Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Anyone in C-Ville into growing your own hops?  I was just curious to hear some stories of others who have grown their own hops in the C-Ville area, the good, the bad, pests, watering, etc. I planted 6 different varieties, and cascade took off the best.  Was not too impressed with the Sterling vine, and if it does not come back hefty this year I am going to replace it with cascade.  The biggest problem was Japanese Beetles! It was an all out war with the bugs.

Check out my pics of my hop growing endeavor, goto:

http://www.absbrew.com/index.php?act=viewDoc&docId=9

Cheers!

I've had a pair of vines in my yard for, wow, at least 5 or 6 six years now.  They are Nugget vines, back when I ordered they were out of Cascade, and they come up strong and quick each year.

I water them deeply but infrequently, if that helps.  The japanese beetles were terrible last year, but I have bag out to trap them from my hops and vegetable garden.

Marigolds do help.  I'm thinking about getting a pair of Cascade rhizhomes this year. 

Sounds like a good topic for the April CAMRA meeting.

Have you ever had the alpha acids tested on the Nugget?  I think I will use a beetle bag this year.  Good idea.  I was spraying with vegetable safe spray (Seven), and that would hold them off for a couple of days.  The Jumbo cascades took off like weeds!  Only jumbos for me for now on.

I don't think that they had jumbos when I ordered years ago.  They sound like the way to go because the first year is not much on yield and a lot of root establishing.  But I don't want to feel like I am compensating by getting the jumbos. 

That's a good question about the alpha acid levels.  And to complicate matters I always use pellets hops, so that needs to be taken into consideration, too.  I always assume low (around 8%) and it seems to work out fine. 

Seven is harsh stuff, but I use it in the garden, too.  As long as you wait the described amount of time between spraying and harvest, you should be OK.

I didn't have too much of a problem with those hellish beetles on my hops although they did tear through my French Beans. Interestingly enough, they tend to establish their feeding patterns early on in the season and excrete pheromones that let other Japanese Beetles know that it's OK to chomp the heck out of whatever plant they've given the thumbs-up to. Conventional wisdom would say that spraying early and planting lure plants will deter them from chowing down on our precious hops. I've got butterfly bush growing nearby and they love eating the flowers. It doesn't bother me too much because the butterfly bush is so persistent and can take a real  beating. This coming season I'm going to use a clay spray called Surround; its an organic goodie that coats the plant in a white film that bugs supposedly can't stand to chew through. We'll see. Paired with copper spray and pyrethrins for diseases and other insects such as spider mites, hopefully the beetles will leave my hops alone. That being said, they'll probably do whatever they want despite my best efforts.

I have a cascade vine and a fuggle vine.  I planted them last spring and they came up a bit, but not too much, maybe 14" or so.  No activity from them so far this year, so I hope they come back in.  I will keep you all posted, as I love the idea of growing them and Jamey's plants actually look kind of pretty (important to getting wife buy-in for large wooden structures in side yard).

Tips on how NOT to grow hops #1 and #2

#1 - Do not make your trellis system look like a giant cross.  (Which I initially did.)

#2 - Do not nail together said cross-looking-thing in your driveway on Easter morning (Which I did).

The neighbors LOVE me.

I modeled my trellis after Jamey's but made it a "T" rather than a cross.  AND I don't have any neighbors on that side of the house.  AND I did not make my structure on Easter.

Jamey = Devil

It would be really bad if lightening struck and lit that cross on fire.  Then what would your neighbors think?  You'd have the whole neighborhood talking about you.

Overhead near Jamey's house : "Holy Hop Trellis Batman!"

Anyway...  I have been told that Monticello has hop vines.  I was promised some of their harvest last year, but the Nature killed all the hops up there somehow.  Some of the gardeners from Monticello might share some tips, and some of them work the Farmer's Market, but those folks are hard to track down.

I would love to get more tips from people who have grown them successfully in the area.

Still no sight of my hop vines.  I will give it until late March, then I will order some again just to be safe.  I would feel foolish with these giant "T"s in my lawn if nothing was going to grow on them.  People might think I was an ego maniac for putting my first name initial out there for all to see.  Well, people may think I am an ego maniac anyway . . .

 

You won't see much growth of anything until late March when the cold weather finally breaks and above 32 degrees is more the norm.  Remember, last year we had that ice storm business that hit in early April and last for a whole week - frozen drives and yards.

Have any of tried cross-pollination of hop varieties to make your own hyrbrid? I'm interested and patient enough to give this a try.

I've been thinking about Monticello's hop garden lately as well...I'm going to look into getting hold of some of their rhizomes and replanting them with the intention of brewing a historical Jeffersonian brew. The fact that I'm a gardener as well might appeal to the TJ gardening crowd. Maybe we could get a Monticello brew tour as well. I'll call to day or drop by and keep you all posted.

That would be a ton of fun, to maybe get a tour of Monticello from a brewer's perspective.  I used to know a curator over there, but she has since moved on.  Anyone have contacts at Monticello?

Jason, I had read that hops should start appearing with the first spring flowers.  My wife's tulips are already popping out of the ground, but still no sign of the hops.  I will wait it out though, but I am just concerned.

Tom - It is not even close to time to worry about your hops.  I've been growing them for 6 years and this is waaaayyyyy too early to be looking for them to poke through. 

They might come out early, because we've had such a mild winter, but you've got weeks before worrying is appropriate.

Besides, your wife's tulips are probably popping out of the ground too early because of the weather, also.

Relax, have a homebrew.