I planted four rhizomes back in early April, two cascade, one nugget, and one columbus. I had limited areas where I could plant them so only one is in a garden, one is close to a fence and the other two are in front of a shed. The one in the garden (cascade) is doing great, it passed 6 feet a couple of days ago. The other three are growing but very slowly and I'm thinking that I didn't dig down enough to get through the hard pack clay and the soil isn't draining well. One is right at two feet and the others are 5 or 6 inches. The only other possibility is that the one doing well is just in Miracle Grow and the others are in a mix of cow manure, greensand, peat moss, lime, and native soil.

Can I dig up the rhizomes and plant them somewhere else? If so can I replant them now or do I need to wait until winter? Should I just leave them where they are and let them take a long time?

Any general advice on growing hops?

5/30/2012 10:37:30 PM

Ilian Evtimov already tried this surgery unsuccessfully.

5/30/2012 11:01:32 PM

there are other homebrewing forums online with sections dedicated to growing your own hops.

i hate to point you elsewhere, but perhaps this is one of those situations where there's not going to be a lot of people here with legit advice, and there are places on the internet with a wealth of knowledge on this subject.

post pics and keep us updated though, i'm interested.

5/31/2012 10:03:19 AM

it sounds like fun but i don't know anyone doing it..

5/31/2012 10:08:13 AM

i grow hops...they're weeds and easy to grow (in my experience)...i don't do anything special for/to them (including harvesting ) but they've come back twice, now

5/31/2012 10:39:20 AM

i have cascade, columbus and centennial.

if they are first year rhizomes, they will grow slowly, they do like the MiracleGrow soil the best and do need good drainage, but at this point i would strongly suggest not digging them up as they could be fragile. i lost my first cascade last year because i tried to transplant it in the first 3-4 weeks of growth.

give them lots of water, grow them in the sun, you can water them with MiracleGrow mixture added to give them more nutrients, other than that it's pretty normal for first-year growth. next year i'm sure they'll take off.

5/31/2012 10:55:03 AM

Conventional wisdom is to wait 4 years before moving them, because the weather influences their growth to a high degree. You might just look up the different cultivars you have and see if one is a "slow-growing" variety or noted for rapid growth. If you're dead-set on moving them I think you should wait until fall since we are getting close to midsummer now, and most plants are losing their ability to grow vegetatively right now due to day length, which will make recovery difficult. When the days get shorter in late summer, vegetative growth will pick up again. Moving the plant will set it back at least 3 weeks and the shoots are very brittle at this early stage, so breaking the shoot is likely. However, if they don't better than that, the rhizome may not have enough energy to sprout again in the spring. Investigate the soil and see if it is compacted as you suspect. If it isn't, try removing any weeds or branches that may be shading them, and fertilize weakly.


You added peat moss and lime to the fill dirt? Oh dear. How much peat moss did you use? It's a crappy amendment for most plants since it lowers pH, and NC topsoil is often acidic already due to pine needle decomposition (maybe you know this since you added lime). Hops like it best in the 6-7 range. Get a soil sample and apply lime regularly if you know that your yard is too acidic. it can take years for it to move 2 inches into the soil thanks to clay's buffering ability and high CEC.


If you do move it, stake the new growth firmly, but make sure you miss the rhizome. then lift a chunk of dirt at least 14" in diameter around the rhizome, and as deep as you can go- at least 12". (hopefully they aren't planted near each other.) place this dirt on a board or some kind of work surface, water it well, wait a few minutes for the water to work through the sample, and then start carefully pulling away excess dirt with gloved hands. try not to disturb the fine roots too much- the more the plant keeps of those, the quicker it will come back. yes, this means leaving more of the "bad soil" in place than you'd like, but the roots will keep spreading out in search of nutrients and they'll find your good soil, especially in Fall as the top goes dormant.

Silty loam is the ideal growing soil, and you should probably try to improve 3-4 ft3 for each rhizome. their roots can easily go 5 ft in the ground in ideal soil, so they need to have at least a couple feet of good, friable (crumbly, not sticky) soil to go down into. Just pretend you're planting a tree. Sand is an OK additive, but your best bet is composted cow manure and composted yard waste. Since the miracle grow soil is working in your garden, just work that into the soil in a band around where you'll replant the rhizome. You can buy bagged topsoil and use that as a base if your clay is very, very sticky. Unfortunately, we are talking less about amending the soil and more about replacing it in the worst clay.



[Edited on May 31, 2012 at 11:15 AM. Reason : ]

5/31/2012 11:11:42 AM

Quote :

"I think you should wait until fall since we are getting close to midsummer now,"

what?

we are still in Spring.

5/31/2012 12:01:05 PM

Quote :

"How much peat moss did you use? "

Very little actually. Mainly what I added to the native soil was greensand, cow manure, and some topsoil. I was tempted to throw in some compost from kitchen scraps and leaves but I thought it might be too much stuff in one mix and I need to move my composter to a more sunny area of the yard, I think it's taking too long to make compost because it's in a mainly shaded area.

Based on the advice I'll just wait and see what they look like next year. I'm not actually depending on these guys to produce so I can make beer. What does sound like a good idea is digging a band around the where the bines are popping up and fill it in with miracle grow and top soil. I should also try watering with MiracleGrow mixture.

Thanks for the advice.

5/31/2012 12:07:40 PM

well, i meant the solstice, not literal "midsummer". it's less than a month away.

5/31/2012 12:41:32 PM

i figured that's what you meant, but the solstice signifies the first day of summer... even though it is the "longest" day of the year.

5/31/2012 12:47:21 PM

it's also called "midsummer" day.

[Edited on May 31, 2012 at 1:02 PM. Reason : or the 24th of june, whatever]

5/31/2012 1:01:09 PM

My hops grow themselves.

5/31/2012 1:09:22 PM

Update: First sign of cones on one of the Cascade bines and the Columbus bine. Nothing yet on the Nugget or first Cascade but I've read it's not unusual to not have any cones the first year. Pics to follow.

8/22/2012 10:24:53 AM

They're still small but I'm glad I've got something.

8/25/2012 1:33:18 AM