Rhizomes

[shazapple]

Any burrs yet? I just found one plant tonight with them and the others shouldn't be far behind.

[nagirroc]

Yes, the four larger plants have them. The two small plants (cascade and columbus) have none. Do each burr become a cone or do some not mature?

[shazapple]

The cascade have officially hit the top, about 21 feet of twine. Most of the plants are fully burred. Most sites online say to trim the bottom 3-4 feet and I can see why as they don't really produce any burrs.  I trimmed the bottom foot of each plant and left the rest considering it is their first year. ‎I also had some mites on one plant but some soapy water seemed to take care of them. I have been meaning to apply one more application of fertilizer that is high in phosphorus as that seems to be what the burrs need to mature into cones.

The centennial have reached about 8 feet and are starting to sprout laterals, although I'm mainly leaving them alone this year so they can grow their roots.

[shazapple]

The burrs have started to turn into cones. The tops have really filled out as well. The time span between the collage photos is about 20 days.

[Two Wheeler]

Here's my sad ass plants!




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[ECH]

They look better than my even sadder ass plants!!

Here's my sad ass plants!




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[nagirroc]

The two best performers in the first year.

[shazapple]

When do people plan on harvesting their cones? Mine are coming along but I won't be able to harvest for a couple weeks.

[Roger]

Looks good! I harvested my Hersbrucker hops today. But I'm gonna wait a week or two for my cascade.

[nagirroc]

First year centennial.... and this guy. Any ideas?

All that centennial is only 5oz dried.

[shazapple]

I had a couple of those guys on my plants as well. I try to look up the names but there are so many and I can only google search bugs for so long before getting the heebie jeebies.

I've been away for two weeks in Newfoundland (the craft beer scene over there is hurting, I almost had to sober up!) so I started harvesting mine last night. I picked about 4 plants and got 68 oz wet. I have them in the top of my garage with a fan on them in my 'herb and flower' dryer.

[shazapple]

My 'flower and herb' drying racks worked great. I hung them in the top of the garage with a stand fan and everything dried within 3 or 4 days.

I ended up with about 240 oz of cascade which dried to about 60 oz and 24 oz of centennial which dried to 6 oz. I left the centennial longer as I wanted to do a wet hop brew but with apple season I didn't have time. They may be too ripe as they have a bit of a garlicy smell so I am thinking of splitting a batch to dry hop with the two varieties. Hopefully I don't end up with a keg of vampire ale .

Before winter I'm going to pile on some fertilizer to build up around the plants and lay down some hay to cover the lawn so there is less competition next year. My pole system worked perfectly so I'm pleased with that. Next year I have to work on more even watering system as the plants that got more water (closer to the start of the soaker hose) seemed to have fewer leaves and larger hops.

[Roger]

Good job man! Nice haul for the first year...

[robcoombs]

Impressive!

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[shazapple]

I finally got around to getting my hops ready for winter. When I harvested the cascade I cut the bines off a couple feet off the ground but the centennial I left intact in hopes it would give them a little more juice for next year. I spread hay to help eliminate some of the competition for next year, and I put some extra soil on top of the crowns.

I also had my first brew with my own hops, what a mess. They are the perfect size to clog up everything. Next time I'll try putting them in a hop bag during the boil.