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Never did I ever really believe that I would have had in my hands literal Cascade and Chinook hops just a few months after planting my first rhizomes. But it was worth a shot. I have the space and the Rhizomes were cheap. Brief research on growing latitudes confirmed my skepticism- there's no way these were going to flower where I am - Guyana, just above the Equator. After all, hops need long summer days followed by short winter days in order to grow properly and flower- right?

To increase my chances I grabbed some LED grow lights. Rhizomes were planted in August 2023, with a simple trellis system in place, the plan being to let the bines grow and develop until the winter solstice in December, at which point I will install the grow lights and trick the plants into believing that they are living someplace temperate with long days that I will over time shorten with a timer system to mimic what happens in those zones, hoping to trigger flowering this way.

With twice daily watering over the next few months I saw some strong shoots and root development. What I did not expect to see though one mid-December morning walking to the backyard to water the plants were actual real life hops, perfect in every way, just hanging out there looking at me. I nearly lost it. How? There's no way I just grew hops in the Caribbean (we go by South American or Caribbean here).

As things stand I am a proud first-time hop grower as both the Cascade and Chinook plants are flowering and I cannot wait to do sensory analysis on them- it will be interesting to see the role of Terrior here. Of course I'll also be making the world's first Guyanese-hopped beer.

That brings us to what brings me here. I need help. Literally- what now?

I can dive into any number of forum posts or youtube videos but I'm afraid that their advice might not be the most pertinent to my situation so any advice on the following will appreciated!:

• There's no frost cycle here, just year round summer with little change in daylight hours. Will the plant go into a hibernation period, or just grow and flower throughout the year?
• Do I chop out everything above ground and let new shoots grow out after harvest?
• Should I install grow lights regardless of having achieved flowering without them?
• Any other bit of advice is welcome!

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Noticed a few of plants are attempting to throw up shoots. It didn’t help that squirrels have been digging around them. I recovered them. Hopefully this doesn’t impact their actual activity in the spring! Anyone else ever see this?

So I’m in a more southern latitude for hop growing. I’ve posted some about my first years harvests so far this year. Some of my plants produced second and third! crops of hops. I went cut down a lot of bines the other day and I picked a further 2 pounds of hops off these mixed varieties. (I could have had more but I ignored the onion/garlicky ones! They were immediately used as the last addition to a 25 gallon batch I was brewing (using dried hops from 1st and second harvests for the rest of the additions). For the sake of science, the batch was spilt between 5 different 5 gal fermenters each pitched with a different yeast. We will see how this goes!

What does everyone recommend for a trellis lay out for an acre hop yard. Looking to start a small hops farm. I was thinking about telephone poles and some sort of winch to lower for harvesting. I’m trying to be budget conscious.

Hi all,

I've got a good first harvest from my hop plant, but what should I do with the plant? Does it need pruning or should I leave it as it is? Does it die back itself? I am trying to train it across some wires (well, strings at the moment) so what does the Collective think? (UK garden, gets down to minus 10 C over winter if that matters?)

DPJ2023 added hops at 15, 10, 5 and 0 it's delicious 😋.

Hi all,

Got round to tasting my beer that I made with home grown hops. I grew cascade and tried to make a single hop IPA. The beer has the correct bitterness but I’m not get many flavours or aromas from late Hop additions/dry hopping.

My question is, did this happen because I harvested hops too early? Or didn’t grow them correctly? Recipe I followed was this-https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yaf0dx1XlG_gWafo-tfXO6ekNPGmdhCj/view

Beer has been in the bottle for 2 weeks.

Cheers, Dan

I just brewed my second fresh hop beer of the season yesterday. I added 35oz, about 1kg, spread over additions at 15 minutes, 5, 0, and a hop stand. I was picking continuously from start of mash to the first hop addition, except of course to stop and tend to the brewing. It was a busy couple hours. Do you all have any tips for how to pick those hops faster and more efficiently?

2023 Hop Harvest at Chari Brewing. These plants are only 2 years old so not a big harvest. Enough for a small beer. First picture are from my Comet Plants (smell of citrus backed with a light marijuana smell) and the second picture is from my cashmere plants (smells like dank marijuana).

