Return of the Comet

[1919]

Every 75 years, or 5 months, whichever comes first, the Comet hops return to my garden. Have for now 3 years, anyway.

So what I did was when it got cool enough to start killing back the bines, about the first frost, was cut the plants down and cover them with mulch. They stayed covered all winter. They didn't need much water from me since it was a bit rainy. Once it looked like nighttime lows would be no lower than 50s, Fs that is, I pulled back the mulch to just a thin layer over the ground. Day by day there was nothing. Then, seemingly overnight, BOOM!, growth.

I'll let the bulls grow a little before I trim them back. Want to see where all they come up. So far, they are coming up a little ways from where they were planted and grew last year.

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[BlackDuck]

That’s pretty cool. What kind of beer do you put them in?


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[bpgreen]

Comet is a pretty cool hop.

It was pretty much ignored for a long time, but it's getting a resurgence as "citra's little sister". My nephew planted one and gave me a rhizome, so I'll have a shot next year.

[1919]

A chocolate stout is what I put them in. An American lager or a wheat is what I should've put them in so I could've tasted them. There was visible lupulin, but they hardly had any scent, and the flavor, I ate one, was plant. That was only year two, though, so hopefully this year is more better.

[John Sand]

My Cascade just started to sprout.

[berryman]

Looking good, you must be in a lot warmer climate then me here in western NY. I was looking at mine today and just starting to see some new shoots.

[Kealia]

If it stops drizzling here sometime soon I'll have to go check my 2nd year hops to see where they are. I'm not expecting anything yet, but maybe I'll be surprised.

[1919]

Zone 8a here. A late March frost or even April hail storm isn't unheard of, and has tore up my gardens before, but I seriously doubt we'll see another frost. Maybe low 50s.

[1919]

A cascade rhizome is due here in April.

[mashani]

I've had no luck growing them here, something just eats them as soon as they pop up.

[1919]

Comma caterpillars got on my cascade real bad one year. Millions. Maybe even dozens. But they didn't show up until the plant was over 5 feet tall. If something is eating them as shoots, it could be snails, slugs, or rodents.

[bpgreen]

If it stops drizzling here sometime soon I'll have to go check my 2nd year hops to see where they are. I'm not expecting anything yet, but maybe I'll be surprised.

You're likely to get at least some hops in the seciond year. Maybe not ed noth to make a batch using only your hops, but maybe enough for the aroma hops.

[1919]

After two weeks, the bulls aren't very bullish. May just let them grow.

Trying something else new. Rather than get silly with string, I'm going to fiddle with sticks. Piled up some sticks against the trellises for the bines to grab on. I don't have any jute and don't want to go to a store just for it. Sticks are course and there's plenty of them around here.

[1919]

I'll have to resize pics once I put them on the desktop.

[1919]

PICS!

HopsRight41020.jpg (167.78 KiB) Viewed 6322 times

HopsLeft41020.jpg (175.28 KiB) Viewed 6322 times