I ALMOST didn’t bother attempting to grow hops here in Florida due to doing way too much research on the subject. Everything I read pretty much told me no way, can’t do it, forget it… My gut told me I could… Take a look at these first year Cascades fellas! 15 feet long, ready to pick cones already, and hundreds of burrs popping out for a second even better harvest! Good thing I’m stupid enough to try things I shouldn’t! Hehe
It has been pretty cool so far this year for Florida, right? It sure has in MD. Yours might struggle when it gets to be REAL summer down there. You might be better off growing them in the winter and spring
I have no idea, as this is my first year trying this down here. We actually had a very warm winter here (I know that seems typical for Florida, but we had maybe two weeks where it got down below 40 degrees which is unusual for even here). It’s already been steadily in the mid 80’s with the humidity off the scale as usual because I live about 5 minutes from the ocean.
I’ll monkey around with different times planting the rhizomes as the summer progresses. I buried a couple of side chutes and cut them off, and they are just now rooting in and popping chutes out of the ground, so it should be a good experiment for when to plant down here.
In all honesty, with our short days this far south, I suspect that the high pressure sodium light my utility company put on the power pole in my backyard (for some unknown reason) has something to do with the explosive burring already. When the sun goes down, the hops are in pretty much perpetual twilight due to that annoying light in my backyard. I suspect they are confused as they have already stopped growing vertically at 15 feet and are spitting out side arms and burrs like it’s the last thing they’re ever going to do.
Yeah, I’m sure… Well at least I think I am. I ordered rhizomes, and I’m assuming they wouldn’t dare send me males. Plus I don’t see any extra plumbing hanging off of the little buggers, so they look like females, and the cones have nice yellow lupulin inside.
[quote=“panduji68”][quote=“Shadetree”]You sure those aren’t males?[/quote]Yeah, I’m sure… Well at least I think I am. I ordered rhizomes, and I’m assuming they wouldn’t dare send me males. Plus I don’t see any extra plumbing hanging off of the little buggers, so they look like females, and the cones have nice yellow lupulin inside.[/quote]Sorry, just messing with you for growing hops in Florida where it shouldn’t be possible. I’m guessing the light is what’s making it work since that’s what I was told I would need to grow hops in Austin and we’re further north than you (and thus have longer days, but not nearly as long as they have in Oregon in the summer).
Just an update to the thread folks… Here is the first harvest from my two first year Cascades a month ago (two pounds)… I am harvesting an equal amount today. It seems that the climate here has confused the plants to the point that they provide two harvests? At any rate, 4 pounds of Cascades from two plants isn’t bad!
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That is pretty awesome. I just picked about a pound of Chinooks from my 2nd year plants and it appears I will have a second harvest.
Got about 5oz of centennial as well. Got a small amount of Kent Golding ready to harvest and my Cascades are probably a week or two away from a big harvest.
[quote=“560sdl”]That is pretty awesome. I just picked about a pound of Chinooks from my 2nd year plants and it appears I will have a second harvest.
Got about 5oz of centennial as well. Got a small amount of Kent Golding ready to harvest and my Cascades are probably a week or two away from a big harvest.[/quote]
A second harvest is just a joyful unexpected bonus in my book! Congrats on the Chinooks!!! My three first year Kent Goldings have produced a few scrawny looking cones. Although they are growing like mad (16 feet long, and just now appear to have stopped growing) they have yet to produce much of anything. Although they are growing happily, I am beginning to think Goldings are definitely not a variety that acclimates as well to Florida as the Cascades did. It’s a shame, because I really do enjoy that hop variety in English Ales. I’ll wait to see if they do any better next year, but I doubt it.
A second harvest is just a joyful unexpected bonus in my book! Congrats on the Chinooks!!! My three first year Kent Goldings have produced a few scrawny looking cones. Although they are growing like mad (16 feet long, and just now appear to have stopped growing) they have yet to produce much of anything. Although they are growing happily, I am beginning to think Goldings are definitely not a variety that acclimates as well to Florida as the Cascades did. It’s a shame, because I really do enjoy that hop variety in English Ales. I’ll wait to see if they do any better next year, but I doubt it.[/quote]
My Kent Goldings do not appear to be big producers in Maryland either. Last week picked an ounce or two because they were almost too dry, Have very little aroma at all. Smell pretty much like dirt, so not sure what I would use them on. Should get a small second batch off that bine
I’m sorry to hear that. As I mentioned, I really do love that hop variety, and had hoped mine would do well. Apparently those snooty British hops are thumbing their noses at us!
