Hops, man

I'm entering season 2 of Hop growing and waiting for my first harvest. I purchased 2 Cascade and 1 Willamette and they were only plants, not rhizomes, at the time of purchase so they've come along way since last spring.

Using 20" pots (lack of yardage at the moment), they have sprung back to life after the winter and continue to climb and climb. While I'm hoping to migrate them to a bigger, better garden space very soon, I've been using an 8' piece of doweling in each pot to allow the bines to claw their way up. Using twine, I tied one end of a very, very long piece to the bottom of the dowel and run it up the length of the stick. On top, a small hook to hold the twine in place. Every couple of days, I let some of the twine out to the lower the bines and keep them from going over the top. As my length of bines grow longer and longer, I loop them around the base of the plant pot. The hard part is keeping them from becoming to entangled in themselves and causing a dog's breakfast of the whole thing. A few wild roamers have actually reached out the neighboring plant and tried to climb on board.

It's quite amazing how much growth I notice from when I leave for work in the morning to when I get home at night. These guys can really get away on you fast.

Cascade and Willamette are two of the hardy hop varieties and seem to withstand most of the elements. From my yard they get about 6-7 solid hours of sunshine. Some of the leaves appear to be falling prey to something that's enjoying a little snack but overall, big, green leaves are growing and I'm hopeful that my first few cones should appear soon.

Now if I can only convince the wife to plant some barley.