Hop plants/rhizomes - growing report

liamf89 said:

Any advice on what I should do leaving Friday and not back till start of October will the cones that are nearly ready be ruined by then do you think

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Only just seen this, but by Oct they will be mush. You need to act fast!

Yes, the biggest pot available...Ive got 2 tonne of well rotted manure, your more than welcome to some.

johnnyboy1965 said:

Yes, the biggest pot available...Ive got 2 tonne of well rotted manure, your more than welcome to some.

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You're very kind and generous johnny but on thus occasion I think I will pass,I have visions of trying to get the smell out my car afterwards lol

First gold picked this morning, a mere 110g which will be used fresh as late additions in a golden ale which is currently mashing.

My EKG plant never amounted to anything having had its one shoot broken off or eaten early on. A side shoot eventually started to climb and is now about 9 ft tall but no hops so I'm hoping it will come back stronger next year.

Not much for my first year growing but still an enjoyable hobby and learning experience, I think I will get one more plant (fuggle) growing next year.

Think I will be harvesting this weekend, got some sheets of 10mm wire mesh and going to make some drying frames to hold the hops in and pop them in our boiler house for a week or so.

Like Goddog I need to move some of mine as where there are just isn't big enough for 4 plants. but have some nice big power polls at the bottom of the garden they could grow up. so I assume wait till they are dormant and then move them?

Don't know if I'm doing the wrong thing but my hops appear to be ripening in patches so I've been snipping them off and drying them a few at a time and letting the rest develop in their own time. My plants are a couple of cascades which I was very late getting into the ground so they've only reached about 8 feet.

All loaded up and first batch nearly done,this is a brilliant machine,runs at a tad over 3pence an hour and after 11 hours they are nearly perfect:lol:
ps.holds around 350 gram on all shelves at a push

HFAO johnnyboy again,can you over dry hops as my 27 gram of cascade has reduced to 4 gram and not by 75%
Edit,so in total 270gram of hops ended up less than 50 grams

Godsdog said:

You're very kind and generous johnny but on thus occasion I think I will pass,I have visions of trying to get the smell out my car afterwards lol

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No probs...on a side note.... good, well rotted manure does not smell. If your manure does smell, its not rotted down enough and my be harmful to plants

sdt7618 said:

Think I will be harvesting this weekend, got some sheets of 10mm wire mesh and going to make some drying frames to hold the hops in and pop them in our boiler house for a week or so.

Like Goddog I need to move some of mine as where there are just isn't big enough for 4 plants. but have some nice big power polls at the bottom of the garden they could grow up. so I assume wait till they are dormant and then move them?

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You want to grow a hop bine up a power poll....What could possible go wrong?..please dont.

Godsdog said:

HFAO johnnyboy again,can you over dry hops as my 27 gram of cascade has reduced to 4 gram and not by 75%
Edit,so in total 270gram of hops ended up less than 50 grams

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When I first started growing hops I read that you should reduce the weight by 75% ie...100g of green hops should finish at 25g. The more I think about this, it is for preserving the hops without damaging the lupus

Right, spent this weekend picking all my hops, although my neighbour said I could pick theirs (they didn't seem to know what a hop plant is) which I'll probably do tomorrow.

My centennial and Bramling X are in their first year, the Bramling got 53g dried and the Centennial came out to 7g. An interesting observation here: these are 2 of 4 hops in their firstyear which didn't have the best start to life, they were moved around a lot during the spring and we're surprised to see anything grow at all. The Bramling did so well (considering) because it was growing up a water butt, which gets very warm. This extra warmth helped the hop grow, and something to consider if you can grow a hop up a waterbutt.

My fuggles has a sh*tload of flowers. I've dried 3 batches in the dehydrator and I'm not even halfway through processing them. So far I have ~250g dried and vacuum packed in my freezer, much more to come.

My saaz had a handful of hops, but for some reason my dad dug a load of woodchips into the bed so everything growing there didn't really produce anything, including 2 apple trees. I'm waiting to dry it but it looks like enough for 1 addition, so I'll make a helles with it and use the saaz as a late addition.

The cascade did very well too. Maybe not as much as the fuggles but there's plenty there. As the fuggles will be tying up the dehydrator for a few days I'm fan drying them in the spare room. I've not dried this way before so I hope its all good :S. My plan is to have a fan dry them for 2-3 days until they're dry, does that sound about right?

What are you folks using to vacuum pack your hops please?
Looks very professional.

MagnusTS said:

What are you folks using to vacuum pack your hops please?
Looks very professional.

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I bought the Andrew James vacuum sealer from Amazon. I also bought the bags on a roll. It works very well. It's not the cheapest, but it feels well built.

Bigjas said:

I bought the Andrew James vacuum sealer from Amazon. I also bought the bags on a roll. It works very well. It's not the cheapest, but it feels well built.

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I think I have the same one. Does the job!

Bigjas said:

I bought the Andrew James vacuum sealer from Amazon. I also bought the bags on a roll. It works very well. It's not the cheapest, but it feels well built.

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Thanks! i feel an internet purchase coming on... :smile:

johnnyboy1965 said:

You want to grow a hop bine up a power poll....What could possible go wrong?..please dont.

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The thought had crossed my mind of all the wonderful things that could go wrong... the plans are changed. :nono::nono:

So the hops are drying in the boiler house on a rack I built from scrap timber boards and some 10mm wire mesh.

All told my saaz and cascade( i think) have done pretty well with the Target and Northern Brewer not so.

One question has anyone had issues with aphids, the hops in the frame are crawling with them. Hopefully the will die off over the drying period and then what. can't wash them off, guess I will have to just freeze them and use them and hope for the best.

Finally finished drying, I ended up with:

53g bramling x
432 fuggles
233 cascade
20g saaz

All dry weights. My biggest challenge was drying them all, my dehydrator could only fit in a fraction at a time. Next year I'm planting more hops so I'm gonna have to figure something out for next year.

jceg316 said:

Finally finished drying, I ended up with:

53g bramling x
432 fuggles
233 cascade
20g saaz

All dry weights. My biggest challenge was drying them all, my dehydrator could only fit in a fraction at a time. Next year I'm planting more hops so I'm gonna have to figure something out for next year.

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This is what I did this year. I had 3.5kg of Fuggles to dry out, so made some frames with a fine mesh stapled to it. I then put them on trestles in my garage and put a fan on them. They took about 3 days to dry out and would of been even quicker if I didn't turn the fan off over night. I ended up with just over a kilo that is now vacuum packed and in the freezer. I used 100g of them in a brew I did last Sunday, it was very satisfying using hops I have grown myself.