Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Hops!

The hops I planted last year are looking awesome! We got a little sun for the past few days, and seriously, they went from about 6 inches to 3 feet in about 3 days.

I planted a second row of hops this year. Steve P got some rhizomes from Mike G, so I got a bunch of Cascade and Chinook. Steve also dug some Mt Hood and Nugget. The one Galena that grew to about 4 ft last year is coming back strong this year. So I have Galena, Chinook, Willamette, Cascade, Nugget, and Mt Hood all in the ground. Since these are the hops I use the most, I'm thinking I'm pretty well set.

Last year, I ran twine straight up from each plant, but this year, I went with a V and trained 3 shoots up each side of the V. I'm hoping this will double my output, but I'll have to wait until harvest time to know.