Homegrown hops 2020

I'm behind... Just getting strings up now and am lucky if anything is 3' tall.

 

My Cascades now have burrs

 

Your way out in front of me.

Got to water the hop yard last night

It's gonna b a low producing year up here unless one has irrigation set up. Very dry and 90s. If I had drip irrigation set up it would be a banner year. Glad I have a lot of plants,,,,,, but,,,

At the art foundry, it's low da posh ground. This year it is perfict growing conditions, so we measured yesterday and the bines are 20 feet and up, side shoots extremely long, no bugs or fungus yet.

 

Mine ran out of line and are headed back toward the ground. Pretty sure this is the fastest growth I've seen here.

 

Well, I do have two engineers for sons.

 

Variety?

 

Center and right: Nugget. Left: either Cascade or Centennial, depending on which plant the trained bine came up from. I'll hopefully be able to tell from the aroma, but we'll see.

 

Yesterday and today saw my lines go up. Really needed to do it sooner... more time spent trying to pick bines then actually deal with strings... Surprised to see some EKG about 4 ft and a couple comets about the same. Most between a 1-3 ft. Hopefully the grow well with my new drip irrigation.

 

Well, the aphids have made an appearance this year; I just noticed them today. I'm going to give them a dose of neem oil in the morning. Will see how that works. Cheers!

 

Just found Japanese beetles all over my plants yesterday. So I soaked my plants in neem oil. I have to deal with those damn things every year, despite using grub control etc. Tried partner plants that the beetles dislike such as catnip and onions and garlic etc, but obviously those do no good when the beetles are attacking hop leaves 15 feet above them, lol. Oh well, they never seem to do any permanent damage as long as I keep up with the neem oil.

Seeing some burrs on my Northern Brewer. Always my earliest plant to start producing flowers.

 

I might plant a couple of rhizomes next year. Is catnip a real deterrent? If it works, that's cool and all, but I got a crazy cat lady next door that leaves cat food out for strays, but really all it does is attract foxes, raccoons, and opossums. I would prefer to not encourage her. You mentioned onions and garlic. Could planting chives work as welll?

 

They are on this list:
https://www.countrybasketniagara.co...panese-beetles-dont-like-deter-niagara-garden

for me, what Japanese beetles attack are mostly my fruit trees, so I don't think these low growing plants really help.

 

Coming along good. About 12'.

 

My hops got a super late start due to moving, they were plagued with aphids (used neem and it took care of them), and they're in a suboptimal position due to the way our new house is oriented, so I don't have a lot of hope for this season. Next year, though...

 

Top of my hallertau m. went to about 25ft then snapped back, centennial is now 20ft. Also seeing shoots rising up along my neighbourse fence.....sorry not sorry

 

Finally got to irrigate the hop yard, then got 1.5 inches of rain.

Most are up to the 15 foot cable now except Columbus which is around 10 ft. Willamette and cascade over the top side arms just forming. And, of course, the weeds are a growin.