First hop shoots 2016

First hop shoots are up. This is from the Chinook, but the cascade, centennial, and Willamette are all in the same state.

Finally spring is here!

I’ve been checking mine and saw shoots last week on Mt. Hood and Columbus.

Where are you located? Don’t have hops. Have three inch tall daffodils. Few days ago they were covered by 12 inches of snow.

I’m in the Twin Cities, MN. The forsythia is coming in, which is usually when I put down lawn fertilizer. This year is freaking weird.

Just north of you about 120 miles and we have snow on the ground yet! Sneezles61

Slightly to the south of you and 86° today. Hops don’t much like it here. Heading northward in a week and back to my brewery.

1 Like

The snow is finally cleared away enough in my part of the UP so I had to take a look… And here’s the first of the cascade bines! No sign of centennial yet, but pretty good for March.

1 Like

This is what I found on my second year Cascade on Sunday. There are shoots coming off the base of last year’s bines near the ground. Is this normal for Cascade, or is this an indication the roots aren’t buried deep enough in the soil? The other 7 varieties I have aren’t doing this. They are pushing up shoots out of the ground.

That looks great, I am waiting on my first Rhizomes to come in by the end of the week. It will be time to plant some new hops for me! Looking forward to seeing how they grow. I read they can grow 6 - 8" a day, talk about “watching the grass grow”.

It’s true… I grow mine against 6’ fencing, then try to train them horizontally along the tops of the fences. I missed training them for a few days and they’d grabbed the neighbors tree and were on their way up to the powerlines.

I’m in the middle of harvest. Weird, damp year. The cascade isn’t that fragrant, but is plentiful. Centennial actually produced a bit, and they started drying out early. Chinook is a beast, and smells great. Willamette grew, but produced nothing. My kitchen smells like sticky, piney grapefruit right now (drying a batch of Chinook).

Look up an oast, I think that is what the hops are dried in at the hop ranch’s. My Williamette never did do good, but the centennial cranked out pretty decent , and golding was just overwhelming. Sneezles61

Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but I actually don’t mind doing small batches. I can just pick the cones that are ready instead of a mix of too green, too old, and just right. Takes me about a week to get through, and I end up with lots of 2-3 Oz bags.

1 Like