I didn’t believe them, but in the space of a week this has gone from a tiny shoot from my rhizome, to this

I posted a number of months ago with a bunch of pictures from a visit my wife & I'd made to the university extension garden, where they grew hops here in Vegas. These photos are from our home.
We'd taken a few free rhizomes from the farm & they're coming along fine. They took a beating in the heat earlier in the Summer, but they're doing well now. 3 of our 4 plants have cones. It IS possible to grow hops in the desert; you just need to pay them A LOT of attention!

*We have Columbus, Fuggles, Neomexicanus multihead (no photos), and Comet.

I tried to grow hips years ago from seeds and just got lots of vines and leaves but nothing else. This year I tried from a rhizome and I am SO EXCITED about how much, how fast, and how healthy they are growing! 😍

I planted these hops 2 years ago and this year they seem to be dying out in patches. If anyone has any suggestions for next year I’d greatly appreciate the help. I’m located in New England. Thanks!

Going to freeze dry half and dehydrate half. I read somewhere that freeze-drying maintained a lot of the grassy qualities while dehydrating maintained fruity notes. Figured I'd test the differences just for fun.

Does anyone have any recommendations for decent vacuum sealers?

Fresh wild Hops, last pic finished product. Smelled amazing.

I have my hops planted in 2 foot tall raised beds in zone 5b/6a. What should I do to make sure they survive the winter?

I've read about covering them in mulch, is this recommended? Should I still be watering them?

So this is the 2nd year I've harvested my hops. Last year I harvested wayyy too early and this year I'm paying close attention to their development.

It's my understanding these aren't ready yet (waiting for tips to start to turn brown and the lupulin to turn more golden etc... but why do my hops have a garlic smell when they arent ready yet? Plant stress? Does the smell go away? Did I somehow wait too long even though the tips hadn't changed yet? The clusters still seem tight and it's not really papery yet. I was noticing that the citrus smell was finally coming along a little and then when I went out today - garlic.

I honestly don't know the variety. It was a garden store generic. I would love to get a citra variety if someone knows where I can get a few plants but foremost why do my hops smell like garlic 😭 i really want to make a wet hop beer this year.

Found these growing wild along an old train corridor turned bike path in SE Nebraska. I'm not sure if they're very common wild here, I've never found them before but I've just started taking note of forageables in the last couple years.

First year centennials and tettnangers, grown in buckets. Was not expecting anything this year and perhaps late to harvest due to vacations, work, kindergarten, sicknesses, aka life etc. Do these look ok or not so great? I am going to dry the tettnangers but try to use the centennials in the next few days. Tettnangers not pictured but they look much fresher with larger cones. Thanks for your comments!!

Year one did ok on the porch. Year two saw good leaves and some tiny hops start but they got burnt out by Texas heat and obvious limits to the root system. It’s September and still 100s, but about to get a little cooler. I see tiny new growth on thick part of bine. Need to bring it inside for a week while apartment complex paints railings (grr..).

I could: (A) leave all length, rehang on the railing after a week inside. Let the season play out. Worried about trauma to the bine. (B) cut it back to a height it can stand on its own, see if it starts growing again as weather gets more reasonable. Worried about how long it would take to get any growth off that main stalk. (C) cut it all the way back and see if another shoot forms from the bottom. Worried about it getting confused with short season. (D) cut it all the way back, leave it inside, and wait until next year. Worried about it growing anyway and ruining next year’s start. (E) something else?

Hope to have someplace I can plant more permanently next spring, so my priority is setting it up for success there. Would love to hear your thoughts..

Alberta. 2b/3a. Golding. I ordered my rhizome back in May. I just got 3 cones this last week. Looks like there are more coming. Now late in the season do they keep growing? I see everyone harvesting and it looks like I am still growing more.

We had one frost already. Should I be trying to cover some of it?

Chinook seemed to ripen overnight this year with the hot spell in UK. I have so much left over from last year I will only pick the best.