Growing Hops 2021

My estimate was pretty accurate: I ended up with 34 ounces dried all together. Vacuum packed and in the freezer.

 

Harvested my Centennial on Sept 7th this year - they were ready way before the Cascade they were tangled up with. I got up on an extension ladder and cut as many Cents down as I could find exposed (Cents don't spread as much as Cascade so they pretty much got enveloped..)

Wound up with 10oz dried Centennial from 1 plant. They smelled great.

Harvested the cascade on Sept 17 - I really wanted to focus this year on not harvesting too early. Last year I was early and the hops didn't develop their full oil content. This year I waited for some brown leaf tips, scrunchy and falling apart cones. MUCH more pungent smell this time!

On harvest day I chucked 20oz wet hops into a pale ale whrilpool, fermented with Imperial Pub, should be kegging soon.

Dried the Cascade on a box fan oast over about 24 hours and wound up with 2.5 lbs dried cascade, vac sealed and frozen for the upcoming year. Love this part of the hobby!

 

Curious - what is everyone's experience in dry hopping with home grown whole cone hops ?

 

usually I use double what a pellet recipe call for , in a brewin a bag
With a chunk of sanitized stainless steel to sink the hops.

 

Final total 10 lbs.

still have 2 cascades to pick. Look great, no time.

 

Need a refresher.....what's a good procedure for getting the rhizomes ready for hibernation? I read where @Hanglow recently pulled up much of his less-than-productive hallertau and planted some new stuff.
If I want to relocate some, is now the time? First 'freeze' of the season is tonight but it's only 29° and only for a couple hours.

 

The advice here is to plant while it is dormant, so up to very early spring. It's a pretty small rhizome/plant, which I assume was made from a cutting this year, so I made sure it won't get waterlogged by planting it in compost in a very large pot with the base knocked out. I'm assuming it will survive any reasonable frosts, as they are supposed to be very frost hardy, but I guess if we have a particularly hard winter then as it isn't established it might not make it. But it's only every decade that temps get below -10c here so I expect a young hop to make it.

 

@boddhitree great yield for first year. Your plants look very healthy and did waaaayy better than my third year 'crop'. I'm convinced mine suffer from lack of sun.

Thanks for the input.
Unless someone points out a good reason for doing otherwise, I'll let them over-winter in place and cut/move them in spring after the last freeze.

 

Rrrrrrrrrrrippper,

in vet I dig them as soon as I can work the ground with a shovel,then plant them in the greenhouse in 12 inch or larger pots.
plant in hop yard may or so,,,,,

or

the hang glow method works very well in deed. Always plant 2 rhizome when possible.

 

I'm guessing that means late winter, and the time in your greenhouse kind of a pre-hardening off period?

 

The hop plants I grow in the greenhouse usually have 6 to 12 inches of growth and a very nice root system, hence the large pots