Hop Growers.....

johnnyboy1965 · Jul 27, 2017

Now is the time to feed your hops, especially if grown in containers. There is a art to feeding plants in pots, so you dont loose any of the feed. First give them a thorough soaking, leave for 48 hours. Mix up a plant food (tomato feed is ideal). Pour about 1 li into the pot, wait for 1hr and repeat. This way you dont loose all the feed out of the drainage holes. Do this once a week until you harvest. If the bottom leaves are starting to yellow, remove them, they have done their job.

BeerCat · Jul 27, 2017

Cheers Johnny, mine is about 12' tall now. Its in a pot tied to the roof.

Litmus · Jul 27, 2017

I use the poo from my chickens, once composted :mrgreen: which is ironic because they eat the left over grain from the mash.

jceg316 · Jul 27, 2017

I use wormery juice for feed along with various other concoctions my wife makes.

Brewdoug · Jul 27, 2017

johnnyboy1965 said:
Now is the time to feed your hops, especially if grown in containers. There is a art to feeding plants in pots, so you dont loose any of the feed. First give them a thorough soaking, leave for 48 hours. Mix up a plant food (tomato feed is ideal). Pour about 1 li into the pot, wait for 1hr and repeat. This way you dont loose all the feed out of the drainage holes. Do this once a week until you harvest. If the bottom leaves are starting to yellow, remove them, they have done their job.

Thanks for the advice Johnny.
I've got a Chinook and a Centennial both in their first year. Been feeding occasionally with tomato feed and both have grown well, the Chinook is a particularly strong plant with a thick main stem probably 15 feet or so. Flowers have been developing for a week or two now on both.
I'll step up the feeding now, instructions on the bottle say once a week, would you suggest more often than this?

johnnyboy1965 · Jul 27, 2017

Brewdoug said:
Thanks for the advice Johnny.
I've got a Chinook and a Centennial both in their first year. Been feeding occasionally with tomato feed and both have grown well, the Chinook is a particularly strong plant with a thick main stem probably 15 feet or so. Flowers have been developing for a week or two now on both.
I'll step up the feeding now, instructions on the bottle say once a week, would you suggest more often than this?

Depends on the size of the pot and the compost that you used.

Brewdoug · Jul 27, 2017

johnnyboy1965 said:
Depends on the size of the pot and the compost that you used.

My plants aren't in pots, I planted them in the ground with plenty of compost. Hopefully I won't need to move them, they are in a sunny but fairly windy spot when we get a strong south westerly.

BeerCat · Jul 28, 2017

And beware bloody caterpillars. Was fine yesterday and half decimated tonight. Had to go over every leaf and remove them. Not happy.

Dutto · Jul 29, 2017

johnnyboy1965 said:
Now is the time to feed your hops, especially if grown in containers. ...........

Thanks for that. :doh:

For well over a month, I hadn't even thought about my poor little Prima Donna fending for herself out in France!

Actually, she should be okay because although planted in a pot, the bottom has been knocked out to give her free access to the soil so here's hoping.

I'm also hoping that, as it will be November before I can go and check on progress, I will still be able to harvest whatever she has managed to produce! :whistle:

Thanks for the tip! :thumb:

JapanBrew · Jul 29, 2017

Brewdoug said:
My plants aren't in pots, I planted them in the ground with plenty of compost. Hopefully I won't need to move them, they are in a sunny but fairly windy spot when we get a strong south westerly.

I don't grow any but I heard you really should isolate them. They're very aggressive plants and within a year or so, they'll take over your garden. There's a wild hop plant in Japan that is everywhere. It consumes the trees, killing everything it covers. I have one that sprouted up a decade ago and I cannot kill the thing. It comes out everywhere.

Dutto · Jul 29, 2017

JapanBrew said:
I don't grow any but I heard you really should isolate them. They're very aggressive plants and within a year or so, they'll take over your garden. There's a wild hop plant in Japan that is everywhere. It consumes the trees, killing everything it covers. I have one that sprouted up a decade ago and I cannot kill the thing. It comes out everywhere.

You're just making me jealous and at the same time feeling terribly stupid that I paid fifteen quid for a weed! :doh:

I hope my Prima Donna doesn't kill off the nearby 20 metre high chestnut trees that I rely on for my autumn snacks! :whistle:

chub1 · Jul 29, 2017

JapanBrew said:
I don't grow any but I heard you really should isolate them. They're very aggressive plants and within a year or so, they'll take over your garden. There's a wild hop plant in Japan that is everywhere. It consumes the trees, killing everything it covers. I have one that sprouted up a decade ago and I cannot kill the thing. It comes out everywhere.

Have wild hops growing along the railway where i live.I took some cutings last autumn and they all got away nicely in a small greenhouse,before appearing to keel over as spring approached. I threw the soil onto my strawberry plants and lo and behold two hops appeared in late May.Kept the strongest and potted it up
it's gone bonkers:lol:

jceg316 · Jul 30, 2017

JapanBrew said:
I don't grow any but I heard you really should isolate them. They're very aggressive plants and within a year or so, they'll take over your garden. There's a wild hop plant in Japan that is everywhere. It consumes the trees, killing everything it covers. I have one that sprouted up a decade ago and I cannot kill the thing. It comes out everywhere.

This is interesting. Here you don't need to isolate them, it's something to do with being taken out of their natural habitat into a different environment where they have good conditions to grow, but no competition, so they thrive. Same thing happened here with Japanese knotweed - it's a dangerous plant which can lower the value of a house because it's such a resilient weed, whereas in Japan it grows like a common weed. It's the same with rhododendron and bindweed - some idiot thought they had nice flowers and brought them back to the UK, where they spread like wildfire and are incredibly hard to get rid of.

Clint · Jul 30, 2017

There's a hop plant down the allotment. .gets loads of flowers on it..Wonder if you could use it?

foxy · Jul 30, 2017

Clint said:
There's a hop plant down the allotment. .gets loads of flowers on it..Wonder if you could use it?

Really need to know the AA but might be worth just making a small batch just to try it, if you have some room on your plot would be worth growing a row of your favourite hop just get one and take some cuttins off the rhizome when its dormant or just layer it.

johnnyboy1965 · Jul 31, 2017

If your growing different types of hops on a close area then you should "isolate" them. The best way to do this is to cut the bottom off a black bucket (ÃÂ£1.00) and sink it into the ground, plant your hop into this. Any shoots that grow in the bucket are cutting material and any shoots that grow outside the bucket are thrown away.

Godsdog · Aug 4, 2017

hope these are the start of the cones forming,cant say I remember them starting like these last year and I read somewhere recently that hops can change sex on occasions,maybe johnnyboy65 will enlighten me on as to wether that is possible or just an urban myth:thumb:and put my mind to rest

chub1 · Aug 4, 2017

Clint said:
There's a hop plant down the allotment. .gets loads of flowers on it..Wonder if you could use it?

Flowers or cones? only ask as there are male and female plants
I used wild hops last year in a bitter,it was ok.
I am growing a cutting of said wild hop and it's gone bonkers:lol:

Clint · Aug 4, 2017

They're cones..and smell "familiar" if rubbed in your hands...if you can understand what I'm saying...

chub1 · Aug 4, 2017

Clint said:
They're cones..and smell "familiar" if rubbed in your hands...if you can understand what I'm saying...

Gottcha:thumb::grin:
Try em Clint,just do a small trial brew. Mine turned out drinkeable:)
Would i bother again,na.The cutting i took is just for fun to see if it will produce next year

Hop Growers.....

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