New Wiki article: Growing hops in Ireland FAQ

[admin]

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[Padraic]

That's a great article Shane, it seems to cover most of the bases, I think the reason for the air circulation is to lessen the risk of mildew, I'm sure someone with the knowledge will pipe up!

It's interesting what you say about the cutting as all of the books always just refer to the rhizomes and never seem to mention that you can just take a cutting rather than having to dig out rhizomes! For the cutting would you use the initial bine that is being cut off the plant anyway or is it more complicated than that? (Is that bine just cut at the surface or do you take enough root to use as a cutting?)

[Will_D]

What I do is:

After I have selected the main shoot or two to grow ( usually the 3rd or 4th to grow - Its advisable to not let the first couple grow ).

The next two shoots that develop are allowed to grow about 3 ft long. I then use the "Irishman's cutting technique" which is to pick off the leaves from a node, add a pinch of rooting hormone (if you have it), bend the bine into a "U" shape and pop it into a pot with potting compost. Then bury the pot say about half into the soil next to the parent, water it and let it grow away. This way its much less likely to dry out or be over watered.

In 90% of the times it will root into the pot. When the root system is well developed ( after about 6 weeks it can be cut off from the parent and either potted on or planted out.

Will

[imark]

Nice helpful wiki.

In terms of the varieties that grow outdoors, it sounds like cascade wouldn't be a great choice. I presume both crop size and quality would be disappointing? What would be a good alternative?
It would be interesting to know what sort of hops people are growing here and how they are getting on.

[Spud395]

I've a cascade, that I got from Taf.

Planted late last year so got nothing off them, this year I had around 250g off them but as Tube said not a great year weather wise.

I'd say dont rule out cascade although other varieties will do better

[imark]

What happened to the growing hops wiki? I cant find it now.

[imark]

Is there a replacement planned?

[imark]

I was looking for information on what to do with my hops that I planed last year. Not sure what (if anything) I need to do with the plants now. I'm seeing lots of shoots pop up at the moment.

[Will_D]

The recomendation is to pinch out (remove) the first 2 or 3 shoots as "they" say that these first shoots have much greater distance between the nodes (so less cones).

Other than that give a mulch of compost or well rotted manure or a liquid feed of let them grow up the ropes.

If you don't want to remove them just bend them down into pots and take "irish man's cuttings"

Remove the leaves dust with rooting powder if you have some, fill up with compost and after about 6 weeks you should have a rooted plant that can be cut off from the mother!

This method is almost gauranteed to work. You can pin down the first 2 or 3. In six weeks time they can be planted out and the process can be repeated. You really only want 2 or 3 bines from each plant (depending on age of plant and soil conditions)

[imark]

Cheers Will. Mine are planted in the soil so taking cutting probably isn't an option. I'll pinch out the leaders though.

[Will_D]

Cheers Will. Mine are planted in the soil so taking cutting probably isn't an option. I'll pinch out the leaders though.

You dont cut them off yet!!

Planted outside is no problem - its just that my only Hallertauer is in the green house for some intensive care!

Outdoors is even easier, just loop into the pot (as above post) and plunge the pot into the soil next to the mother! Needs less watering that way!

[Cathal O D]

We were thinking of growing a hop plant on our balcony for the craic. It gets plenty of sun and we grew spuds and tomatoes there last year.  Would we be able to get rhyzomes here? Or is it too late?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[Will_D]

No - now is a good time for people to be iving away hop rhizomes.

Suggest you start a thread under Wanted!