Nothing ventured, nothing gained...

[Davey_c]

So we (homebrew is a family afair in our house) decided to try our hand at growing our own hops this year. The plan was to order them in from the uk but then when i saw ian putting cascade rhizomes up on the mottly brew facebook page an impulsive decision was made....the result are 2 rhizomes currently planted in 2 large pots.... not as large as i had hoped i had but i am looking out for plastic barrels or an ibc to divide up and use for next year if all goes well.
When i received the rhizomes there were very few roots and no visable signs of any growth nodes so i tried to plant them roots down and see how it goes... they were looking good apart from that though.
The rain was a welcoming sight and its been quite warm out lately so i put a propagator lid over each rhizome as a cloche and hopefully we will be seeing growth soon

[Simon_]

I grew a hop plant in a pot once and the vine grew like a champ but then the hops all went to mush just before it was time to harvest. I've always assumed it was down to the pot

[Davey_c]

Cheers for the heads up simon, i'll defo bare that in mind, would you remember what variety it was and what size pot it was?
Ideally i would have prefered to plant them straight into the ground but we are renting so chose against it... the reason being i have other bushes growing with similar growth characteristics to hop bines and they are impossible to stop from spreading, was afraid the hops would be the same. 1 of them is a lilac bush that was here when we moved in 10 years ago and the other are the likes of raspberries i have also growing in pots.
I'll see how it goes this year and keep my options open for next year .... how are you rhizomes shifting for you?

[Simon_]

I think it was Wakatu. I have another Wakatu plant that grew fine and the hops developed well. The pot was fairly big (25-30L) and I think I watered it enough but the soil and drainage mightn't have been right. It might be possible to grow hops fine in a pot but there's probably more things that can go wrong as well.

[Greg2013]

Was thinking of doing this also this year but figured i had left it too late tbh,would also be growing outside in a growbag most likely.

[Davey_c]

Simon, yep thats about the same size as my pots too although i still figure them to be too small for any longer than a year, i wouldn't mind but i was going to mix in perlite into the compost for drainage but was told hops would benefit with less drainage... guess i'll just have to wait and see and maybe 1 type might take better to container growing than anothe type i wunder....
Good to hear that greg... i wouldn't imagine its too late yet, as far as i was away if you could get rhizomes handy you would still have a week or 2 to get them in soil.... have to ask though, grow bags is in the pot shape ones for growing the likes of spuds or the tomato type growbags? I would stay clear of the flat ones and if i was going shopping for them i would realy get the biggest i could afford or better still make 1
Thanks for the input guys and i'll hopefully have a good update in a week or so, all going well

[LordEoin]

Just plant them in the ground and give them something to climb. They're a weed and will thrive on their own. Pots will only retard them.
and its not too late to plant them. you'll probably have smaller cones because it's their first year, but they'll be fine.

[Drum]

Old car tyres are the job if you can't plant into the ground.  two  x 16" low profiles  (205/55 x 16) stacked on top of eachother and filled with compost provides roughly 50 litres for the roots to grow into. Place a sheet of plywood or whatever you have under the tyres to stop them rooting into the ground if you really have to.  Most tyre places will give you a few used tyres if you tell them you want them for planting.

I'll be planting mine in the next week or so. I'll take some pictures if I think of it.

oh yeah, heavy on the manure. Hops are very greedy for nitrogen in their vegetative state. A few fist fulls of perlite wouldn't hurt if you do plant in tyres

[Drum]

And like LE said,  give them something to climb. This is a cascade in a tyre on about 100L of soil in a pallet.  The ladder in the picture is about 2 meters tall. 

[Davey_c]

Some good ideas there thanks drum, the more soil their given the happier they'll be next year i should have something bigger for mine... if you remember please do take photos and keep us updated if possible. If mine grew anything like the 1 in that picture i would be a happy camper but we'll wait and see... i have been container growing the past years and have fruit bushes, grape vines, veg etc coming back to life at the moment so i'd have a fair idea in what to expect, luckily enough though we have a fair decent size garden so these will most likely be trained horizonally

[Davey_c]

Ok so long story short the rhizomes i bought went nowhere and just rotted so after asking a number of members i did find 1 who was willing to post me some fresh rhizomes... in fairness to the gent what i received in the post exceeded all my expectations... a tonne of root trimmings from cascade and challenger, well packaged so to say i was chuffed was an understatement....
Anyways i got them into soil asap mixed with manure and a good watering with tomato feed, that was the 20th and have growth the past few days.
Here are a few photos for you



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[Fal]

Good to see some growth. I'm not going to lie, I was nervous sending them. Watch out for those challanger hops they have taken over part of my veg garden!!

[Davey_c]

Ah no their doing well and tbf thats only an example of whats breaking soil but you had them well wrapped, thank you.... i can deffo see where your coming from with the challenger because thats where most of the growth is... the cascade is a little slower to come up but its still coming.... the mrs thinks i'm stone mad watchin soil the past couple of weeks but i love it.
I use to grow our veg too with the young lad but the past couple of years i've only had the berry bushes to keep me busy

[Davey_c]

I should realy get tyin up this cascade...

[Drum]

Great to see you got some plants started Davey-C. 
Bamboo canes will give them something to start climbing for now, they will outgrow them in a week or 2 though. Once they take off, hops are one of the fastest growing plants you will ever see. I've seen them increase 5 or 6 shoots by 20 cm in one day in good conditions.