The Homegrown Hops Thread

We're not as far along here in MN, but my 3rd year Cascades have already surpassed 18', the Golding and Tettnanger are only at about 8'. The 2nd year Centennial are only about about 4'.

 

My Cascades just topped out my (12' high) trellis. I have Newports that are between 6 - 8 feet up. Not sure why the Newports are so far behind.
I did have to move them last fall, so I yanked them all out of the ground at the old house and put them in at the new. Guess they had to re-grow all the rooting system they lost. I'll probably end up with a decent crop of the Cascade, I'm not really holding my breath on the Newport.

 

I live north of Harrisburg and cannot fathom waiting until Aug/Sept to harvest. I cant imagine our climates are that much different but maybe im wrong? Arnt your hops turning brown by then?

My cascades and nuggets right now are already feeling papery and dried out with tips of some of the cones turning brown. Ive ripped several cones apart and they are filled with lupulin, just not as much as im use to seeing. Note: this has never happened this early before. I dont think ive ever picked hops prior to the 4th of July but I seriously think I might need to this year.

I also think im going to have 2 harvests from my cascades. Ive been monitoring the cone development for weeks now and just noticed a whole new set of side shoots and burrs developing on all the bines. The weather this year has been crazy, I dont think my hops know what to do...

Side note: i visited selinsgrove brewery on friday and typically my hops look like they are weeks/months behind the hops that grow at selinsgrove. That isnt the case this year, they dont even have cones yet. I was shocked when I saw that and they are only an hour away from me.

 

Right now my Cascades are cones but very soft, and the Nuggets are still just burrs. But they are ahead of last year. Last year it was definitely August for the Cascades and beginning of September for Nugget. They were not brown.

The issue could be amount of sun exposure? Mine are shaded in the morning and late afternoon. So they only get direct sun in the middle of the day.

 

I have a Chinook and Cascade going right now... Got the bines from Fat Heads that they gave away free to be harvested/collected later this year so they can do a community IPA or something. Anybody who grew the hops and donated their harvest will be invited for some special release and such. I look forward to it!

Of course, I will brew an IPA myself with some of the harvest! Use them for dry hopping and wort hopping.