On a positive note, my brewing buddy is a Cascade freak and wanted to brew a high test IPA in both alcohol and hop content. Since he came over and helped pick my second harvest of Cascades, I just gave them to him. Let me just say I could smell hops a brewin’ from outside of his house when I went out to my car to get my glasses. Holy crap man!
That sounds quite tasty! I’m finally getting some cones started on my cascades in Southeast Wisconsin. Looks like about a hundred or so on the top part of the bines. Hopefully harvest enough to hop up a batch or two of my rye pale. I never used whole hops yet-only pellets. No clue how many to add :cheers:
With homegrown hops (my neighbor has two third year plants) I’ve learned to use pellets for bittering (you know the au of those), and stick to the homegrown stuff for late/ flameout additions. It’s also awesome to use them wet and make a wet-hopped beer.
With homegrown hops (my neighbor has two third year plants) I’ve learned to use pellets for bittering (you know the au of those), and stick to the homegrown stuff for late/ flameout additions. It’s also awesome to use them wet and make a wet-hopped beer.[/quote]
I always use pellet hops for bittering… Just wet/green hopped a Cascade IPA two weeks ago with a pound and a half of fresh picked Florida Cascades (we harvested them three hours prior to brewing them up). At first we detected a grassy smell in the boil, but it diminished after about 2 minutes of adding them to the boil, and I could smell the citrus Cascade aroma like a citrus bomb went off. My brewing buddy and I were really concerned that we over did it with the hops. After bottling and carbing up, this Cascade IPA was pretty tame. No grassy taste or aroma at all, and the hop taste/smell/bitterness was very mild compared to the pellet hops we normally use.
Although the homegrown hops were sticky and yellow inside with lupulin, it appears that my homegrown hops just didn’t pack a punch with flavor and aroma, and we added a ton of them. It is a tasty beer, just not as much hoppiness as I had expected given the amount we put in there.
Cascades grow well in Florida (I got three separate 2 pound harvests of off two first year Cascade plants), but they appear to be a bit light in flavor and aroma. I will see how they do next year when they have rooted in. My Kent Goldings grew like mad, but produced tiny underdeveloped cones that shriveled up and fell off.
[quote=“panduji68”]I always use pellet hops for bittering… Just wet/green hopped a Cascade IPA two weeks ago with a pound and a half of fresh picked Florida Cascades (we harvested them three hours prior to brewing them up). At first we detected a grassy smell in the boil, but it diminished after about 2 minutes of adding them to the boil, and I could smell the citrus Cascade aroma like a citrus bomb went off. My brewing buddy and I were really concerned that we over did it with the hops. After bottling and carbing up, this Cascade IPA was pretty tame. No grassy taste or aroma at all, and the hop taste/smell/bitterness was very mild compared to the pellet hops we normally use.
Although the homegrown hops were sticky and yellow inside with lupulin, it appears that my homegrown hops just didn’t pack a punch with flavor and aroma, and we added a ton of them. It is a tasty beer, just not as much hoppiness as I had expected given the amount we put in there.
Cascades grow well in Florida (I got three separate 2 pound harvests of off two first year Cascade plants), but they appear to be a bit light in flavor and aroma. I will see how they do next year when they have rooted in. My Kent Goldings grew like mad, but produced tiny underdeveloped cones that shriveled up and fell off.[/quote]
Sounds like you needed to let them hang longer. Although it could be a first year thing too. Or the fact that you can’t grow hops in FL which everybody knows.
But seriously, I now have a fourth harvest of Cascades (these things won’t stop) which appeared to me to be ready to be picked, but I avoided the urge. I have let them go much longer than the first three harvests, and we will see if that helps a little bit. I will take a picture of them prior to harvesting and post it for you so you can see just how crazy these things are… This fourth harvest now appears to be smaller (maybe a pound), but it is spitting out burrs again! WTF???
I got two crops and pulled/cut the bines down to pick this second crop. I got a pound from #1 and over two pounds from this second batch. Gotta get your harvest when you can, being agriculture you know there’ll be years when you get none.
Good thing I’m stupid enough to try things I shouldn’t! Hehe
