Growing Hops at Home - Ben's HomeBrew.com

[guysovereign]

What is the most resilient hop strain? ie. what strain would be the easiest to grow for a beginner?

[marvo54]

Where can I get the seed or plant. I would like to try this.

[bwomp313]

Can I use spent grain to fertilize?

[BrewandRide]

Do you have any troubles growing your hops in the shade?

[TheBrewHowTo]

cow manure must be 4 years old before its usable, horse manure is like 8 years i think , if you put fresh manure in soil it will definetly hurt the plants

[benshomebrew]

@TheBrewHowTo

In my experience with my first year of growing hops, I used horse manure, cut it with saw dust and lots of dirt and the hops thrived with no issues.

[placeron]

You can start new plants by putting the trimmed bines in a glass of water.

In a few days they will sprout roots and you can plant them.

It takes a while for them to mature, but you can get more plants every year this way.

I am growing Cascade hops in southeast Alaska. They don't get very big because of the short growing season. But they are plentiful.

Happy brewing

[mreisma]

I live in Hawaii 80-90 tropical weather. Would hops grow here or is it a cool weather crop?

[benshomebrew]

@mreisma

I really don't know. Hops usually need a nice freeze to supply nutrients in their roots for the spring. You'd have to try it out yourself.

[vulcan1429]

Hops are a perrenial WEED! God bless them for what they do and what they give mankind!

[thehunted]

A better fertilizer to use is a seaweed and fish fertilizer or a organic fertilizer like dr.earth.. Organics have a much slower release rate compare to synthetics. I would recommend one with a good amount of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. I find that the fruit tree blend from dr.earth is awesome for hops (7-4-2)..

[Jhonda00]

Hi, I'm going to be growing two rhizomes horizontally on my fence here in a week or so and I was wondering what string you would recommend. I know you said that you use a nylon string, is that like fishing wire? What other advice would you have for the horizontal grower?

Thanks,

Jacob

[benshomebrew]

Jacob,

When I grew mine horizontally, I used wire instead of twine. Why, because it's easier to cut the hops down because you are on the ground and you don't have to worry about restringing twine each year.

If you use string, the nylon string works best, however it will stretch.

[Jhonda00]

Is it just the braided nylon you're talking about?

Thanks,

Jacob

[benshomebrew]

Yeah, it's the braided nylon. It works great and can handle a lot of weight.

[Jhonda00]

Alright, then I may use that stuff.

Thanks

[texabamabrackish]

Ben, I've harvested for the year. Got some good Fuggles are transplanting a three-year vine to my yard. What do I do for winter? Cut the vine down to the soil? Leave it outside where it will hard-freeze (I'm in Minnesota) or store in basement which gets down to about 45 degree F. Any help would be appreicated. Chip

[benshomebrew]

lkao,

Just leave the shoots and let them all come up the first year. In the second year you can start to trim back the bines to about 4-8 bines per hop.

[lkaoTicl]

thanx m8

[lkaoTicl]

Hi m8 great vid,tell me i got hops in mail today(in pot ),they have very thin stem but meny shoot outs..Should i just leave it like that or i need to cut off some and leave the healthiest one

[jfriah]

Excellent. My new cascade rhizomes from a kind neighbour are going nuts inside the house (bines are about 3' after a week) and itching to get outside in the ground but seeing as we have SNOW AGAIN TODAY AND THIS WEEK.........grr arrgh.

Thanks for the growing tips!

[benshomebrew]

jfriah,

You're welcome. I just want people to be successful when growing hops. Hopefully your winter is almost over!

[growinghops]

Ben -Great video. I got a couple new hop growing ideas from your video - appreciate it! Hoping for a great hop year.

[benshomebrew]

To move them you'd have to dig up the entire crown, which is usually pretty large. However, you can just trim up the roots and take clippings from the other bines that are coming from outside of the main crown and take those and replant them.

Clipping back the other bines coming up allows the nutrients to go to the main bines you want to grow.

[blowinganddrifting]

To move those or expand the length of the garden, would you dig up those little ones and move them? I assume the clipping back just makes them thicker and thicker till they are "ready" to let grow? a year or so?

Gread vid. Dean

[brewyourown4life]

got my rizomes on april 1 and will get them in the ground by the middle of april

[merrickne]

Great video! I planted hops last year but they barely grew 5 feet. However, they just sprouted up again and I like your simple growing setup with the pipe and twine. Definitely going to try that.

[benshomebrew]

Merrickne,

Thanks. Yeah, I like how I have my system and the best part is that the hops shade the house in the summer and keep it cool! Good luck!