How's everyones hops plants doing so far?

[brenmurph]

heres an up to date

[brenmurph]

have good crop saaz hersbruker and an excellent crop of Target and Hallertau in polytunnel

also have taurus and saphir producin enough for few brewups

[LordEoin]

bloody hell, that's some thick crop of big cones!!

[brenmurph]

Ye its worth coming to our brewday just to see the polytunnel crop!!.
We counted them and they are in the thousands.. and big... up to 2 " long  we are hugely surprised.. mentioned that to a very knowledgeable brew person at an event recently and he thought I was for the birds

i'm not.. theyre there for everybody to see and not a steroid in sight.. just tlc, proper feeding, climate and water

[brenmurph]

and the first pic are the target hops...3 weeks behind the hallertauer..
The saaz up the page are two weeks behind and booming in a windy spot contrary to whats recomended, which makes me wonder is it heat e.g sunny wall they need or just carefull feeding and watering...cosz the Saaz are beautiful and numerous for a crop grown in shit conditions just as an experiment.

BTW I used a general flower fertiliser and chicken manure on all my hop plants and rotten grass early on to supply loads of nitrogen.

we should do a course on hop growing coz i dont see / cant understand why we are buying hops.. My hops will do dozens of brews at the very least

[delzep]

My hops don't smell like hops. They just smell like grass or leaves or whatever

[LordEoin]

mine are the same at teh moment. I was wondering when they get their smell.

[brenmurph]

as long as they are grassy they arnt ready.

they should be very papery and break in half easy and have some dried brown hints on the leaves.

[LordEoin]

That's kinda how my Hallertauer Mittelfruh are now.
But only some have browning tips to the petals, most are still green.
They do  smell quite hoppy when smooshed between fingers, and have some yellow pollen inside.
I chewed one and it tasted a bit grassy for about a second, then really hoppy, then really bitter.
The further down the bine I go, the smaller the cones get, but they're still hoppy.
Should I harvest them or give them a little more time for the small cones to grow and the lot to dry out a bit more?




also, although all of the bottom leaves are falling off now new chutes are growing

[brenmurph]

lookin good lordeoin..lots cones few leaves as per previous u must be feeding the right food to them

[LordEoin]

I actually fed them feic all but when i planted them I laced the soil with compost, grass clippings, chicken sh*t etc
Think they're ready to harvest? or should I hold off a bit until they dry a bit more?

[brenmurph]

Ive been usin chken S**t as well, was highly recomended and worked wonders

[Tom]

My foolproof method: wait for others to do it first, then pick a week later.

@Slohops finished harvesting today, @Yorkshire hops and @Simply hops seems to have started a couple of days ago (12th). @Charles Farham haven't tweeted.

Last year, with a much better spring, Dublin pickers harvested around the 17th IIRC. I'd say give it another few days. Being so close to the Arctic Circle where I live I'm planning on harvesting Fuggles some time mid week, and the rest a few days later. They don't look at all ready!

[LordEoin]

I suppose i'll do it next weekend so.
Maybe my smaragd will be more ready too. THey're still small and grassy

[Tom]

Some hop growers say that leaving the hops even longer than the usual crop date improves the aroma further, but that the downside is reduced storability. Not a concern if you're fresh-hopping.

I read/make up a lot of shit, but I'm sure that one's been picked up legitimately.