Hop Crop 2016

Last year I planted two East Kent Golding hop rhizomes in an elevated bed.  Over the course of the summer they grew to be ~10 feet.  I chose not to do any significant pruning the first year under the theory that having a lot of leaves would help them build up good strong root structures which would help them in future years.  This likely contributed to the fairly low hop yield last year.  I didn't even bother harvesting the 2 dozen or so hop cones that formed.  When fall and winter rolled in I cut the vines down to near ground level and covered the bed with a few inches of shredded leaf and grass clipping mulch.  You can read more about the first year's experience in this post.

I managed to keep my curiosity in check over the winter and did nothing to disturb the hop bed.  It got very cold this year and I believe the entire bed froze several times.  The thick layer of leaf mulch hopefully helped insulate the hops from too many freeze/thaw cycles.  Spring is now here again and it is starting to warm up.  Looking forward to another exciting summer of hop growing.

This year I plan on trying to maximize the hop output by taking the following actions:

• I will prune the side arms of the hops to help them focus on growth in the main vine
• I am going to allow 6 vines from each hop plant to grow.  I will have three per string.
• Last year I didn't have a steep enough string so the vines were having some trouble winding themselves around it.  I will tie the top of the string up much higher to try to resolve this this year.  Like last year, I'll be using a partially dead tree as a trellis.
• I am going to leave the leaf much and grass clippings on the planter box to help it retain moisture and provide continued nutrients.  I would like to avoid using organic fertilizer on the bed if possible.  I will clear the mulch around the hop vines themselves to hopefully avoid any rot.
• I am going to use this product to avoid the Japanese beetle infestation I had last year.  Don't know if the beetles has any major effect on the health of the hops but I'd rather not chance it. 

I, admittedly, have never been very good with plants.  From everything I've read, hops are very hearty plants.  I will continue to do my best to keep these healthy.  Hopefully these hops will continue to thrive despite any mistakes I might make this year.

Hop Growing Log:

• 3/31/16 - It has been in the 60's for the last week or so and the nights are typically above freezing.  Decided to clear the leaf mulch away from the hops mounds.  Each mount had a couple pale shoots that have started to grow out.  I accidently snapped one off while clearing the leaves (doh).

• 4/9/16 - Got about an inch of snow this morning.  I threw some leaves on top of the hops to protect them.

• 4/10/16 - Snow has all melted.  I had some leftover soil from my raspberry patch so I put down a couple inches onto the hop bed.  Covered the hop plants with about an inch.  I cleared away the leaves while I put the dirt on and then re-covered it.  The soil under the leaves was a rich black color which smelled wonderful.  I think the leaves will provide a lot of nutrients for the plants this year.
• 4/16/16 - It has started to warm up.  It is projected to be in the 60s and 70s all next week with the nights in the 40s and 50s.  It may be that winter is finally over.  Fingers crossed.  Checked the soil under the leaf mulch and it's still pretty moist.  Will wait to give the hops their first watering of the year.
• 4/17/16 - Watered the bed with 2 gal of fish tank water.  Put most of it on the leaves.  The fish tank water is probably pretty high in nitrates from fish waste which I'm thinking will be good for the plants.  Will probably need to water a couple times a week if there's no rain.  Will plan on using fish tank water on these somewhat regularly.
• 4/20/16 - A couple shoots have broken the surface on the plant closest to the garage.  The shoots have the start of some green leaves forming.  They had been purple and white at the after the winter.  Really excited that they're starting to get active.
• 4/22/16 - Three shoots have now broken the surface on the plant closest to the garage and one in the far one.  They are thicker shoots than last time.
• 4/25/16 - Seeing some strong growth from 4 sprouts on hops nearest the garage.  They are starting to leaf out quite a bit.  Also seeing three sprouts start to emerge on the far bed.  The plants.  I'm really excited.  I put in a fourth fence post to hold line.  I'm going to let these grow out a good bit before training them to a line.
• 5/4/16 - It has been a rainy week but the hops have been thriving.  The hop mound closest to the garage has 4 shoots that have grown to about 6 inches and another one just breaching the surface.  The other mound has 6 shoots which are from just emerging to a couple inches in height.

• 5/8/16 - Put up a fourth fence post and rigged up a new trellis.  One of the lessons learned from last year, where I tied the climbing ropes to a low branch in a nearby tree, was that the vines don't readily climb up the rope if it isn't steep enough.  This time I wanted to go with a much higher branch.  I ended up using some plastic covered wire to form a crude pulley system by throwing it over a high branch and then forming a loop with it.  I then put a bite in the wire using line bolts and attached a carabineer.  I can raise an lower this carabineer by pulling on one side of the other of the wire rope.  This system has allowed me to get the top of the climbing ropes 20 to 25 feet up which makes for a pretty steep line,

• 5/13/16 - Have had very strong growth from one of the mounds with our sunny weather.  Several vines have gotten to be ~1.5 foot long.  I've trained 4 onto the growing lines.  The other mound is growing as well but not quite as vigorously.  The vines are 4-6 at this point

• 5/21/16 - Mix of sun and rain this week.  The hops have been doing very well.  Have several vines that are now winding their way around the climbing ropes.  A couple have crested the top of the first tier and are now getting started up the second tier.

• 5/30/16 - We had a lot of sun this last week.  Hops seemed to have really enjoyed it.  All the vines have now affixed themselves to the lines and all four lines have vines on the second tier.  Several of the hop plants have make their way several feed up the second tier lines.  No signs of Japanese beetles just yet thankfully but I will be surprised if we don't start seeing them here in early June.  I should also note a new bit of growth in a corner of the bed away from the current mound.  I'm going to let this one grow to see what happens - Would be neet to have additional mounds start to crop up for future years.

• 6/12/16 - The hops have progressed quite a way up the line in the last couple weeks but growth up has definitely slowed.  The upper portion of the vines are starting to put out side arms with little flower buds on them.  I think I'm going to have a decent crop this year.  No sign of Japanese beetles yet.  Now have three shoots coming up away from the main hop mounds.  I've trained one of them onto the ropes.  Not sure what I'll do with the others.

• 6/19/19 - I've had a few more new shoots come up this week.  I decided to cut them all off at ground level to help the plant focus on growing the main vines.
• 7/4/16 - The plants were attacked pretty aggressively by Japanese beetles over the last week.  There has been significant damage to most of the upper leaves.  It seems like the development of hops has slowed significantly as well.  We've had dry weather and I haven't been watering them frequently so that could have played a roll.  I will be watching them closely over the next couple weeks.
• 7/10/16 - The hops aren't doing too well.  I've been picking at least a dozen beetles off a day and they're still doing significant damage to the plants.  It seems like the hop development has slowed significantly since they arrived.  Not sure there will be enough plants to justify harvesting again this year.

Lessons Learned:

1. Need to find some way to deal with the Japanese beetles