[kramerog]

An aside:  could we get a 'hop growing' section in the AHA Forum?

Much thanks.

+1

[denny]

I would warn you to not be too ambitious about planting a lot of hops, at least at first.  They take a few years to take off.  The first year you'll get very little, but the yield will increase after that.  I have a single Cascade plant that's a little over 10 years old and it's not unusual for me to get over 20 lb. of wet fresh hops from that single plant.  That makes picking, drying and packaging them a PITA.  I do live in the middle of prime hop growing territory in the PNW, so maybe I get more growth than a lot of other people do, but when I'm out there picking hops every summer I'm damn glad that I only have the one plant.

fixed it

[denny]

An aside:  could we get a 'hop growing' section in the AHA Forum?

Much thanks.

+1

We'll talk about it, but I'm not in favor of it personally.  We've pruned off several sections in the past just to keep things easier to manage.  What about a sticky topic?

[coastsidemike]

An aside:  could we get a 'hop growing' section in the AHA Forum?

Much thanks.

+1

We'll talk about it, but I'm not in favor of it personally.  We've pruned off several sections in the past just to keep things easier to manage.  What about a sticky topic?

Was thinking about a child board off of Ingredients.  Up to you, thank you.

[Jeff M]

i am also out in the burbs of chicago.  i grow my hops up the side of my house with a 10 foot high support made out of about 10 dollars worth of 1/2 inch conduit



i grow santiem, magnum, and sterling. last year i was able to cut out a few rhizomes for a neighbor. if you live out this way i should be able to give a few

I like this option personally.  my friend and i just ordered 4 rhizomes from our LHBS and we will propably adopt something similiar to this, but instead of the conduit i will probably hang a piece of PVC pipe from the edge of the roof and run strings tot he ground for the hops to run on.  Ive read this on multiple piece of literature and it seems to work very well, you just need to teach the hop to loop around the string as i understand it.
Jeff

[coastsidemike]

I like this option personally.  my friend and i just ordered 4 rhizomes from our LHBS and we will propably adopt something similiar to this, but instead of the conduit i will probably hang a piece of PVC pipe from the edge of the roof and run strings tot he ground for the hops to run on.  Ive read this on multiple piece of literature and it seems to work very well, you just need to teach the hop to loop around the string as i understand it.
Jeff

Don't know if it would be an issue:  I'm told to avoid PVC conduit when possible because it flexes too much. I could see the vines getting heavy.  That said, I'm on this route as well. I'll will use some redwood and see if I can get it look good.

[weithman5]

i am also out in the burbs of chicago.  i grow my hops up the side of my house with a 10 foot high support made out of about 10 dollars worth of 1/2 inch conduit



i grow santiem, magnum, and sterling. last year i was able to cut out a few rhizomes for a neighbor. if you live out this way i should be able to give a few

I like this option personally.  my friend and i just ordered 4 rhizomes from our LHBS and we will propably adopt something similiar to this, but instead of the conduit i will probably hang a piece of PVC pipe from the edge of the roof and run strings tot he ground for the hops to run on.  Ive read this on multiple piece of literature and it seems to work very well, you just need to teach the hop to loop around the string as i understand it.
Jeff

i previously did just that with pvc hung from the fascia.  however i replaced that siding, fascia and gutters while the hops were just coming up last spring.  there are 4 10' pieces of conduit.  the two bottom ones slide over a piece of rebar that is angled out about 15 degrees.  there is a 15 degree bend in the top of the lower conduits and 90 degree bends in the horizontal ones.  i then guy the corners to my fence and concrete block

[denny]

An aside:  could we get a 'hop growing' section in the AHA Forum?

Much thanks.

+1

We'll talk about it, but I'm not in favor of it personally.  We've pruned off several sections in the past just to keep things easier to manage.  What about a sticky topic?

Was thinking about a child board off of Ingredients.  Up to you, thank you.

Ya know, it's getting to be hop planting time of year, so I'm just gonna go ahead ahead and do it.  If it doesn't work out, we'll move the posts to somewhere else.

[denny]

Done...

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?board=192.0

I'll move this thread.

[coastsidemike]

Done...

Thank you! 

[j.petykowski]

I'm located in the Chicago burbs too, so here's my experience with hops:

1. I've been very happy with the rhizomes I've purchased from Arrowhead Hops arrowheadhops.com. They're in Iowa, so the rhizomes you're getting are from plants that were grown in a climate more similar to Illinois. The rhizomes I've planted from them have done really well in the first year. I'm making an educated guess that it's because of the climate similarity. I've also purchased some from Hops Direct hopsdirect.com that have fared well.
2. Never tried plants, but hops are pretty hardy, so rhizomes have always been fine for me. I've only had one fail to grow out of probably about a dozen.
3. I'd say the second option is better. They want to grow up as much as possible, so let them.

A final bit of advice... Have a plan to combat Japanese beetles. They seem to have a preference for certain varieties (Willamette and Centennial in my garden). They only want to eat the leaves, but I'm sure it slows the plants' growth down. I just spray with water daily to knock them off.

Not sure where in the burbs you're located, but if you need any rhizomes, I can cut plenty off my plants and give them to you. My Goldings and Willamette have huge root systems, so I could cut lots from those. My Chinook may be ready for some cutting too. PM me if you're interested.

Thanks for the reminder, I lived in Iowa last year and remember asking around out of curiosity and heard that same name. And as for the Willamette rhizome, I might have to take you up on that offer, I will let you know when it gets a little closer to spring.

And thank you everyone else for the advice, learning new stuff everyday. Now I am really looking forward to this summer, regardless of hop growage.

[pinnah]

Done...

Thank you!

  Super cool.  Thanks.   

Denny knows I like to rattle on about

hop growage.

    


Cheers to spring.