Couldn’t find this years hop thread anywhere, so guess I’ll start it off since I have plenty of sprouts!
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Wow! Those little buggers look eager. Already leafed out and ready to soak up some sweet Missouri sunshine 
My garden beds finally melted clear this weekend and we dodged BOTH the 20" of snow that hit to our west and the multiple tornados to the south. So if all goes well I can get out there and start digging out 10 crowns ASAP. Time for a hopyard renovation. I’m going to have to supply myself with a stainless growler of APA, a shovel, and a good pair of gloves and get to it.
:cheers:
+1 Won’t be long before it will be time to string them.
well those look like there ready to really start climbing, to bad I just got 6" of fresh snow on mine. I do not expect mine to be looking like that until may. when they do come up I will try to post pics.
I’m hoping to get mine (Cascade) in the ground this weekend. Been sitting in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
I have a 2nd year centennial that has roughly 12 bines coming from the crown. What do you all do the 2nd year plants to get the most yield ?
Oh man I hope my centennial do something this year. Only got a handful of cones last year and they smelled awesome. Got a ton of cascades but they were so lackluster.
I grow on poles adjacent to the crown. One really good year I ended up with close to 8 pounds of dried hops from a huge Cascade crown by stringing about 4-5 vines onto each of 4 poles. It all depends on how you’re set up to grow. The TLC that we give our hops can produce some serious crowns that can be treated a lot differently than those in commercial yards.
Also, it’s a good idea to knock off the first flush of growth as those first shoots produce some very irregular growth and are the ones that tend to contain any disease spores (if you have any downy mildew) lurking. There’ll be many more shoots to come if they did fairly well for you last year. If they struggled, you can go ahead and let everything grow if you like but your harvest will be staggered.
They did phenomenal last year. So you’re saying to cut off all the bines I see now? They aren’t but an inch in length.
You can remove them whenever you like really. When used as a measure for disease control, the earlier the better. Generally, those shoots that ‘blast off’ first are located on the very upper part of the crown and use energy that was sent back down to the crown last fall after the plants were done producing cones. That type of energy (very simple carbohydrates), as opposed to the more complex carbs that the crown accumulates over the growing season, will supply instant energy for very explosive and unpredictable growth. Very similar to what happens when humans consume a bunch of simple sugars (sugar buzz). So yeah, you can remove them now if you want.
Did a little thinning on mine.
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Went ahead and cut off all on the new growth near the crown on my 2nd year centennial. Must have removed close to 15 inch long buds. Many had already began to flower. Planted 3 new cascades 3 weeks ago and they all have taken off like rockets. It’s going to be a good year.
Dude, if your hops are beginning to flower in April you’re some kind of a magician!! Are you sure they just weren’t starting to leaf out?
Leafing out is what I meant to say haha!
I am on my 3rd year on 6 varieties and 2nd year on 3 more varieties. Some are already going crazy here in MD. I went ahead and cut off all the new growth and tried to thin out some of the rhizome extensions that caused major offshoots between varieties. I get enough to test planting some new hills in the woods in my side yard. I also went around each mound with a shovel to try to sever the far reaching roots. The hops are starting to take over the whole garden that I share with the wife for veggies. Trying not to get kicked out.
I put my rhizomes in the decomposible temporary pots this weekend. Possible snow in the region this week, yet, so I’ll give it a couple of more weeks before they go to their permanent home.
Looked a little droopy this morning after 17 F last night, but seem to have recovered nicely. Pretty tough plants. This is a third year Cascade.
WE JUST HAD FREEZING TEMPS WITH ICE AND SNOW Monday. Spring will not get here soon enough. The hops WILL grow regardless, and the cluster and Galena will flourish, but its the SAAZ that I really want. It seems to need a long moderate growing season. In 5 years I have not gotten a good crop of SAAZ. Anybody else growing it. any advise for the shorter growing season of south Minnesota.
Yesterday afternoon I almost walked out to see if there were any shoots. I guess I should have checked, because now they’re under 8 MORE INCHES OF FRESH SNOW!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGH!!
:evil:
My cascade popped up yesterday. A bit surprised, some I just started it in a pot Friday. Willamette is starting to poke through this morning. You guys aren’t kidding, these things do grow fast. I guess I can plan on hardening off and planting sooner, rather than later.
