Anyone have experience growing hops?

Plant in full sun on a mound with wind shelter if possible. Water and fertilize adequately, but don't overdo it. Hops grow like weeds even in mediocre soil. They will take over...plant at least 10 feet apart and give them something to climb on. I have a dozen varieties and most seem to be doing well. Cheers

 

If you are northern Indiana, maybe this is helpful: http://hops.msu.edu/

Others
http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue2.3/montell.html

https://freshops.com/hop-growing/hop-gardening

 

Another article worth reading: http://byo.com/stories/item/724-grow-your-own-hops

Cheers!

 

I live in KY. I have Centennial and Chinook (the Cascade died). Knowing what I know now, I would not have bothered given the space that I have. They are on the south side of my garage, gets lots of sun, but they can only climb ~10ft, so I don't get enough hops to make it worthwhile. I would plan on a trellis or something that will allow hops to grow at least 15 ft in addition to the lots of water, sun,...

hope that helps

 

Like everyone else has said, its real easy. Just plant the rhizome .5-1 ft underground, and be sure it's next to something that it can climb up. Lots of sun exposure during the day, and plenty dark at night (make sure there are no street lights nearby that are on all night). They will come back harder every year. Don't be disappointed with your first growth hops - I only got about 2 handfuls off 4 plants my first year. The 3rd year and so on are full force though. They will take over! Have fun. Having your own hops is great for doing wet hop ales.

 

There is all kinds of info on the Internet, but searching something that is close to home may give you the best answer for your climate, soil, etc. I don't know if the answers to your needs are in this link from Purdue University, but there are all kinds of links inside the article that may take you to where you need to be. (If this does not help, then look at Michigan State's Ag site. They do a lot of work in this area.
http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/rele...r-to-help-farmers-get-into-hops-business.html

 

FWIW, I planted my hop rhizome in mid-April (Southeastern PA). My guess is that you could place your rhizome in the ground now and it will ‘pop up’ when it is ready (conditions proper for growth).

The classic way to train a hop plant is via a trellis using some sort of cord; the plant then spirals up the cord.

I chose an ornamental approach using an arched trellis. My hop plant provides a lot of hop cones. You will only get a few cones the first year, more the second year and by the third year you should have a ‘bumper’ crop.

Below is a photograph of my hop plant mid-summer (with a glass of Grodziskie in the foreground).

Cheers!

 

How many hops do you get with that "setup". That looks similar to what I have at the end of the summer and the best I have got is a 5 gallon bucket almost full. That sounds like a lot, but when I weighed them, it was something like 12oz (I think) and most of that is water (80%). I used them as fresh hops all in one 5 gallon batch and it did not add much at all.

 

In September 2014 I picked 12 ounces of wet hops to brew a wet hopped Harvest Ale. There were still lots of hop cones left on the plant (I have no idea how much; two-three pounds?). I should mention that this is the third year of this hop plant.

Cheers!

 

I planted Cascade and Centennial (two rhizomes each mound) last year. My planter bed is approximately 32"x96" with a 2x12 frame around the perimeter and a divider to keep the roots from criss-crossing. Due to my wife's constraints my trellis is only 8 ft tall in a 'T' shape with a string hanging down each side, anchored by a rock. I didn't get many hop cones last year (two handfuls from each plant). The Cascade have already started shooting up. Centennial are a little slower but they were last year also.

I mixed top soil, sand, planting mix in a 4:2:1 mixture. It drains well which is important. I will water if the soil about an inch down is starting to feel dry. My plants are on the west side of my house so they get the hotter part of the day. House faces south so there was no way my wife would buy into that.

 

I have some Newport hops, first year didn't get any cones, second year roughly a pound (4 oz dried) from 5 bines.
for the third year, I yanked 3 of them out, replaced with Cascade and Nugget. The cascade came up, maybe a handful of cones, but I got almost the same output on the 2 Newport left.
THen last fall I moved, and had to yank them all up to move them. They were out of ground longer than I would have liked, but id get them in eventually. They haven't yet come up, but less than a week ago they were covered with snow, so I'm not yet worrying.

 

I planted my Nugget this past Saturday. It was warm and soil was moist. May have been a little early, but the root was growing out of the box it came in that I had in the fridge.

I figured that guy needed to be in the ground ASAP.

 

I have 8 bines here at my home, I have the room. Hops are pretty forgiving overall, they do have a few pests in the disease and insects department. Mine are situated in a row in between 2 large pine trees. I have a stainless wire ran across these two trees like a clothes line 25' high.

Each spring I toss over my climbing lines and anchor with 2 anchor points creating a peak. I use those dog line augers that go into the ground $5 a piece and reuse every year. When time to harvest I go to the side they are not growing on and cut the line. Simply lower the bine down. Its a easy set up,works great, nothing fancy.

I have found a good slow release fertilizer works best. Fast release like miracle grow creates a lot of flush growth. This is what a lot of your diseases and bugs love. Also like grapes etc, it may take a season or two until your hops become super productive. The first year they are just trying to get roots,acclimate, and basically stay alive.

 

Indiana is a good place to grow hops. Most of the midwest was home to large amounts of hop production until powdery mildew destroyed the crop and they found it more economical to be grown in the west where the humidity is lower. Find a modern hybrid that is resistant to powdery mildew that you prefer. In 3-5 years you will get enough hops from one hop plant to do 1 homebrew with. Which is fun-an end of season fresh hop beer. Some years are better some are worse. We grow several plants, chinook, willamette, cascade, sterling, nugget, goldings (died), and centennial. Our 2 chinook plants and 2 sterling plants are powerhouses. We grew enough hops on a good year to get 2 batches of fresh hop homebrew, and then sent the rest of the fresh hops to a local brewery for them to use! Some years are good some are bad-like any crop.

 

How important is it to constrain the root area? Will the roots really spread and impact on any nearby plants?

 

Hops will spread a lot over time. I just noticed tonight that both of my hop mounds are covering a huge area. They are 5 years old and I have used a shovel each year but the last to try to keep them contained. One of them has shoots that covers a 2.5-3 ft radius. Based on this, I suspect they would eat my whole yard given enough time.