Spring has sprung

It seems like it's been months since the breweries started rolling our their spring seasonals, but the first signs of the season are only just popping up in my yard. I just noticed these new hop shoots protruding from one of my crowns. A close inspection of the rest showed things were beginning to happen for all them so far except my fuggles. This particular plant was the most prolific last year, and is showing way more activity so far this year as well.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about them this year. I'm probably not going to be living here for much more than another month or two. Should I leave them for the next owners? Should I dig the first few feet of each up and plant them somewhere else?

hops

Time to start finalizing the recipe for my fresh hop rhubarb braggot.

The one plant that did the best this year is really starting to fill up with cones. I'm pretty impressed with how well it did for a first year plant that I put in the ground in mid June. Of the other 4 plants I put in the ground this year, one has 15 cones, and another has only 5 0r 6, the last two didn't flower at all. This one's a champ. A good 6-8 feet of the bine is pretty heavily covered in cones.

my first hop

This weekend, I went hiking and camping from Thursday until Sunday. The trip involved beer, so I'll post about that later. The big news upon my return was that three of my hop bines developed a bunch of burrs while I was away, and today I noticed that my first hop cone had formed from one of them. From all of the reading that I did when I bought the young plants a few months ago, I wasn't really expecting to see much flowering, if any, this year, but it looks like at least one of the plants is going to flower pretty heavily. I guess all the pruning and watering and fertilizing really paid off.

Here's a shot of the full backyards bines, along with the rhubarb I've been harvesting all summer for a big batch of rhubarb braggot.

This is a shot of the top vine, which so far is looking like it's going to be the most heavily flowering of my hops.

Here's a close-up of some of the burrs that have formed.

Here's the first cone that has formed from one of the burrs. This cone is on one of the plants in the front yard.

hop growth progress

I took this photo of the growing tip of some of my hops today

I pruned all the offshoots off the main bines of the hops, so the plants could focus on root production and lengthening the remaining growth. They've been growing really fast over the past few days. It looks close to an new foot each day or so. The new growth has been very full of foliage and as the plants grow they've become increasingly more attractive.

my first year hops!

As I indicated in my last post, I noticed some hops for sale at Fred Meyer the other day when I was grocery shopping, and I decided that since so little effort was involved to acquire them, that this would be the year I'd finally start growing my own. I picked up four plants total, and planted two in my front yard to cascade over the entrance of the beer cave (garage, for the uninitiated), and two in the backyard, to make a big bushy wall of hops along my south facing fence line. Since Sunday (when I planted them), each has grown about a foot in length. I pruned off all but one shoot on each to help the plants concentrate on healthy root growth, but I'm still optimistic about what's going on above ground. Even if I don't get much (any?) flowering, it will be nice to see everything grow.

I'm posting some pictures of the freshly planted hops now for myself to look back on later in the year.

These two are in the front. The one on the left will grow over my bedroom window, and the one on the right will grow over the entrance to the garage. Both are planted along a south facing wall, but these miss out on early morning sun due to the house blocking the eastern light.

These are the ones in the back. The plan is to grow the one on the left to the top of the fence, and then train it sideways on some twine. The one on the right will go sideways from the top of it's post (which I made from some signs northwest natural never picked up after they ran gas to my house from the street), to run along under the other one. Hopefully, this will make a nice bushy wall of hops.

I posted this one in particular for King C, who I don't know and who probably has never read my blog, but who has served me many beers, and I've read is a fan of not only beer, but also growing hops, and furry cats.

Fred Meyer - HOPS

I was at Fred Meyer the other day, and when I was walking by the garden section on my way into the store, a group of potted plants caught my eye... hops! In the past, when I've considered growing my own hops at the house, it seemed like the only places I had seen the plants for sale were from specialty stores on the internet (which were often out of stock), or a few listings on craigslist. If they were slightly more available (meaning I could still be incredibly lazy and get some), I probably would have some growing by now.

I was with family, and in a rush, so I didn't look to see what varieties they were carrying, or how much they were charging, but the pots contained 3 or 4 foot long, nice leafy bines, ready to go.

As much of an Oregon homer as I am, I'm inclined to think that finding hop plants for sale in a grocery store must be a pretty northwest-only type thing, but maybe I'm wrong. In any case, it's fitting in beervana.