Anyone growing hops?

[atomeyes]

Just wondering how many of you are growing hops at home.

I'm on year 2 of (what I believe is) Willamette. I have 3 rhizomes and the shoots are 6 ft high already.

it would be nice to trade for some other hops (like Hallertau or Cascade)

[Derek]

This is my second year with them in the ground as well. Some of them must be about 12' tall (my hopergola is only 10.5').

We've had some crazy heat this spring in the Okanagan!

[phirleh]

3rd season hops in pots, 2 cascade and 1 mt.hood. Already at about 6 feet or so.

[Baulz]

I have 1 Willamette and 2 Cascade. Moved to a new house last fall so they got transplanted, both are growing slowly. I'm not expecting a lot from them this year but did have great harvests the last 2 years. A couple plants didn't survive the move.

Would really like to get some Centennial and Chinook.

[xocoatl]

I have been short on time and late in trimming mine back. This is how my cascade plants were looking about a week ago. Had hoped to clean up the rhizomes this year, as the 6 original plants are going all over the place now.

Its why our annual wet hop IPA ends up being called Hop Bush IPA

[atomeyes]

I have been short on time and late in trimming mine back. This is how my cascade plants were looking about a week ago. Had hoped to clean up the rhizomes this year, as the 6 original plants are going all over the place now.

Its why our annual wet hop IPA ends up being called Hop Bush IPA

on Friday, I met up with David Ort and Zack from Toronto Brewing. we trimmed our hop shoots.

David is picking some of the shoots. the leaves can be eaten like salad greens and were really tasty (nugget moreso than my willamette)

[grub]

yeah, i've got a bunch. two cascade that are on year 5 or 6 now. two centennial the same age. two random ones from a friend that are a few years old but haven't done much since planting here. two brand new chinook rhizomes planted last week.

the centennial and cascade usually get all used in one batch, with varying amounts depending on the harvest of a given year. i've used them dried in smaller amounts and fresh off the vine within hours for fresh hop pale ales. the 4 younger ones haven't had a harvest yet, but i'm hoping the non-chinooks (which may be golding / sterling / williamette) will yield something.

hoping the weather the last two nights won't hurt anything as they're off and running. anything is better than last year which was a write off...

[atomeyes]

yeah, i've got a bunch. two cascade that are on year 5 or 6 now. two centennial the same age. two random ones from a friend that are a few years old but haven't done much since planting here. two brand new chinook rhizomes planted last week.

they might be fuggle, i think. fuggle tends to look unimpressive for the first few years

[J343MY]

I have 2 plants each of Centennial, Chinook, and Zeus. They are all third year. I'm also hoping for a much better year than last year.

[grub]

they might be fuggle, i think. fuggle tends to look unimpressive for the first few years

nope, that's not one of the varieties he had. he had one rhizome each in tiny little pots and knew what the two were, but not which was which. they were already a year old at that point but hadn't seen any love for a while. the third was from a giant 3 year old plant, but it had been out of the ground for more than a year... looked semi-healthy, but i suspect its maltreatment didn't do it well. two of those three are coming up, so I'll need to figure out which is which... I should know, but can't recall exactly where along the wall each was planted... they're starting to come up now, so i'll see if i can identify which is which.

[Guybrush]

Is there a way to tell what the hop is once the bud is formed? There's gotta be an app for that! Take a picture on your phone and have that Siri lady figure it out for you.

I'm growing Goldings and Mt. Hood. Their 1st year was in buckets, then i planted them into the ground the 2nd year, and now it's their third year of growing, but 2nd year of being in the ground. Not sure if i'll get a harvest or not, but here's 'hopping' !

That "hopergola" sounds like a wicked idea Derek.

[grub]

Is there a way to tell what the hop is once the bud is formed? There's gotta be an app for that! Take a picture on your phone and have that Siri lady figure it out for you.

no app that i'm aware of, but there are pictures of each varietal you can find online. the leaves tend to be different and sometimes hop cone size+colour too. Luckily I know one of three varietals are in play here so I'm hoping it'll be easy to figure out.

[Craig]

There's an iPhone app that identifies plants based on a picture you take of their leaves, it's called leafsnap. I doubt it goes as far as identifying strains of hop though.

[boney]

Does anyone have have any experience growing hops up in cottage country (Muskoka, Halliburton etc)?

My centennial seem to do well enough in Hamilton, but I was thinking about planting some rhizomes at the cottage. I'm just wondering if the winters are too harsh up there and I'd be wasting my time.

[atomeyes]

Does anyone have have any experience growing hops up in cottage country (Muskoka, Halliburton etc)?

My centennial seem to do well enough in Hamilton, but I was thinking about planting some rhizomes at the cottage. I'm just wondering if the winters are too harsh up there and I'd be wasting my time.

you should be more than fine. the old world hops are quite tolerant of our winters.
you can't (likely) grow citra and nelson sauvin here. but fuggles, wilamette, centennial, etc? should all be no problem