How's the hops growing?

[matthendry]

Should be 3-4 bines per hill/plant for 3rd year plants and when starting hops you should only grow 1 bine the first year ,2 bines the second year and some growers even suggest that you drop the flowers for a new Hop yard so all the growth can go into developing the root system and not the vegetation .

[wildcrafter]

Re: bines and training. I guess so. I'm learnin' I think!

For me and the neomexicana plants,,,all are individuals and want different treatment. Some are vegetative old maids and want trained,,,some are young girls and don't touch them - just pick the bounty,,,and others are women and they just know what to do, all on their ownsome.

Heck,,we had plants from seed last year that gave 2oz. of dried aromatic resiny cones from a plant not even a year old,,,and those plants are rockin' this year! Cloned a bunch too. Roots galore as softwood cuttings,,ready for dirt. Hope we're getting better at the breeding.

Back to the "who cares" part of research,,,,hopefully a bunch of new flavors for folks to try this fall. Blue Corn Brewery in Santa Fe, NM and Trinity Brewing in Colorado Springs, Colorado already know the difference of the native hops,,,and they like 'em!

[wildcrafter]

Softwood cutting success. 11 days.

[matthendry]

Softwood cutting success. 11 days.

Looks like your using a misting system nice !

I think cuttings are going to be the way many small growers are going to establish yards once theyhave plants established from rhizomes .

I might try some cuttings this year on my plants .

[jason.koehler]

Looks like your using a misting system nice !

I think cuttings are going to be the way many small growers are going to establish yards once theyhave plants established from rhizomes .

I might try some cuttings this year on my plants .

I've experimented with a few cuttings this year, so far so good...none have died and all are growing.

If only I was prepared to expand now...I cut some 200 shoots today alone!

[nohandslance]

Hops, The amazing plant

I was negligent in my duties in training these Chinook vines when they exceeded the 20' mark, I am amazed on how they were able to retrain them selves after they snapped at the guide wire from the high winds.
Look forward to this hop harvest.

[wildcrafter]

Wow nohandslance! I forgot how big the Euros get and forgot how long the internode distance is on them. Thanks!

We're still growing the short internode, dwarf, native hops here.

I hear that Oregon has been super wet,,,an inch of rain per day expected still. Mildew is out and about. Hope it all works out for everybody.

Hmmmm,,,,, use yer hops!!

[matthendry]

The UVM Crop and Soils Extentiosion is interested in Dwarf Hops and they are just starting their variety trails so Wildcrafter you might want to contact them about your native Dwarf Hops .

http://www.uvm.edu/extension/cropsoil/hops

John Henning at the USDA is also starting breeding trails on Dwarf hops .

[Gael]

cuttings vs rhizomes

A question for you folks propagating by cuttings: why do you prefer cuttings over rhizomes? I have purchased plants propagated by cuttings, and have had very poor luck with them, whereas rhizomes have been quite reliable. Is it the number of rhizomes created by each plant that you are wishing to circumvent? In which case, have any of you layered your plants to increase the number of rhizomes?

I'm curious, both as to the long-term health of plants propagated by cutting as well as the efficiency (in terms of effort) of cuttings vs rhizomes.

Personally, I layer (using hay over growing stems in the late summer) and propagate by rhizome, letting the plant do all the work.

[matthendry]

A question for you folks propagating by cuttings: why do you prefer cuttings over rhizomes? I have purchased plants propagated by cuttings, and have had very poor luck with them, whereas rhizomes have been quite reliable. Is it the number of rhizomes created by each plant that you are wishing to circumvent? In which case, have any of you layered your plants to increase the number of rhizomes?

I'm curious, both as to the long-term health of plants propagated by cutting as well as the efficiency (in terms of effort) of cuttings vs rhizomes.

Personally, I layer (using hay over growing stems in the late summer) and propagate by rhizome, letting the plant do all the work.

Rhizomes are far more reliable than Cuttings but if your just Starting out a new variety or hop yard its going to take 3-5 years before you can propagate rhizomes from the roots without setting the plant back ,so cuttings are a good way to get new hop plants because you are going to thin your bines early in the season when you start stringing /training so its more for the sake of saving money if anything because buying rhizomes can get expensive .Layering is another a great way to propagate hops but should only be done post harvest with softwood cuttings you can get them all season as new shoots continue to emerge .The long term viably of cuttings over rhizomes is a great question and maybe more research needs to be done .

[wildcrafter]

Gael- This is an experiment for me that worked 100%.
The plants are now in 5 gal buckets for the rest of the season. All are a few feet long and healthy as all get out. The idea is to have a really nice rhizome,,,with roots mind you,,,for the spring planting. It seems to be working just fine so far. I'll let you know how it goes! I did notice one thing. If the parent plant looked not as vigorous as another plant,,,for whatever reason,,the resulting cuttings are wimpy and are slow and may even die by the end of the season. Heck,,I don't care about dead hop plants,,this is an experiment that took no time or effort at all. I had 100% success with healthy vigorous plants. Let the wimps die,,I can't grow them all,,,nor want to. I want to have vigorous and seriously healthy plants either for myself,,or for others.

Matt is totally correct too. This has allowed me to take a plant, that from seed last year,,,gave 2oz of dried cones, and the amount of resin and the aroma was stunning. I now have 25 buckets with 2 plantlets per bucket,,,and all are ripping,,of that one plant. It would have taken me at least 3 years to take even 12 rhizomes from the mother. Now that I know this worked,,,I can take a HUGE amount of softwood cuttings next year if I want to ramp this girl up quick.

Cuttings are EZ if you have a green thumb. Have no fear. Go Green!

[fmbrewing]

Cuttings are EZ if you have a green thumb. Have no fear. Go Green!

Just so I can check this off my list of how-to's... how do you do "soft wood cuttings" as it relates to using the hop stem to propagate?

[Rosie]

Hey guys, hope your hops are doing as well as our little patch.

I've been posting pics to our facebook page to let our fans follow progress...regulars of our tasting room and fans get together and do a brew with them at the end of the season. Check 'em out...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...7&l=680e9b0770

Cheers,
Jeff

[matthendry]

Just so I can check this off my list of how-to's... how do you do "soft wood cuttings" as it relates to using the hop stem to propagate?

Matt I have a few softwood cuttings and did some very basic cuttings in a zip lock bag in some perlite a 6 pack container and sprayed them every couple of days .

You can get very technical with misting systems and "cloning machines"like the EZ Clone and using various hormone powders ,cloning gels and solutions .

http://www.ezclone.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faOKTFgXIlI

The USDA has some info on propagating hops and if you research the forums about hops cousin there is plenty of information about cloning and propagating .The USDA also offers some of their research samples as cuttings instead of rhizomes .

Vegetative or asexual propagation

Because H. lupulus is dioecious, it is highly heterozygous; therefore, seedling populations are highly variable. Even seeds collected from a superb variety will fail to produce a plant with the brewing value of its mother plant. For this reason, commercial plant material is propagated vegetatively either from rhizomes or softwood cuttings. Rhizomes, or underground shoots, have several buds at each node and can be pruned from the crown of the mother plant, cut into pieces, and planted in either the field or greenhouse. Softwood cuttings are taken from the stem, with each piece including one node with two leaves and about 5 to 8 cm of stem below the node. Rooting is enhanced by dipping the lower portion of the stems in a rooting solution of 1000 ppm indolebutyric acid and 1000 ppm boric acid before planting it into light soil and placing it in a mist chamber for one to two weeks.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=11069#propagation

[fmbrewing]

crazy cousins

thanks for the excellent links and information about cloning. I'm excited to try this with some hop soft-wood cuttings.