtaken the two that were on the string. These have grown 20-30cm a day in the last few days. I am going to keep up the Seasol since the new growth seems very vigorous and healthy looking.

I have since cut off the older ones and trained the new shoots on to a wire. I am reckoning on 3 bines being enough on the pergola.

Dec 19, 2004 about 6 weeks after the first picture. Many new bines, which have overtaken the first one shown in the earlier picture. The background makes it a little difficult to see but bines are now growing up the fence in the foreground and some are headed for a trellis on the left. I put all this new vigour down the application of Seasol and/or Osmocote concentrated, soluble fertilizer. And my strawberries are doing pretty well with this regime too.

Also for anyone wondering which direction hops rotate as they climb in this part of the world, the photo on the right says it all.

I am really no green thumb - but are these what I think they are? The date is 31-Dec-04.

Mid January. Starting to look like real cones. Anyone got a recipe that calls for two hallertau flowers?

January 21 - really starting to look like hop cones now.

And this is what the plant looks like at the end of January.

I picked 32g of flowers in early March. Nothing to write home about but hey it has been a little fun and I will grow the bines differently next year.

Propagating Hops

To anyone who has recieved a hop rhizome in the mail and successfully grown it, it should be fairly obvious that this is the "normal" way to propogate hops.

Now I have heard that they are pretty hardy beasts and so I have taken some cuttings and trying to propagate some clones of my 6 month old vine.

Now I didn't really follow all the directions on the pack of the rooting powder, in particular the hop plant is in the midst of some fairly active growth. I really expected the cuttings to cark it after a day or two. I started out with just one cutting as can be shown here.

1. I took a fairly new shoot and cut it on an angle with sharp scissors.
2. Straight away I dipped it in water.
3. Then I dipped it in the rooting powder.
4. I poked it in some moist potting mix.
5. Right away I watered it.
6. I cut the top off a PET bottle, put a few holes in it and placed it over the top.
7. I have put it in a shady place (we have had some pretty hot weather lately).
8. It gets some water every day.
9. There is no added fertilizer.

On day 5, no it hasn't sprouted another shoot, I cut another one after the first one didn't die in 48 hours. I probably can work out which one is which but I don't really care. Given my record as a gardner, this is nothing short of a miracle. I will try to update every now and then.

Well they aren't looking too good, although while there is at least some green I hold out some hope.

As well as "planting" some cuttings, I tossed some in some water and after a few weeks, this is what sprouted. This has got to be the easiest way of propagating (assuming I can get them into the ground successfully).

Tips from a Professional Grower

This is just a brain dump (subject to my flaky memory) from a conversation I had with Greg, a professional hop grower located in Melbourne. He seems extremely knowledgable about growing, processing and the use of hops in beer.

1. Hops go dormant if there are a few cold nights in a row.
2. They like humidity, the professional growers water them from overhead.
3. Grow 3 bines up a 5 metre pole. Cut the others bines off.
4. Shake the bines and you will hear when they are ready to pick (papery rattling sound).
5. Harvest hops with long sleeves to avoid hop rash, they are very abrasive.

6. Don't freeze hops - this busts open the lupin glands which is not conducive to long shelf life. Note: this is contrary to common wisdom - I don't necessarily agree with this but I don't have any hard science on this subject.