Chronicle of growing my own.

[philm00x]

Just gotta move the arms around where you want em to grow I've pinched the tops of the cascades so hopefully they'll stop upward growth and focus on growing cones. The NBs are still going upward.

[John Sand]

Mine have burrs. I'm happy, hoping for more than the fraction of an ounce I harvested last year.
I think next year I'll build a taller, wider trellis.

[mtsoxfan]

I figured I'd ask while the side growth is still short... Should I train the side growth to grow along the line as well, or is the grown short?

I've been reading The Love of Hops, and one chapter on harvesting was interesting for this topic. Jim Koch has his growers harvest later than what the norm is. He believed the lupilin oil was greater etc. He also funded research and there is some validity to his thought. To me it made sense... think of the difference between picking a tomato partly red and letting "ripen" on the window sill. Fully vine ripening always tastes better. (this was my analogy, not his)

[John Sand]

I'm still new at this, but I just let the side growth find it's way. It isn't short though.

[gwcr]

Well it looks like my first year Cascades are going to top out at about 6 feet. Mother Nature sent some 80mph straight line winds Monday and snapped off the top 6" of the bines. I'm surprised the twine didn't just snap. Centennials and Tettnang are fine though. I'll be transplanting from pots to the ground this fall, so I'm happy they survived.

[philm00x]

Sounds like Cascades just grow fast for everyone. Mine shot up like a rocket to the top of the trellis. Finally a couple weeks later my Northern Brewers are catching up to the top of their trellis.

[mtsoxfan]

Not knowing what to do, I was training the side growth around the twine. I stopped, we'll see what happens. As I write, we have severe thunderstoms hitting. I move the pots closer to cover, but can only move so far. hope all will end well. All are still just 8-10' in height, just babies...

[Crazy Climber]

I dug up a couple of the Northern Brewer rhizomes a couple of weeks ago that I originally planted too far down. No activity from them, though. I think they're a lost cause at this point.

My Chinook yielded a couple of vines that are in the 5-8 foot range at this point. Hoping for enough hops from those in year 1 to maybe do a wet hop beer this fall, and bigger and better things next year.

[DaYooper]

Yup, Cascade is doing real well this year. Just returned from up north checking on the little beasties.

Cascading Cascade

cascade.jpg (123.02 KiB) Viewed 1497 times

[gwcr]

BEAUTIFUL!

[mtsoxfan]

Looks like you are running a hop farm there... NICE!!

[DaYooper]

Looks like you are running a hop farm there... NICE!!

Yup, in northern Michigan. Getting pretty geeked about harvest this year. The second Wolf harvester was refurbished and assembled over the winter so should be good to go.

[John Sand]

Way cool Yoop. There is one of those machines here on LI too.

[Crazy Climber]

First-year Chinook -- things be happening! I only have two bines, and as you can see in the first pic, they're of modest size (I planted late). But there's more cones than I expected, and when I rub 'em, my fingers smell like glorious hops. I just have to stop myself from fondling them too much before they're ready to harvest.

[John Sand]

Nice! Watching my Cascades carefully for ripeness.
Are those tomatoes in front of the hops? I've read that the hops will spread aggressively. They may take over your garden.