How many hop vines to keep per rhizome?

I'm growing my first hops in planters, and each rhizome sends up several vines. (Rather, they will; they're just breaking ground, now.) My question is: do I train & keep all vines? Just the biggest/strongest one and cut the others back? Something in between? Thanks!
Category: Mac

What are the best variety of hops to grow to support a nascent local micro brew scene

I'm in Southern Australia, with good rain, close to the sea and have volcanic soil which looks as though it will grow pretty much anything. We have two small brewerys within a 20km, and I'll be talking to them about their needs, but wanted a worldwide input too. If you had ~10 hectares and an interest in beer, which hops would you plant and why?
Category: Mac

Need help to understand my hops analysis

Hello :) It is the first time I try to cultivate hops, and I'm not a homebrewer. I started planting about 1000 plants of Cascade and I made analysis to my hops. Now I have the analysis but I have not idea if they are good or not, because I don't know if it's better an high value of alpha acid or low. Could you help me, please?
Category: Mac

Trimming back hops

So, the hops I planted last year came back as expected and they look great. Usual guidance is to cut back first bines and let the second batch grow. Both plants have 4-6 healthy bines and I'm trying to figure out what to do given it's now the first of May (in Philly area). Options: cut them all back cut back half (maybe "weaker" bines) I'd appreciate recommendations or experiences.
Category: Mac

What is the ideal climate for growing hops?

I would like to start growing my own hops and want to know what the ideal climate is. I've read that hops will grow in most areas of North America, but there must be places where they grow better than other. Do some varieties grow better in certain climates while another climate might be more suited towards a different variety?
Category: Mac

Late hop transplant to the ground - thoughts on trimming?

This is a Cascade hop I planted in a pot in late April or early May. I had a lot of travel and left it a little longer than I intended. I recently transplanted it to the ground with some bonemeal. It only had two shoots at the time. Now it's shooting out new shoots. Should I just trim these shoots? I tried to train the original two shoots up a bamboo pole, but they don't seem too active now.
Category: Mac

Ideal twine for training hops

I'm looking around the internet and have found that some people use nylon twine, which I am guessing is better for strength and resistant to the sun, rain and snow... then others use wire, some use gardening twine. I'm trying to determine the best type of training media for my hops. I figure that nylon twine doesn't provide enough friction for the hops to train against but that's where this question comes from. thank you in advance for sharing your …
Category: Mac

How do I take hop plants with me when I move?

So I planted my hops three years ago and they've done well. I'm planning to move next year (within the same hardiness zone) and I want to take my hops with me. I'm sure whomever buys my house won't want the hops and I don't want to lose them. How do I collect the crown to take it with me? Can I take the whole crown, or do I need to clip rhizomes and start anew next year? Should I …
Category: Mac

How to determine gender of a young hop plant?

I'm looking for some info on this for reasons of domestication of wild hops that grow around. I need to sort out male plants from the batches I pick up in the wild -- currently I'm just waiting until some flowers appear and prune male hops after that, but this process is actually not very fast nor resource efficient... Q: Is there any possible reliable method to tell apart small male and female hop plants before they start flowering? Thanks!
Category: Mac

How much damage do aphids cause to hops?

I have been growing hops by luck. Last year I gave them a 3 pole teepee to climb and they flourished and were beautiful. This year they were looking gorgeous once again, but days before I was about to pick them they became infested with aphids. The explosion and destruction has been shocking. My beautiful green cones are crawling with them and are suddenly turning brown (a separate problem?). Some cones even have grey-black mold-looking stains I their bottom leaves. …
Category: Mac

average hop yields

i'm looking to plant my own hops in my yard (yes i know i'm late. researching for next year). however, i'm trying to figure out roughly how many say cascade rhizomes i would need to make this worth my effort. meaning, if i get 5-8 rhizomes, would that yield enough to make a typical homebrew? i understand the first year or so has a low yield which is ok. at this point, getting ideas and numbers together.
Category: Mac

Will a hop vine still grow if the tip has been removed?

I took a shot at growing some hops this year. Everything has gone fine so far, and I have healthy plants coming up about 6" tall now. But, today while I was out, it appears a rabbit came by and ate the tops off all my vines. I've taken precautions against rabbits now by putting some upright pipe around the vine to block access from the ground. But, do these vines still have a chance of producing (will the vine …
Category: Mac

Growing hops from seeds

Where I live (France) I can't easily find hops rizhomes, but I can find seeds, so my two questions are: Any shop in France/Europ from which I can buy hops rizhomes? If I grow hops from seeds how do I identify female plants?
Category: Mac

Grow my own hops, what kind

I'm thinking about growing my own hops. From what I gather I can just plant the vines in the back yard somewhere and they grow much like grapes. I heard it takes 2-3 years for them to grow in and the harvest to be useful. Now for the question, which kind should I get, something that can be used in various beers preferably. I'm sure it won't be that much either maybe useful in 1 or 2 batches. What about …
Category: Mac

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