I have planted Cascade, Centennial and Tetnanger hops this year. First time growing. I bought 2 of each, and only one hasn’t produced any spouts at this point.
My question is should I allow the 2-3 spouts to go up the same line? Or should each sprout have their own to travel up?
Thanks.
Assuming that you planted rhizomes, you should let all the shoots that come up climb during the establishment year. The rhizome’s only source of energy to get established are the carbohydrates/starches that are stored within them and this limited energy has to be divided up two ways. 1) to establish a root system that will allow the plant to obtain nourishment from the soil in the years to come and, 2) to provide aerial growth which will in turn capture sunlight to transform into usable energy through photosynthesis. Once they get up and climbing, the leaves can produce more energy than what’s needed to sustain the top growth so any excess is sent back down to the underground part of the plant which will create a large, healthy crown for you to start the next year with.
After the first year, you can cut back many of the shoots that come up and train between 2-4 per line for the season. Some varieties are poor producers with short sidearms and would probably work better with more shoots being allowed to climb where the more vigorous varieties get pretty messy to harvest if you let more than two climb each string. Happy Hopping~
Thanks for this info B-Hoppy, I asked in another post and it got overlooked. Glad Catch22 asked here.
Yes…thank you for this information. I do apologize for not recognizing your reply sooner.
Yes, I did plant rhizomes and most of them continue to do well. I have two Cascade rhizomes that are doing well, but one shoot has completely taken off. Two shoots were produced by the one rhizome, and while one is approximately 4 feet in height, the other one is probably 12-14 feet. It has maxed out the length of cord and is now up above my rain spout by about 12".
I have tried to “train” them all to go up their own cord, so we’ll see how the first year goes. Thanks again for the input.
Hopefully I get enough to experiment with at least one batch this year, but the next step will be to learn the ratio of whole hops to use. I’ve used only pellets up to this point, with the exception of a kit that came with whole hops to use in the mash.
I allow 3 shoots per string these days, but I’m not sure how much it really matters. If you let more shoots climb one string, they tend to block each others’ leaves which might not be optimal for sunlight to hit them all, that’s about the only reason I can think of not to allow more than 3 per string. You can always install more strings if you want to allow more shoots to climb up, and thus get a bigger harvest that way. Of course this is more applicable in the second and subsequent years. You usually won’t get a harvest your first year, although in your case it sounds like you might off one shoot that’s already more than 12 feet high – good for you!
I use my homegrown hops just like regular hops. I find they have slightly higher alpha acid than average storebought ones, probably because when you grow your own, they are more fresh, plus you can pick them at peak ripeness. One piece of advice: Don’t pick them too early. It’s okay if they start to turn brown and begin to shrivel up a bit before you pick them, that’s when they are most ripe. Rule of thumb: When in doubt, wait longer to pick them. When you start to think about picking them… don’t. Wait longer. Wait another week or two or three. You’ll be rewarded with more flavor and aroma and alpha acid. When they really begin to look ugly, then you can pick them.
I always dry mine and find they tend to be around 20-22% solids / 78-80% water weight on the average. So, if you do that, you can use them like normal hops. But if you want to use them fresh and not dried, still wet, then you’ll need to use roughly 5 times the weight, since there is so much water weight in them. So, if you normally use 5 oz pellet hops in your IPA or whatever, you’ll want to use like 20-25 oz wet hops for the same recipe. If you dry them, you can use the same 5 oz dry hops. You can air dry them on a screen for several days in a cool dry place, or you can use a food dehydrator, or like me you can slow “bake” them in your oven on cookie sheets on the lowest setting (I think mine gets down to about 150 F) for roughly 90 minutes, stirring about every 15-20 minutes to prevent burning on the bottom. Keep the heat on until they are sort of crispy/crunchy but not toasted, then you’ll know they’re done. If any get burnt you’ll need to remove those portions – I did that once but the ones that weren’t burned still turned out fine. But anyway…
Hops are fun and very very easy to grow. Enjoy! :cheers:
Dave is there any advantage to wet hopping?
The one advantage I can see is just that you can skip the drying process. In theory there would be more volatile oils in fresh wet hops; however, in my experience you still get a ton of flavor and aroma from dry hops so I don’t know that it is a real advantage.
