From: Mario at Brewed For Thought
I was all excited when I planted my hops. I knew they were a little late in the season, but I was confident I could get them in the ground and get that first zero harvest year out of the way. When we got back from Boonville I was ecstatic to see the little guys had popped through and I was on my way to growing my very own hops.
Then reality set in. Shortly after sprouting a few leaves, the first shoot turned grey and died. The second rhizome was still alive, but stands about an inch tall today.
I’ve seen other people’s hops growing well. Even when I visit Hopmonk today, their hop plants are growing like crazy, one bine even reaching the roof of the wall it is growing along.
What am I doing wrong? How often should I water my plants? Am I smothering them with love? I need answers!
From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog
I’m not exactly blessed with a green thumb. My successes with hops comes from a combination of luck and a minimal amount of interference. It’s my understanding that hops require a good amount of water and should be planted in soil with good drainage.
When Sammy and I first got our hops, I put the rhizomes in a piece of tupperware. I filled it up with enough water to cover about half of the rhizomes. As soon as the shoots got some green at the end, we potted them, about 2″ into the ground. The first year we got some bines that were about 3′-4′ long, if that. The second year, Sammy accidentally threw away one of our hops. The surviving Cascade started off originally in a pot but as soon as the bines were about 2′-3′ long, we put it into the ground and it really took off. This year, it’s insane the amount of growth I’m getting, in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a second harvest from that Cascade. It already has burrs.
I picked up 4 rhizomes this year from my homebrew shop; two I kept for myself and two I gave to my brother-in-law. I don’t quite remember what I gave him but we have another Cascade and a new Centennial. We potted these new rhizomes as well. We added some rocks at the bottom of the planters to aid in drainage and then topped them off with soil from our backyard that we mixed with mushroom compost. I watered them daily, enough to keep the soil moist and kept both pots in full sun. Both plants have bines that are are about 2′-3′ long now and I’m hoping they double in size. I’m not expecting any cones from these but it’s good to see them growing. The last time I was at my brother-in-law’s house, his hops were also doing well.
It’s a fine line, you just gotta keep an eye on them.
From: Mario at Brewed For Thought
Well I’m glad you’ve had your success, but you to answer the question I’m most interested in. How often do you water, and how much?
Also, do you have any suggestions for fertilizer or other special treatment for your hops?
I have a copy of The Homebrewer’s Garden as well as the pamphlet provided by Freshops when I bought the rhizomes. Beyond that my resouces are limited and it would be great to hear what methods someone has used that hasn’t published a book or sold hops for a living.
My idea is to grow my hops, but also give some tips for those who might be looking to grow their own as well.
From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog
We don’t do anything really special with regards to our hops. We water enough to keep the soil moist, not muddy. In temperate weather like we’ve been having that means I water my hops every other day in the evening. Maybe every two days. Of course during warmer/hotter weather, I water more frequently, just not necessarily more, if that makes any sense.
Expanding upon the water issue more, hops generally like a lot of water but you can’t overwater them, if you do, you’d better hope you have adequate drainage. I had a pair of rhizomes that never took, despite having shoots when I purchased them. I had them in pots, full sun, lots of water. What I think ended up happening was I overwatered the rhizomes and they just broke down in the soil, they began to decompose. I dug them up a couple weeks later and they were just a fraction of their original size.
The soil around my house is in pretty good shape. It breaks apart easily and is dark in color, not at all clay-like. We don’t have to add too many things to amend it but we do add mushroom compost to help things out. Sammy saw this program on the tele where this woman in Santa Cruz amends her soil with fish heads (nitrogen, I think) and egg shells (calcium) to grow her tomato plants. Since then, we’ve been adding egg shells into the soil. We dig the hole, put in the egg shells, a little bit of soil, then the plant. Not sure if I’m seeing a whole lot of difference but I get the science behind it.
At the end of the day, I don’t treat my hops any more differently than I do any other plant. I look in on them on a daily basis to see how healthy they look (based upon how the leaves look) and I water accordingly. What I’ve found with regards to gardening in general is that you just need to let nature do her thing. We’ve had some plants we’ve been overly attentive with and they’ve died on us. We have other plants that we’ve written off as dead only to find them resurrected weeks later.
How often are you watering? Consider amending your soil with Miracle Grow or whatever they have in the garden aisle. How deep did you plant your rhizomes? Does the soil you planted them in have adequate drainage? Things to consider.
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I have a friend in San Jose who has Cascades growing enthusiastically in his backyard for years now. Right next to them are some Saz which are like, 2-3 inches above the ground in the same conditions. The location gets plenty of sun, and he waters the yard periodically, but otherwise, doesn’t do anything special I’m aware of. We’ve talked about using some of his Cascades to brew an IPA later this year.