Homegrown hops 2020

Great song. Love SCOTS, but only got the chance to see them live once though.

Also appropriate to the conversation

 

Insecticidal soap is safe for edible plants up to day of harvest

 

I'd b carefull of anything sprayed on the. Ones near harvest time organic or otherwise. Lots of sprays work, all have labels and back in school ,we were taught the lable is the law.

That's fine, but they generally are looking at LD50 results, not how a bit of residue will effect the taste of your beer.

Food for thought

 

That's why I haven't sprayed since the burrs formed.

 

CONES dammit, me an da fat fingers☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️

 

Howdy. My plants in SE Pa in spotted lanternfly territory are having a nice yield. Actually one of the better in years.
Last year there were lantern flies in the yard and was wondering if they were going to make it. But plants look great except nugget and magnum seem to be effected by a late frost. Leaf damage, but they still produced. With the heat I had to pick some magnums. As I was doing it, some lantern flies I could see in the binds. Hard to see the pricks. I'm not or plan not to treat plants at all. Latest news I've heard on them is that they move on to different areas. So hoping plants survive. Also read that praying mantis and some other bugs are eating them. I do have praying mantis in the yard. So hope they help. Wondering if others are seeing lantern fly in their hops and effect they are having.
Cheers

 

I am in Montgomery County, and last year I had quite a bit of lanternfly activity on my hops and therefore they were contaminated with their "honeydew" (their sticky poop) and therefore I didn't harvest any.

This year there were only a few nymphs on my hops, but right now we are just starting to get the adult stage laternflys on our maple trees. Since my Cascades are actually ready for harvest, going to get that done before any damage.

My two Nugget plants got too much leaf damage from the damn Japanese beetles and didn't really put out any cones.

We had the late frost too and I had a die-off of a few of the leaders, but they put new ones that still made it to the top of my trellises.

Last year I saw a few Wheel Bugs on my maple trees but never saw them actively eating any lanternflys, but they are supposed to be top level predator bugs similar to Praying Mantises.

I wouldn't say they move on very much - they've been focused on the same 3 Maple trees we have for the last few years. Worse every year so far, we'll see how this year goes.

 

So, that's what those damn beetles that are eating my leaves are? I'll have to check them out on Wikipedia.

 

I might get a couple lbs dry off my yard, but the foundry hops are stellar and I'll get around 8 out of them.

Hope for regular rain next year

 

I'm an American who's been living in Germany and I've been brewing since 1999 in the USA, and now in Germany since 2008. I've always wanted to grow hops, but lived in an apartment in the Frankfurt. Unfortunately, an old apartment from the1900s had 12 foot ceilings and 3 foot thick sandstone walls, but no balcony and no place to grow hops. Last year, we moved into a new apartment, brand new building with a 130 square foot balcony that faces the west.

It got me thinking about growing hops and looking to buy here online. The climate is mild, lots of sun this summer, and then the logistics of it on a balcony. I could train the bines to grow up the side walls and then maybe along the ceiling of the balcony.

Here's a pic of my dog standing roughly in the corner I'm putting the pot of hops.

And another of the opposite side where I the other pot will go.

So, I looked online, and it turns out in Germany there's a place that sells only individual, baby hop plants. Lots of different hop selections, too. I chose Cascade and Smaragd, which originally comes from Czech Rep. I've used Smaragd before and it's a nice hop:

I figured, this summer the roots grow out and the plant establishes itself in the pot, then next year hopefully I'll get hops to harvest.
When they arrived by mail, they looked really small. The Cascade looked in fact a might sickly, probably just stressed from having to endure DHL's service. This was July 24th.

Today, they've doubled in size, and tripled in width. They are extremely healthy and growing robustly.
Here's the Cascade.


Below is the Smaragd, which I potted 3 days after the Cascade and is taking a little long to get established, it seems.

So... I'd like to know what y'all think. Any advice is appreciated. I plan on running twine up the wall and across the ceiling.

 

Thanks for the question. On sunny days, at least from 2 to 7 pm. When they grow on the wall, up the ceiling, probably from noon. Germany isn't known as a sunny summer place, but in the last 3 or 4 years, each summer has been super sunny, in the 90s a lot (almost nowhere has air conditioning. ) and drought conditions, all due to global warming. It's like southern Italy's summer moved here. For the hop plants, they seem to love being watered every day.

 

Been picking fresh Cascade cones to use in my mini Randall the last few days. Tonight it was a few pints of my homebrewed Black IPA that got the treatment

 

My plants are looking appalling, I'll be lucky to get two brews out of them this year I think. I got 1.5kg dried or so last year

 

Looking like a pretty solid yield of Cascade this year. Planning to brew an all Cascade saison to blend with a solera batch of golden sour.

 

Excellent growth and yeild.

 

I'm envious of your hop yeild... and that beer sounds absolutely delicious.
Though bought online, this summer I made a French Saison with Lemondrop, Centennial hops + Grains of Paradise + Belgian dried sweet orange peel. I'm so happy with that combo.

 

That sounds like a great recipe too!

 

Although not homegrown I did just ride my bike a few minutes from my house to harvest some wild hops that grow along a stream right next to the bike path. They’re everywhere for miles.

First patch I stopped at was small but the hops smelled amazing, very dank. Reminded me of Zappa a bit. Second patch the hops looked similar but weren’t nearly as potent. I have no idea if these are truly wild but supposedly there are some in town that get harvested every year for a fresh hop brew by one of the local breweries that have been tested and are a wild variety.

pretty sure one of the commercially grown varieties that has NeoMexicanus heritage was bred with a wild hop from Utah but not sure which one.