Growing Hops 2022

Awesome it was unexpected. I thought they just died after picking lol.
Would I want to cut the main bine back to the ground after or before the first frost?

 

if you have the inclination and time the better choice would be to cut it back after frost and it goes caput that way it can recharge its batteries for a bit longer

 

What Merlyn says. Kinda like fall raspberries, never cut them back till they are totally dormant.

 

Whenever I see a video of hop harvest by machinery in a commercial grower's field they cut the entire bine and take it to the processing facility for stripping the cones. So maybe it doesn't really matter.

However, if the bine is left intact, maybe this is the point at which rhizomes spread outward and create new ones, which is essentially what @Merlyn is suggesting. Just a guess.

 

Well, I know some of the farmers out west fertilize a lot more than I do, usually thru drip irrigation. Could be their plants have enough reserve in the crown to keep on going where my method is to let nature build it up . Both ways work.

 

Yeah they cut top and bottom and lay them ("them" being bines with the string they were growing up) in truck beds and send them into processing facilities hung kind of like hangers on a dry cleaner rack, then use beaters to knock off the cones themselves, where they fall onto a series of belts with gaps that let stones etc fall out then they get conveyored into drying chambers.

The big hop farm I work with takes the bines and string and everything that's "waste" material and shreds that up and sends it out the side of the building into other trucks, which dump it into compost piles, which then go back onto the fields when they're ready.

The hop plant will send energy back to the roots all season, but if you're on a small scale it's better to wait until they die back just so you can eke out every last bit. The big guys only cut the whole thing off because it's the only feasibly economic way to do it at scale.

 

Ripper,

The one large hop farmer I talked to liked to have the drive ways that are in between the rows of hops planted with a mix of plans to aid in soil health and attract benificials.

other than that, he had a range of organic or chemical products to use when needed. Said he scouted the fields or his wife did most every day.

 

I ended up with a little over a pound of dried Chinook this year. I’ll probably use most of them for an American barley wine, but still trying to decide..

I too went the ‘hop tincture’ route this year. These hops have been soaking in Tito’s since mid September and it is very aromatic.the flavor basically tastes like someone tried to make the worlds strongest ipa Will probably let it go for another few weeks and then strain.

 

Well I pick the second harvest of Cascade hops. I think they done very well for the first year. Looking forward to see what they do next year.
What hop bine gives the most pine aroma/taste that is available to homebrewers? I want to plant 3 more next spring but would like a very piney variety.

 

Many years ago the Simcoe hops I purchased were piney but over the past 5+ years not so much.

I read that Chinook hops will provide pine flavor/aroma but I have no personal experience here.

The 'wild card' is terroir effects. Will these hops grown in Tennessee provide pine flavors?

Cheers!

 

Hey hop growers, a quick question: How big should plants get their first year?

I bought a Cascade and a Chinook plant in very late spring and right now they are about 20 inches tall. I've read they only produce cones after the second year, but this seems like very little growth. It won't freeze here for at least another month, so I've still got some time, but they look done for the year.

 

I have only one plant it grew several feet tall the first year and did produce some hop cones but just a limited amount.

How did you handle your plants? Did you add any fertilizer? Water during dry spells? Did you plant them where you have full sun throughout the day? Etc.?

Cheers!

 

There are several good 'hops flavor wheels' on the internet. Here's one:
https://www.usahops.org/hop-finder/

 

Yep, first year, for me, is a non or near non producer. 2end year should produce jus fine

 

But were any of your various hop plants only 20 inches tall after a season of growing?

Cheers!

 

No usually 5-8 feet, sometimes more.

the only variety that yielded any cones on the first year for me was perlie. I’m sure the spelling is wrong.
Anyway, after checking notes, I found those 2plants yielded 3 oz dry and were both dead the next growing season. Never happened before with any other variety.
Columbus seems to grow the least for me on the first year.

 

The plants were about four inches when I got them. They are on the south side of the house and due to the really hot and dry summer we had, got watered daily. They were not fertilized.

I was not expecting too much from them this year due to several factors, like a late planting, but they don't seem to have done much.